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Any tips to get a good grade in Speaking + Listening?

LittleQueenBee

Thanks if you do.

(If there is another thread like this I'm sorry but I couldn't find it)

It's English aqa spec b.

Reply 1

Gooner

LittleQueenBee

Thanks if you do.

(If there is another thread like this I'm sorry but I couldn't find it)

It's aqa spec b.

Let's assume that it's English that you're talking about here. If it is, then the key to success is thorough preparation in whatever you're doing, and also making your opinions heard. This helped me get 52/54 on each piece of speaking and listening coursework which I did. Also, you don't need to be confident, but when you have to do something in front of a class full of people, then make sure that you remember, you just need to perform - use your drama skills to help you make your talk interesting. That's all the information and advice which I can give sorry. But Good Luck in your Speaking and Listening exams. :biggrin:

Reply 2

Cataclysm

Edit: Thought this was French Speaking and Listening!

Reply 3

Gooner

hmmm, well it's not specified in the title :confused:

But never mind :smile:

Reply 4

LittleQueenBee

Cataclysm

Edit: Thought this was French Speaking and Listening!

Sorry it was English. I though I put it down, but my computer keeped crashing last night. :s-smilie:

Reply 5

Excalibur

I think for English S&L, it's more about how you present it rather than the content. Of course, the content is important, but my teacher at least seemed to place great emphasis on your tone of voice, how confident/assertive you sounded, etc., as well as persuasive devices in your speech.

Firstly, in terms of content & style. One of the individual S&L assessments that I did was to do a persuasive speech. I did one on the ban of smoking in public places (I was for the ban). Now, I'm naturally very shy and don't really have much of an opinion on most things ( :p:

) but I just collected lots of facts & viewpoints on the subject and organised them well, so that the speech flowed. Then I put in oodles of persuasive devices: I started with a rhetorical question, ended with a firm sentence, used groups of threes, scary statistics, used the second person "you" or first person "we", varied sentence structures, used figurative language, and so on. I wrote the speech down onto small que cards too, which is a lot better than an A4 sized paper. Remember, short & to the point is always loads better than dragged-out rubbish. And if it's short, you'd be able to practice it & almost memorise it by the time you do it - I memorised mine, and only looked at my que cards for reassurance. That let me keep almost constant eye contact with the audience, which made me appear more confident.

Secondly, how you present yourself. Make your voice as loud as possible (well, not shouting loud but :p:

), and speak SLOWLY. So many people spoke at lightyear speed when they were nervous, which made their speech sound feebler. Keep as much eye contact with your audience as possible, and only look down to your que cards when it's really needed, preferably at the end of sentences. Pause quite frequently for dramatic effect. If you're nervous, stare at something a little above the audience's heads, like a clock on the wall, and don't look at your friends if it makes you giggle (giggling is one of the worst things you can do!).

It helps when you tell us what your S&L has to be on - a particular topic, perhaps? Or just a general speech? If it's a dramatic sketch then that's more difficult (I only got a B first time I did a drama S&L), but again, I think it's about confidence & your style more than the actual content - and the second time round I got 10/10. :smile:

Reply 6

Johnny01638

Listen very hard and speak very clearly...

Reply 7

Firebird

I took part in a debating competition recently, and my teacher is using my speech from the borough final of that as a piece of S&L coursework and giving me an A*. From my point of view, I really don't recommend writing a speech and learning it by rote - it's far better to write a series of points and kind of ad lib round those. You may work better with a "3 big point" structure - I don't work well with structures for essays, but when I'm speaking it helps me keep a clear message and not run out of time/go all rambly/forget what I'm talking about. I then had subpoints (with case studies etc). I learnt a couple of short bits within my speech, but everything else was worded however I felt at the time. This way I wasn't grasping for the exact, right words - a lot of people who did that ended up screwing up their speeches and forgetting words, which is not a fun thing to do! In the event you do forget things, sum up or repeat what you've said so far - I did this in the school competition (which, as it was part of a workshop day, we'd only had half an hour to prepare for!) and came 2nd behind the person who went on to win the borough final!

Anywho, good luck!

Reply 8

Fertil3

Make notes;
Use facial expressions;
Jog through it in your head the day before and think how you'll pursuede or give your point across clearly;
Use relative techniques e.g. use repetition for pursueding speeches etc;
Do it in front of a mirror before - it might build up confidence;
Don't wander off topic and jabber on about nothing;
Keep to the point;
Don't go over-time and make it too long - don't make it too short either;
Throw some small comdey lines in there - keeps listeners interested;
Keep eye contact with listeners and don't look at 1 single person.

But it also depends what sort of speech it is. For WJEC S&L we also get marks for preparation: notes, images/pictures, media, objects, pass-arounds and such.

Reply 9

lil groovy dude

I wish I'd read this thread earlier :frown:

I've done 3/5 of my S+L c/wks and I've ****ed them up :frown:

getting a B, B/C and a C :frown:

3 of the 5 will be submitted I am told and I really want them at A's and I might re-do a couple to get a higher grade :frown:

I'm usually very confident when speaking to my class but when i know what I'm talking about is absolute **** and I'm getting graded on what I'm saying, I generally get nervous and I'm not normally as fluent as I am and don't use enough complex vocabulary! :frown:

Thanks for all the advice :hugs:

Reply 10

hebz

just...incase you wanted nemore advise,
dont run through it fully in the hour before you do it, it lets you calm down a little. and remember, the teacher marking you is there to support you, not tying to mark you don as much as possible!
find people that you know to look at from time to time to see how well your doing, and be prepared to do something you would never dream of doing in an essay, digress. thats if your doing your chosen topic or work experiance etcetc. if the class/teacher havnt experianced your topic in the same way as you, then you can digress all you want, and theyll neva know, as long as you do it with confidence!
if your doing a character one, then dont worry too much, im sure you would have read the book they are in dozens of times, dont just concentrate on who they are and what they would say, ut how they would say it, im not saying put on an accent, but just where to stress words.

trust yourself, and use that adrenaline rush that you'll get to your advantage, it'll make it more intresting if you do!
hope some of that was helpful, and good luck!

Reply 11

hebz

p.s.
have fun, its no use having a distinct method for s&l, 'cos when your up there all you really have is your memory and personality, so let them both shine!

Reply 12

becky.fm

My teacher told us today, that because she needs to submit our coursework grades to the exam board in 5 weeks, we won't have time do do any more S&L coursework! :party:

And, she has had our class since year 9 so she knows our general grade regarding S&L, so no more formal assessment for me! yay! :biggrin:

Reply 13

Hodan

are teachers allowed to just make up your grades for S&L???

Reply 14

Gooner

Awzinaz

are teachers allowed to just make up your grades for S&L???

That's what I was thinking :confused:

I thought that you had to a formal assessment infront of an English teacher and be graded upon that one performance :cool:

Reply 15

x.beth.x

In reply to the above comment I did two speaking and listenings, the individual one and the group one and I got As in both of them. I was away for the drama one though so my teacher just gave me another A based on the work I did in class. So yes my teacher made one of my grades up. I was never very good at speaking and listening though :smile:

Reply 16

becky.fm

Awzinaz

are teachers allowed to just make up your grades for S&L???

Well, i have done mannny S&L performances already. My teacher was just saying that she was going to collate all that information, and that we won't have to do anymore assessments. :smile:

Reply 17

The Joker

I don't get how many pieces of speaking and listenings you need to do for english, is it one or two out of 54 marks?

Reply 18

x.beth.x

samy26

I don't get how many pieces of speaking and listenings you need to do for english, is it one or two out of 54 marks?

For AQA you need to do 3 speaking and listenings, and there must be a individual, drama and group one. Each one is out of 54 marks. Our class only did 3 so we didn't get a chance to redo (not that I would have bothered - they stress me out too much!), but some classes in our year had to do 8! I am glad we didn't do so many as we could spend more time on the written work.