Spontaneous or scripted? Contents sheet and teaching notes The following resource includes teaching notes and activities for Liverpool 15 yearolds radio show and Newcastle 16 and 17 year-olds casual from the Teenagers section of the Edexcel CD-rom. All activities are suitable for all abilities and some extension tasks have been included. Please note that although some linguistic terms are introduced in this resource, students will not be assessed on their knowledge or use of such terms in the Spoken Language Study task at GCSE. The starting point for controlled assessment should always be the live task (which changes every year), and any materials and activities used in the classroom need to be relevant to the chosen task. It may be useful to use the Language Log [Investigating personal talk] from Teachit as an introductory activity and to discuss how students use spontaneous and scripted language on a typical day. Students will probably notice that for much of the day they have used unscripted, spontaneous language. This is a good opportunity to draw their attention to key differences between scripted and unscripted talk. You might like to discuss nonfluency features such as pauses, hesitations and fillers like umm and err. You could also draw their attention to other features which are linked to how we interact with people in conversation. Activities 1 and 2 Spontaneous speech? and Casual These are designed to encourage students to think about how they can identify interesting spoken language features, label them, exemplify them and suggest possible reasons for their use. The band 5 criteria for the spoken language task makes the link between an understanding of context, clear use of examples from the transcript and sustained focus on the language of speech. The extension questions are aimed at higher ability students and encourage answers that address the criteria. Activity 1 When analysing this transcript and recording you might like to draw attention to some of these aspects: the talk has very few non-fluency features (For example, there are no fillers) the transcript has only one false start there is clear evidence of planning at the beginning of Nina s first turn. www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14751 Page 1 of 6
Nina: Hello and welcome to the CRJ radio show. We are live on the air today with Nina and Jodie. We're on the subject of ealth and safety today and we'll be talking about strangers and fire safety, to all the listeners. We've both made posters that can be found on CRJradio.com. Right, so Jodie, you can go first Nina tells the audience exactly what they will be talking about later in the programme The most likely reason why this example of spoken language has so few non-fluency features in it is because it is designed to be like a radio broadcast, so parts of it have clearly been scripted and then read out. Planned speech rarely sounds like genuine spontaneous speech, and even though there are some discourse markers which signal to the listener that a new topic or turn is about to start, it is probably much closer to written language than spoken. We can also tell that this is planned because signalling and structural devices are used to tell us the order in which ideas will be given. An example of this is the use of the word firstly in the extract below: Jodie: Well, I produced a poster which gets across the dangers of fire and gives some safety tips on what to do if you see one. Firstly, if you see any signs of smoke or flames, tell someone immediately or find a grown-up as soon as possible Activity 2 The suggested responses to the true/false questions are: F, T, F, F, T. When examining this recording, students will probably notice a lot of differences. In this second recording there are more speakers (four as opposed to two in the previous one) and this has an impact on how the conversation is structured. Also, there are frequent non-fluency features apparent: there are more false starts and fillers, and more moments when the speakers lower their voices and become difficult to hear below the voices of others. Another very important difference is that this conversation has frequent examples of simultaneous speech or overlap. Sometimes these are very short utterances when speakers just say one word, or examples of back-channel behaviour, when they make a sound to agree or show that they are listening ( yeah and mm mhm ), while other times they are longer. Activity 3 Spot the difference Students summarise key similarities and differences between the two transcripts. The investigation activity is aimed primarily at higher ability students and might require some prior organisation, as students will be recording and transcribing their own data. www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14751 Page 2 of 6
Introduction You will probably have spent much of your time in English lessons so far looking at written language. You may have read poems, written stories, analysed language techniques in advertisements and lots more. But by far and away the most frequent method we use for communication on any normal day is not through writing but through speech. And this is one area which you may not have studied in anything like as much detail... until now! Spoken language exists all around us in many different forms: from the face-to-face conversations we have with friends, conversations on the phone, the language we hear through the radio, TV and internet, the language of teachers in class, the language of sports coaches, employers, customers and so on. Spoken language is everywhere! Interestingly, spoken language varies depending on the context in which it is used. Many factors can play a role in how we speak. For example, where we are, who we are with, what we are doing at the time, whether we re in a relaxed or formal situation, why we are speaking: all of these are important influences. And much of the time we don t need to be taught how to speak differently in different situations we just know. In the following activities we ll be looking at the ways in which planning what we are about to say affects how we use spoken language. Activity 1 Spontaneous speech? Have a listen to Liverpool 15 year-olds radio show on the Edexcel CD-rom and read the accompanying transcript. This is an extract of two teenagers presenting a mock radio programme at school. Once you ve listened, try the following task. Cut out the extracts from the transcript below and place them along a planned unplanned continuum line depending on how spontaneous you think each one sounds. You might like to draw your continuum line on a large sheet of paper, or to make a human line, with a different person holding each extract and positioning themselves physically across the room. For example, if you think that an extract sounds as if it has been planned, place it closest to the planned end of your line. planned unplanned www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14751 Page 3 of 6
Extracts: Well, I produced a poster which gets across the dangers of fire Right, so Jodie, you can go first Well, now, Nina's going to go on to talk about strangers so I'll start by saying that if a someone comes up to you claiming that they've come to pick you up, you know, for your mum and dad or something never go back in the building for anything, and never hide in the cupboard or under the bed We are live on the air today with Nina and Jodie. We're on the subject of ealth and safety today and we'll be talking about strangers and fire safety Extension task Answer the following questions about each of the extracts above: How spontaneous does this example of spoken language seem to you? What specific words or features can you point to that support your answer? What language labels might you give to these features? Why have these words or language features been used? What might their effect be upon the listener or other speakers? Activity 2 Casual conversation Now listen to the Newcastle 16 and 17 year-olds casual recording on the Edexcel CD-rom and read the accompanying transcript as you listen. This is an extract of a conversation between sixth form students and a teacher before a lesson begins. Decide whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE: 1. This conversation sounds scripted. 2. There is clear evidence of simultaneous speech. 3. Each person knows what the next speaker is about to say. 4. The speakers signal what they are going to say at the beginning of the conversation. 5. There are frequent non-fluency features. www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14751 Page 4 of 6
Activity 3 Spot the difference Now you have examined each recording on its own, it s time to think about how you might look at them together for your controlled assessment task. Think about all the ways in which these extracts of spoken language are different. Complete the table below by filling in the gap for each transcript with an appropriate comment. Liverpool 15 year-olds radio show Newcastle 16 and 17 year-olds casual conversation 2 speakers 4 speakers Purpose of the spoken language is to inform audience of radio listeners about two topics Purpose of the conversation is to share views on books and audio-books Very little simultaneous speech Frequent non-fluency features Audience is imaginary radio listeners Little evidence of planning Find examples of these from the transcripts where possible. www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14751 Page 5 of 6
Now draw your own grid and list the similarities between the two recordings. Again use evidence from the transcripts to support the points you make. Is there anything else that you notice about the talk in these two situations? Can you think of any other factors that influence the speech? What can you conclude about simultaneous and scripted talk? Investigation activity To further test the difference between scripted and spontaneous spoken language, try the following task. Record two conversations using the following outlines: 1. Think of a location near you, such as a shop, library, school or local landmark. 2. Ask a friend for directions how to get to one or more of the locations. Record their answer. 3. Tell a different friend that you will be asking them for directions. Give them two minutes to prepare and then ask them to give you directions. Again record their answer. Listen to your two recordings, and transcribe them if you have time. Then compare the language styles in the two versions, looking out for some of the key features of spontaneous and scripted speech. www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14751 Page 6 of 6