The Spoken Language Performance (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes

The Spoken Language Performance

Overview of the assessment

The spoken language performance assesses your skills in talking and listening. This is the only part of the Higher English course assessed internally within your school or college. The assessment is ungraded, meaning you will not receive a mark or score. Instead, you must achieve the required standard to gain your Higher English award.

You must complete at least one spoken language activity, which can be either a group discussion or an individual presentation to an audience. Your teacher may assess your spoken language skills across multiple occasions throughout the course rather than relying on a single performance. This holistic approach means you have several opportunities to demonstrate your abilities.

The four assessment criteria

You must demonstrate competence in all four aspects of spoken language:

Content: Your ideas and information should be detailed and complex. You must organise your material using a structure that suits your purpose and audience. This means going beyond simple statements to explore topics with depth and nuance.

Style: You need to communicate effectively by selecting and using detailed and complex language. This involves choosing vocabulary carefully, varying your sentence structures, and adapting your language to suit the context of your presentation or discussion.

Non-verbal communication: You must use aspects of non-verbal communication effectively. This includes elements such as eye contact, body language, gestures, and facial expressions that support and enhance your spoken words.

Listening: You will demonstrate listening skills by responding appropriately to the spoken language of others. In a group discussion, this means actively engaging with what others say. In an individual presentation, this involves taking and responding to questions from your audience.

Individual presentations

Choosing your topic

Select a subject that naturally lends itself to detailed and complex language. Your audience will likely consist of Higher English pupils who can engage with sophisticated ideas. Topics that work well include:

• Film analysis: Rather than simply describing what happens in a favourite film, analyse directorial techniques, recurring themes, or explore a director's body of work. This allows you to use specialist film terminology and demonstrate critical thinking.
• Literary analysis: You could examine a single text in depth, explore a writer's complete works, or investigate a new poem, story or extract from a text you are studying for your Critical Reading exam.
• Current affairs: Present a deeper analysis of a news story by researching its historical background, underlying causes, or the ideas behind new policies and programmes.
• Portfolio research: Use the research you have conducted for your discursive essay as the basis for your presentation, allowing you to share your knowledge in a different format.

Whatever topic you choose, ensure it gives you enough material to speak at length and demonstrate all four assessment criteria. Discuss your choice with your teacher before proceeding.

The three Ps of presentation

Success in individual presentations comes from following three key stages: preparing, practising, and presenting.

Preparing your presentation

Begin by creating a rough outline using headings. For example, when discussing a writer, you might use:

• Introduction (who they are and why you chose them)
• Brief overview (biographical details and significant works)
• Key themes and ideas
• Key aspects of style
• Critical responses and reception
• Your own response
• Conclusion

Under each heading, write notes rather than full sentences. Use short phrases, keywords and bullet points. This approach prevents you from simply reading your notes aloud, which would not demonstrate genuine spoken language skills.

Creating effective openings

Your opening should engage your audience immediately. Techniques that work well include:

• Using a quotation that relates to your topic
• Employing humour to establish rapport
• Painting a vivid picture with words
• Making a striking statement that captures attention
• Telling a relevant story or anecdote
• Asking a question (rhetorical or genuine)
• Sharing an interesting thought or observation
• Beginning in the middle of the action

Developing language and vocabulary

Your vocabulary should be detailed and complex. This means:

• Varying your word choice by selecting interesting, less common words rather than predictable ones
• Avoiding repetition of the same words or phrases
• Using longer, more complex sentence structures
• Including linking words and phrases such as "therefore", "furthermore" and "however" to give your presentation direction and structure

Understanding register

Register refers to your choice of language to suit your purpose, audience and situation. Since the spoken language performance is a formal assessment and your language should be detailed and complex, you should generally choose a fairly formal register.

However, this does not mean avoiding all informality. You can use a touch of slang, dialect or informality to create certain effects and make your speech more engaging. You might also need to use specialist vocabulary: words, phrases and terminology specific to your subject matter. For instance, when discussing poetry, you would use terms like "enjambment", "assonance" and "rhyme scheme". When analysing films, you might refer to "mise en scène", "representation" and "institutional factors".

Using humour and anecdote

Anecdotes are brief stories, often amusing ones. They can help you win over your audience and illustrate wider points. An anecdote might be a personal experience, something you observed, or a story about someone else. Not all anecdotes need to be humorous; they can also illustrate serious points through individual examples.

Employing hyperbole

Hyperbole is the formal literary term for exaggeration. It can bring energy and interest to your language. When Toksvig writes about wondering "what the world would have made of me" if she had suddenly become the wife of a Nubian nomad, the phrase "what the world would have made of me" uses hyperbole to emphasise her point.

Using rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions can engage your audience throughout your presentation by challenging listeners or making them think. Toksvig asks: "He was a man, I was a woman. Did that make it a pleasing union for all concerned?" The audience immediately thinks "of course not", which is exactly the response she wants.

Selecting emotive language

Emotive language uses strong words that arouse the listeners' emotions. This technique proves particularly helpful in serious or persuasive talks, or when dealing with controversial subjects.

Some emotive language aims to cause negative emotions such as anger or disgust. Words like "disturbing", "terrifying", "horrendous", "scandalous", "contemptible" and "alarming" fall into this category.

Other emotive language creates more positive emotions. Examples include "excellent", "superb", "remarkable", "astounding", "magnificent" and "extraordinary".

Crafting effective endings

End your presentation with a flourish rather than simply trailing off. Techniques that work well include:

• Using a quotation
• Making a striking statement
• Asking a question
• Sharing a thought or observation
• Referring back to something mentioned earlier
• Returning to a detail from your opening
• Referring to a person, story or example that embodies an idea from your talk

Creating useful notes

Keep your notes as short as possible to avoid simply reading them out. After writing your full text, identify the most important words and phrases by highlighting them. Then write these keywords on small cards or slips of paper using strong colours and large print. You can use layout to show connections between ideas.

Using props effectively

Props can enhance your presentation by giving the audience something to look at and giving you something to do with your hands. If discussing an author, bring copies of their books. If exploring a news story's background, bring newspapers with relevant headlines.

Holding a prop can help control signs of nervousness. Passing props around interests the audience and strengthens your connection with them. Well-chosen props might even remind you of everything you want to say, reducing your need for notes.

Incorporating PowerPoint and technology

PowerPoint presentations can bring interest and interactivity to your talk when used correctly. However, avoid the classic mistake of simply reading what appears on screen. This creates boring repetition.

Instead, use PowerPoint to support your words with material you cannot convey verbally. Rather than putting your words on screen, show a photograph of the writer you are discussing, or display a map showing relevant locations.

The same principle applies to DVD clips, YouTube videos and other visual material. They should complement your words, not duplicate them.

Practising and presenting

Eye contact

Eye contact forms a key aspect of non-verbal communication. Good note-taking, as discussed above, helps you maintain eye contact because you will not need to keep looking down.

Avoid staring at your teacher, the camera, or a single friend. Instead, imagine you are a lighthouse. Although you stand still, your eyes sweep across the room like a lighthouse beam sweeps across the sea. Whenever you can look up for a few seconds, sweep your gaze across the whole audience. This makes everyone feel they should pay attention because you could look at them at any moment.

Body language

Your body language significantly affects how your presentation is received, particularly when standing to address a whole class.

Avoid fidgeting. Head fidgets like earring twisting, ear rubbing, nose scratching and hair twiddling represent your subconscious mind trying to send your hands to cover your mouth and stop you talking. These movements muffle what you say and display nervousness.

If you have long hair, tie it back. Avoid repeatedly flicking your head to move your fringe out of your eyes.

Stand with your feet planted firmly, about shoulder-width apart. Avoid twisting your arms behind your back or crossing your legs whilst standing, as the audience will focus on waiting for you to tip over rather than listening to your content.

If you must hold notes, keep them in one hand and use the other for gestures. Alternatively, place your notes on a lectern, book stand or music stand. This allows you to rest your hands lightly on the stand and move them when you want to gesture.

Gestures

Gestures are movements that support the meaning of your presentation. Effective gestures usually come naturally rather than being planned. For example, a student discussing Alfred Hitchcock slapped his own stomach whilst talking about Hitchcock's recognisable silhouette. Another student discussing politics in sport gave the Black Power salute used by American athletes at the 1968 Olympics.

Good eye contact, appropriate body language and natural gestures all make your presentation more interactive by connecting you to the audience.

Voice

Your voice should be varied and interesting. Achieve this by:

• Varying your speaking speed (slower for emphasis and tension or to highlight important points; faster to indicate excitement)
• Increasing volume at moments of excitement
• Speaking more softly to draw your audience in
• Using intonation for emphasis by leaning more heavily on the most important words (the spoken equivalent of using bold in writing)
• Using a rising tone to suggest questions

If your audience closed their eyes, they should still find you fascinating based on your voice alone.

Other ways of interacting

The best way to engage your audience is by delivering an interesting presentation. Beyond the visual aids, body language, eye contact and voice techniques already discussed, you can also:

• Show them something (either on screen or a physical prop)
• Ask questions, both rhetorical and genuine ones where you expect answers
• Use a quiz at the start to discover their existing knowledge, or at the end to review what they learned
• Get them to raise hands to vote or show they have had similar experiences
• Make them laugh, then show you appreciate their laughter by pausing rather than talking over it
• Use inclusive language such as "I'm sure we have all at some point in our studies this year found ourselves puzzled by our first encounter with a new text"

Taking questions

You must take questions at some stage in your presentation to demonstrate listening skills. The most obvious point is at the end of your talk. You remain in charge of the room, deciding who to take questions from and whether to allow follow-up questions. Ensure your answers continue to use detailed and complex language.

Managing nerves

Following all the preparation and practice advice should help you feel less nervous and more skilled. Remember that you may not need to talk to a whole room of people. If this worries you, discuss alternatives with your teacher.

Practising on other people helps reduce nerves. Work with a partner, then join with another pair to practise in front of a small group. This helps you know your material better and practise eye contact.

Remember: the audience wants you to succeed. They know you and want you to do well. They also want to be a good audience for you because they will have their own talks to deliver and will want a supportive audience in return.

Think of your talk as shaped like a small hill:

STAND there, still and composed
SMILE at your audience
SPEAK to them, delivering your prepared and practised presentation
SMILE again at the end
STAND and wait for the applause

Group discussion

If you have studied the individual presentation section, you already understand the skills used in group discussion. However, the group situation introduces some differences.

Key differences in group discussions

You may have less choice in what you discuss, as your teacher might provide the topic or questions. Your teacher can assess your spoken language across multiple occasions, so they might observe you during wider learning activities rather than setting up a specific test.

You will probably have less preparation time than for an individual presentation. If given advance notice, use that time to gather ideas and points, but you will not prepare language in the same detailed way.

You may or may not choose the other people in your group. You might be assigned a particular role in the discussion. You must show that you know how to behave in a group situation, respecting and interacting with others. This demonstrates the listening skills essential for passing your assessment.

Demonstrating listening skills

Your body language shows whether you are actively listening. Sit facing other group members with an open posture. Maintain eye contact with whoever is speaking. Avoid slouching, crossing your arms defensively, or turning away from the group.

However, you need to go beyond just looking like you are listening. During discussion, you should listen more than you talk. This does not mean staying quiet until you can wedge in something you already decided to say. What you say should support, develop or challenge what you hear whilst listening.

If you disagree with what you hear, you can express this without giving offence or seeming arrogant. You can disagree firmly whilst remaining respectful.

Ways to show support and agreement:

• "I agree with you because..."
• "You're right to say that..."
• "That's an excellent point..."
• "I'd like to build on what you just said..."

Ways to express disagreement appropriately:

• "On the other hand..."
• "I don't agree because..."
• "I think you're wrong because..."
• "But in my opinion..."

Skills to demonstrate in responses

You should display these skills when responding to others:

Developing: Taking someone's point further or adding to it. For example, if someone says "The government should address this issue", you might respond "That's not the only reason why the government should address this. It also matters because..."

Summarising: Restating what someone has said to check your understanding or to move the discussion forward. You might say "You seem to be saying..." followed by a concise summary of their position.

Refuting: Using evidence to prove that someone else is wrong. This requires careful handling to remain respectful whilst challenging their view.

Justifying: Using evidence to prove that you are right. For example, "I'm afraid I don't agree. I think X's films are overrated because..." followed by specific evidence supporting your position.

Roles and contributions

In some group discussions, you may be assigned a specific role. Ensure you understand what is expected of you.

The chair: Leads the discussion and keeps it moving. Solves conflicts or arguments. Encourages shy group members whilst preventing confident speakers from dominating. Other group members should listen to and acknowledge the chairperson.

The leader: Similar to the chair, but may also be responsible for reaching a decision or conclusion, or having the casting vote if the group cannot reach consensus.

The reader: Reads out instructions, information or questions to the group.

The recorder: Takes notes of what is said. Near the end of the discussion, the recorder should read notes back to the group so people can agree the record is fair.

The reporter: Gives a verbal report back to the whole class on what the group discussed.

The timekeeper: Keeps the discussion moving or ensures a conclusion or solution is reached within a given time.

Encouraging quieter members

If someone in your group is not contributing much or having trouble getting a word in, help draw them out. Your teacher wants to see all group members participating. Use phrases like:

• "I'm interested in hearing X's opinion about..."
• "What would you like to say?"
• "What's your opinion?"
• "Is there anything you'd like to add?"
• "What do you think?"
• "It would be good to hear some other opinions about..."

Remember!

• The spoken language performance is internally assessed and ungraded (pass/fail only)
• You must demonstrate all four criteria: content, style, non-verbal communication and listening
• Preparation is essential for success in individual presentations - follow the three Ps: preparing, practising and presenting
• Use detailed and complex language appropriate for Higher level
• In group discussions, listen more than you talk and respond appropriately to what others say