Speaking and Listening preparation Important information about this work: You have between now and Monday 16 th March to prepare and practise your speech. This means work in class and practising it at home – very important. If you finish your speech before then your teacher will give you more exam practice to do, as time is very short for that after Easter. You need to speak for a total of around 4 minutes. You will then be asked questions and respond to them for about 6-8 minutes. The whole thing will therefore take around 12 minutes. It’s marked out of 30 – 10 marks for speaking, 10 marks to listening closely to your examiner and 10 marks for responding well to their questions about your topic. You will receive an appointment slot for your recording between 17 th and 27 th March, much like what you get in foreign languages. You cannot read from a script. Notes/bullet points only. If the exam board thinks you are reading from a script from the way you’re talking they will likely zero whole speaking and listening unit. Prepare questions in advance you would like to be asked and think carefully about how you will develop your ideas in the discussion – you need to expand in more detail on what you have already said in the main discussion.

Good ideas for topics: Complaining about Government policies regarding exams/exam changes Discussion of footballer wages and whether they are too high The dangers and effects of bullying What sport gives you in your life Is technology taking over our lives? Should the death penalty be re-introduced for serious crimes? Weaker ideas: Just explaining why you like something Doing something that’s too fact-heavy and sounding like you have just gone on Wikipedia and reworded what you have found. Try and pick a topic that has some depth to it and you have a clear, strong opinion about.

The process: First of all you need you need to do a rough paragraph plan of what you are going to say, e.g. Topic – footballer wages What they used to be in the past The introduction of TV money/Sky The difference between different countries and different leagues, e.g. The Premier League and League Two The difference between that and ‘important’ jobs like a doctor Why people get so angry/annoyed by it Are they worth it? Who’s to blame? Will it ever change? If you spoke for 30 seconds on each of these bullet points – the same as writing a paragraph on each – it would take the 4 minutes you roughly need.

Topic – footballer wages What they used to be in the past Next you would need to write out a rough draft of your essay. Here’s a paragraph below that would take 30 seconds to read: Footballer wages have not always been enormous like they are today. In the past footballers were just ‘regular people’, had normal incomes, and lived in normal houses and drove average cars. They even sat with fans in the stadiums if they were injured and they most definitely had to carry on working after they had finished playing football. They simply could not afford to retire. Some would go into management and coaching, but many in the 1950s or 1960s would do regular jobs like running pubs or setting up a business. This meant that they had a connection with fans and knew what their lives were like. These days, many of them don’t know what it’s like, or have forgotten what it’s like, to struggle like most people do.

Get drafting! Some ideas are below… It seems to me that… The idea of …. Many people would consider… They even… They simply… It is clear that… Without … This means that… Of course, … People must realise that… I don’t understand why… The world is… My experience leads to believe that… Many people seem to… Every day we see… The issue of… I became aware of… It’s not just down to… Whatever you believe, you… The most important thing is… Without change, the … Despite what people think, the… It is a shame that… Questions about…

You would then write out your whole draft. After that you would ‘condense’ it into bullets, e.g. Footballer wages have not always been enormous like they are today. In the past footballers were just ‘regular people’, had normal incomes, and lived in normal houses and drove average cars. They even sat with fans in the stadiums if they were injured and they most definitely had to carry on working after they had finished playing football. They simply could not afford to retire. Some would go into management and coaching, but many in the 1950s or 1960s would do regular jobs like running pubs or setting up a business. This meant that they had a connection with fans and knew what their lives were like. These days, many of them don’t know what it’s like, or have forgotten what it’s like, to struggle like most people do. Para 1 Used to be like normal people Hang around fans Normal jobs Live in different world now

Once you have the whole thing written and a bulleted/notes version of it, you need to practise your delivery from the bullets. Listen to my tone, emphasis, pauses and other vocal features that make it clear. Footballer wages have not always been enormous like they are today. In the past footballers were just ‘regular people’, had normal incomes, and lived in normal houses and drove average cars. They even sat with fans in the stadiums if they were injured and they most definitely had to carry on working after they had finished playing football. They simply could not afford to retire. Some would go into management and coaching, but many in the 1950s or 1960s would do regular jobs like running pubs or setting up a business. This meant that they had a connection with fans and knew what their lives were like. These days, many of them don’t know what it’s like, or have forgotten what it’s like, to struggle like most people do. Used to be like normal people Hang around fans Normal jobs Live in different world now

Once your speech is sorted, you need to think about questions you’d like to be asked and examples/ideas/stories/points you will use in response, e.g. Teacher: I heard you talk about footballers in the past being more like ‘regular people’ towards the beginning. Do you think fans used to love or respect these players more than what they do today? Pupil: Absolutely! People watching Premiership stars these days admire their skills and think they can do amazing things with a football, but we’ve all seen how ignorant and arrogant they can be. There are always stories in the newspapers about them cheating on their wives, being disrespectful with their money or just being bad role models. Mario Balotelli is a prime example – he shows off his money, doesn’t try too hard on the pitch and seems ungrateful for the life he has. So whilst fans think he’s very talented, they loved players like Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst more – they won the World Cup and had more passion in their hearts, because they weren’t just doing it for the money. You need to prepare answers/ideas to around 12 questions. You need to be comfortable talking for 6-8 minutes on your topic. You must know and research it well!