1. National 4 English – Listening.

2. Listening Assessments at National 4
You will listen to/watch a short extract.
You will then answer questions on it.
The clip can be played as many times as requested.
You can make notes as you listen.
We are going to look at how to approach this assessment today and then have some practice.

3. Listening Assessment Three key areas assessed:
Understanding – what is being said?
Analysis – how is it being said?
Evaluation – how well does it work?
These are similar skills you use in Close Reading. The only difference is that you are engaging with the text in a different way.

4. Listening Assessment cont...
You need to be able to identify:
The purpose
The intended audience
The main ideas of the text
The supporting details

5. Purpose – why something has been created
Here are some common purposes:
To inform
To persuade
To convince
To entertain
To provoke
To instruct
To recount
To describe
To advise
To warn
To advertise
To explain
To express emotion
Your job is to relate the purpose to the text. It will not be enough at N5 to simply state that the purpose was to inform or to persuade.
Inform of what?
Persuade of what?

6. Audience – who the text has been intended for
If asked about audience, always ask yourself:
Age
Gender
Interests
Opinions
Education
You must be able to support your answer with reference to the text
e.g. I think the intended audience would be people interested in politics and issues that affect society. The text refers to policies and has lots of statistics relating to unemployment.

7. Main ideas – what are the major points the speaker is trying to get across?
You are being asked to summarise what the main ideas were

8. Listening Assessment cont...
You will also need to be able to identify language features and comment on their effectiveness.

9. Features of spoken language
You will need to be able to recognise these features.
1) Register: Speakers will vary their language depending on context/audience.
e.g. Someone delivering a speech will most likely use formal language free from contractions or colloquial words.
Pay attention to whether or not someone is using formal or informal language, speaking with a broad accent or in a dialect – think about why they have chosen to speak this way.

10. Features of spoken language
2) Tone – the emotion behind a speaker’s words. HOW are they saying it? Tone is much easier to identify through speech than writing.
Word choice and tone can reveal whether a speaker is happy, being sarcastic or sad.

11. Features of spoken language
3) Pace – quickly or slowly? Does the speaker slow down at a particular place? WHY? Do they pause at a particular place? WHY?
Often, speakers will “pause for effect” – give the audience a moment to reflect on what they’ve just said – what do they want the audience to reflect on?
Sometimes speakers will say certain things slowly, deliberately, for emphasis – what are they trying to emphasise?

12. Features of spoken language
4) Word choice – just as in Close Reading – speakers use certain words. Ask yourself why. Are they trying to have an emotional appeal, are they trying to provoke, to persuade?

13. Features of spoken language
4) Persuasive devices – different techniques used to achieve a desired effect
Rhetorical Questions: asking the audience involves them
Repetition: emphasises a point, makes it stick
Power of three: repeating a key idea three times.
Emotive images
Exaggeration
Use of personal pronouns such as “us”, “we” and “our”
Forceful statements – “I urge” “I demand” “I need”

14. Before listening...
You will be given background information about the extract for assessment. Think about:
Who is speaking?
If you know who is speaking, what do you already know about them?
Identify the topic – what sort of ideas would you expect to hear?
Do you know anything already about the topic?
What would you like to find out?
Do you have any questions you would like answered?

15. During listening... Think about:
Are the participants saying what you expected?
Is there anything you don’t understand?
Did I notice anything about the way they were delivering their speech? Pace, rhetoric?

16. After listening... What were the main points?
Can you summarise the main points?
Did you stay interested as you were listening?
Why were you interested or not interested?
What did you notice about the speaker?
Can you tell someone else about what you heard and discuss it with them? What did they think?