Levels 7 and 8

Achievement Objectives

Oral language: Listening

Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Examples

Example 1

Achievement Objectives
Listening to texts; interpersonal listening: exploring language

Teaching and Learning
Context: investigating the genre of radio talk-back

• The class listens to several excerpts from a range of talk-back shows.
  
• In groups, students select two contrasting excerpts in which the hosts adopt a belligerent approach and a softer approach.
  
• Individual members make notes as the group finds and discusses specific examples of language used by the host which goads, encourages, ridicules, or supports the contributor. Students compare and contrast the effects on the contributor of different attitudes taken by the host, and vice versa. The group evaluates the effectiveness of the different behaviours in terms of each programme's purpose.

Assessment

• Groups present their findings by playing back or role-playing examples, or by visual presentations.
  
• Class members compare and contrast the different talk-back styles demonstrated in the group presentations, and evaluate the presentations in terms of the nature of the language used.

Links With Other Strands
Speaking, Writing
Related examples in other strands at the same level: Speaking, Example 2; Viewing, Example 2.

Example 2

Achievement Objectives
Interpersonal listening; listening to texts: thinking critically; exploring language

Teaching and Learning
Context: studying a play by, for example, Shakespeare

• After listening to a reading or recording, and discussing the meanings and characterisation implicit in the action of a scene from the play, students make their own draft notes for filming two or three lines. Their notes should indicate visual language features, such as set, costumes, and casting; directions for the use of the voice, such as pace and pitch; and suggestions for an accompanying sound track.
  
• Students listen to and view the scene from a film version of the play.
  
• In groups, students discuss the characterisation, mood, and historical setting achieved by the actor and director, identifying verbal and visual language features which communicate their interpretations. They report their findings to the class.
  
• Students hear or watch and discuss another recorded or film version of the same scene. In pairs, they evaluate this interpretation of the scene and compare their response to it with their responses to the other versions.

Assessment

• Students revise their draft notes for filming in the light of their understandings, and record the sound track for the film of their selected lines, justifying the choices they make for the use of the voices and for music or sound effects.
  
• The teacher notes the students' understanding of oral language features.

Links With Other Strands
Viewing, Speaking
Related example in another strand at the same level: Presenting, Example 2.

Example 3

Achievement Objectives
Interpersonal listening; listening to texts: processing information; thinking critically

Teaching and Learning
Context: studying New Zealand English

• Students discuss examples, from a range of media and settings, of different varieties of New Zealand English.
  
• Students develop topics for research on attitudes to the sounds of New Zealand English, such as people's views of the New Zealand accent; broad, general, and cultivated New Zealand accents and why they are adopted in a range of radio contexts; peer responses to broad and cultivated New Zealand accents; or changing attitudes to the use of varieties of New Zealand English in the media.
  
• Students plan processes for carrying out their research, individually or in small groups.
  
• Students develop a presentation of their findings and conclusions which represent their personal views and the views of others. Their aim is to demonstrate their ability to discuss and evaluate spoken text in terms of the social, cultural, and historical influences on people's attitudes.
  
• Students present their findings in seminars, using audio tapes to illustrate them.

Assessment

• The seminars are assessed in terms of the students' responses and the quality of their observations.
  
• Students' research and contributions to discussion are assessed and noted by the teacher.

Links With Other Strands
Speaking, Writing, Presenting

Example 4

Achievement Objectives
Interpersonal listening; listening to texts: processing information; exploring language

Teaching and Learning
Context: a study of oratory

• Students listen to and watch whaikòrero performed and explained by an invited guest, who is welcomed into the school with a simple mihi and waiata.
  
• Students discuss with the guest the ways in which verbal and non-verbal features combine in whaikòrero and in mihi.
  
• Students watch and listen to videos and/or visiting speakers to explore other examples of oratory, including speakers from other cultures represented in the class or school, and both men and women. In groups, students analyse the relationships between the verbal and non-verbal features of speeches and their purposes and audiences, and report back to the class.
  
• Students listen to recordings or read transcriptions of famous speeches in history, each group working with a different text. They plan, undertake, and record group research, with each member of the group contributing, to discover the historical context of the speech, including its immediate situation, audience, and purpose. Students analyse the speech in terms of both verbal and non-verbal features and prepare an introduction to it based on their research. They present their findings to the class, with each member of the group speaking. Other students take notes and ask questions.

Assessment

• The teacher's observations are matched with the students' self-assessments to assess students' participation in groups and questioning during the group work.
  
• The teacher assesses students' active listening, individual records, analyses, and presentations.

Links With Other Strands
Speaking, Presenting, Viewing, Reading, Writing