Spoken Language: Discussion and Writing to be Spoken
A group discussion and a piece written to be spoken look like two different tasks. They are one skill: language that is heard once and cannot be re-read. Learn what a listener can and cannot do, and the small set of moves that earn marks in a discussion where nobody is in charge.
Use it, the way the marks are given
Free interactive practice at using the material, which is what the marks are for.
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Heard once, with no second look
This unit asks for two things that look unrelated: a group discussion with three or four people, and a piece of non-fiction writing designed to be spoken aloud. They are the same skill. Both are language that is heard once. A reader can go back over a sentence, skim ahead, look up and reread the bit that lost them, and decide how fast to go. A listener gets one pass, at your speed, and no second look at all. That single difference changes everything. A long build towards the point is elegant on a page and lost in a room. A careful qualification tucked into the middle of a sentence is precise for a reader and invisible to an ear. Saying the same thing twice looks like padding on paper and is a kindness out loud. So carry one test through both tasks: could somebody who is only half-listening still follow this, first time? Everything else in this module comes from that.
Five words for spoken work
The last one sounds like a criticism and is the opposite. It is the single most useful idea for anything meant to be heard.
Two contributions that do something
Five things said during a group discussion about whether the school day should start later. Tap the TWO that do something with what somebody else has said.
- I think there are three main reasons why the day should start later, and my first reason is
- Sam said younger pupils would struggle with the later finish, and that is worth taking seriously, because it is the one group nobody has argued for yet
- Yeah, I agree with that, definitely
- You said most students are tired in first lesson, and I think that is right, but would a later start actually fix it, or would people just go to sleep later?
- Another point is that buses would have to be rescheduled
The student who said the most
In a four-person discussion, one student spoke for more than half the time. They were fluent, well prepared and never lost for words, and they came out with the lowest mark in the group. What is the most likely reason?
- They delivered a prepared speech in instalments, so almost nothing they said depended on anybody else being there
- Speaking more than a quarter of the time is against the rules of the task
- Their arguments were probably factually wrong
- The others were too nervous to interrupt them
What a reader can do, and a listener cannot
Everything in the second column follows from one fact: the listener is not in control of the pace, and nothing stays on the screen.
Five moments, five different moves
- Somebody has just made a claim with nothing behind it, and everybody has nodded
- Somebody has said something you think is straightforwardly mistaken
- The group has been circling the same point for two minutes
- You agree completely with what has just been said, and have nothing to add to it
- One person has said almost nothing for four minutes
- Ask what it rests on, and offer something of your own that supports or complicates it, so the claim stops being an opinion and starts being an argument
- Take issue with the point rather than the person, name precisely which part you doubt, and leave them a way to be partly right
- Name what has been settled, then put the disagreement that is actually left in one sentence, so the group can move to it
- Say why it matters rather than that you agree. Agreement adds nothing on its own; what it does to the rest of the question does
- Ask them something specific enough to answer, rather than whether they have anything to add, which is the hardest question in the room to say yes to
Preparing for a discussion, not a talk
A student has an evening to prepare for a group discussion on a set theme. Put the preparation in a sensible order.
- Read the set texts, including at least one that is a table, chart or list rather than paragraphs
- Work out what you actually think, in one sentence
- Pick two or three specific pieces of evidence you could produce for it
- Work out the strongest case against you, and how you would answer it
- Write two questions you could ask somebody else in the group
- Cut everything you have prepared down to things you could say in about twenty seconds
What the marks are actually for
Three things separate a discussion contribution at the top of the range from one that sounds confident and scores in the middle. Everything you say should be impossible in an empty room. That is the test in one line. If a contribution would have come out word for word whether or not anybody else had spoken, it is a speech, and it is being assessed as a discussion. Put something under your claims. A specific figure from a table, a line from one of the texts, an example that is genuinely yours. Evidence is what separates a discussion from four people taking turns to have opinions, and the non-continuous sources are the most underused. ⭐ And take the other side seriously. The strongest thing you can do is state the case against you better than its own supporter did, and then answer it. A candidate who only ever knocks down a weak version of the opposing view has shown they can argue; one who builds the strong version first has shown they can think.
Would this work out loud
Sentences from a piece of writing meant to be read aloud. For each one, decide who it works for. Three lives.
The stranger asking the way
Somebody stops you in the street and asks how to get to the station. You cannot hand them a map. They will hear your answer once, while standing up, and then walk off with it. The unhelpful answer is the accurate one. Second left, then the third right after the traffic lights, continue for about four hundred metres bearing left at the fork, and it is opposite the retail park. Every word of that is true, and they lost it somewhere around the traffic lights. The helpful answer says less and says some of it twice. Go to the end of this road and turn left at the big church. You cannot miss the church. Keep going past the shops, and the station is on your right. And if you get to the river, you have gone too far, so turn round. ⭐ Notice what the last line is doing. It is not new information at all. It is a way of catching somebody who has already lost the thread, and it is the most useful sentence in the whole answer.
What makes a contribution count
A student wants to raise a discussion contribution from adequate to strong. Select every change that would genuinely do it.
- Connecting it to something a specific person in the group has said
- Putting a specific piece of evidence underneath the claim
- Naming the best objection to their own view and answering it
- Saying it at greater length so the point is fully developed
- Using more formal vocabulary throughout
Finish the spoken-language sentences
A listener gets one pass at what you say, so anything meant to be heard should be short and whole, and saying a thing twice, which looks like waste on a page, is _____ and gives them a second chance. In a discussion you are credited for what you do with other people words, so taking somebody point and extending or testing it is _____, and the surest sign a contribution has gone wrong is that it would have been identical in an empty room. Stating the strongest case against your own view and then answering it is offering a _____, which is worth far more than knocking down a weak version. A claim with nothing underneath it is an opinion until you add _____, and a table, chart or list counts, because it is a _____. How formal your language is, and whether that suits the occasion, is your _____.
Build a contribution that works
A group is discussing whether their town needs a later bus service. Assemble a contribution that would earn marks.
Ten minutes, four people
A group of four has ten minutes to discuss whether their school should replace exams with coursework. Each stage sets out where the discussion is and hands you the decision.
- Two minutes in, one person has talked almost continuously and shows no sign of stopping. Two others have said nothing. Decide what to do.
- Somebody says coursework is fairer because everybody works at their own pace. Everybody nods. Nothing has been offered in support of it. Decide.
- You realise the strongest argument in the discussion is against the position you prepared. Six minutes to go. Decide.
- Afterwards you must write a short piece on the same theme, to be delivered aloud. Your first draft opens with a long, carefully qualified sentence you are proud of. Decide.
Plan your part in a discussion
Take any question people genuinely disagree about at your school or in your area. Plan how you would contribute to a ten-minute discussion on it with three other people, and how you would then write a short piece on it to be read aloud.
- State your position in one sentence, as you would actually say it
- Name two specific pieces of evidence you could produce, and say where one of them would come from a table, chart or list
- State the strongest case against you, fairly, and say how you would answer it
- Write one question you would ask a specific person, and say why that question rather than another
- Explain one thing you would change about your written piece because it is going to be heard rather than read
- Finish by explaining how a marker could tell your contribution was a discussion rather than a speech