VELS Level 4 – Speaking and Listening

Speaking and listening are necessary for effective communication. These activities refer to:

• speaking: activities that draw on communicating intention or understanding
• listening: activities that draw on understanding the intentions and meanings of others in a conversation.

Students develop their ability to listen strategically to a range of extended spoken texts both with and without supporting non-verbal information.

In oral presentations students learn to modify their text according to their: intention or purpose; context; and audience.
(Munro J. 2005)

• Victorian Essential Learning Standards English, Speaking and listening, Level 4 Learning focus (extract)
• Victorian Essential Learning Standards English, Speaking and listening, Level 4 standard

Victorian Essential Learning Standards English, Speaking and listening, Level 4 Learning focus (extract)

Level 4

Students engage in exploratory talk to share and clarify their ideas, to formulate simple arguments and to seek the opinions of others. They participate in oral interactions for different purposes, including entertaining, informing and influencing others. Students learn to sustain a point of view, and provide succinct accounts of personal experiences or events.

They experiment with spoken language features such as pace, pitch and pronunciation to enhance meaning as they plan, rehearse and reflect on their presentations. They build their capacity to combine verbal and visual elements in texts to communicate ideas and information by using, for example, presentation software or overheads.

When listening, students practise identifying the main idea and supporting details of spoken texts and summarising them for others. They begin to identify opinions offered by others, propose other viewpoints, and extend ideas in a constructive manner.

Victorian Essential Learning Standards English, Speaking and listening, Level 4 standard

Speaking and listening

At Level 4, students plan, rehearse and make presentations for different purposes. They sustain a point of view and provide succinct accounts of personal experiences or events. They adjust their speaking to take account of context, purpose and audience, and vary tone, volume and pace of speech to create or emphasise meaning.

When listening to spoken texts, they identify the main idea and supporting details and summarise them for others. They identify opinions offered by others, propose other relevant viewpoints and extend ideas in a constructive manner.

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