Level C2 Speaking and Listening

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C2 Speaking and Listening proficiency levels and Achievement Standard

The students' performance in these tasks suggest that they are working within the range of Level C2 in Speaking and Listening. The assessing teacher will need to consider a range of student samples in order to determine whether each student is at the beginning of C2, consolidating C2 or at the C2 standard in Speaking and Listening.

At beginning Level C2 students:      

  • can respond to a short sequence of instructions and questions related to classroom activities and immediate social and familiar topics with scaffolding
  • will have gained the confidence to initiate giving information or assistance, and attempt to use the language creatively beyond set formulaic expressions for well-rehearsed tasks, such as describing ideas or objects, or giving an impromptu talk or story on a familiar topic, although they may still make mistakes
  • demonstrate an awareness that language changes between social and formal contexts, including academic registers in the classroom and across the curriculum, although they might not yet be able to use the registers effectively.

At consolidating Level C2 students:      

  • attempt to use their growing repertoire of language in classroom situations to express ideas in relation to subject matter, verbalise the thinking processes related to abstract ideas and problem solving, and contribute to, and interact with, groups to arrive at a joint conclusion
  • have begun to develop a language for talking about language, including cultural differences related to communication, and appropriateness of forms of politeness according to context
  • have begun attempts to vary the modality of utterances appropriate to context (for example, would/could/can), and a diversified range of vocabulary to convey the same idea (for example, pretty, nice, beautiful)
  • can generally cope with oral discourse that includes increasing amounts of colloquial language, although a lack of awareness of cultural references might still impact a student's ability to understand meaning in many cases.

At Level C2 Achievement Standard students:      

  • use simple but effective strategies for initiating communication and negotiating meaning
  • communicate effectively in a range of familiar social and some basic academic contexts, experimenting with and adapting their developing English and cultural understanding
  • extract some specific information from texts and understand teacher explanations involving familiar specific curriculum area vocabulary, with support in academic contexts
  • use some increasingly complex grammatical features and a basic range of connectives, such as time and sequence markers, to show relationships between ideas, with support
  • use some standard expressions to express views and attitudes
  • demonstrate some understanding of the structures and features of extended texts, by using appropriate stress, intonation, pausing and eye contact, and modelled introductory and concluding sentences.

Imaginative text - Role-playing a homeless person (1)

Student information

The student is 14 years old and in Year 9 in a secondary school. He comes from Afghanistan and speaks Dari as his first language as well as Urdu. He has had interrupted schooling as he and his family moved from Afghanistan to Australia via Pakistan. He attended lower primary school in Pakistan where Urdu was the language of instruction. He has been learning English since he arrived in Australia four years ago. He attended an English language school for a year and has attended mainstream secondary school for three years.      

Task

This assessment task required students to role-play a homeless person. This activity was part of a class unit of work on the theme of 'Homelessness'. The teaching cycle included a variety of speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks involving a range of texts and activities on different aspects of the topic. The students prepared for the presentation by reading the novel A Simple Gift by Steven Herrick which explores the nature of and attitudes towards homelessness. Students watched a video interview of a homeless person and had a class discussion. They used a radio interview from a website as a model for writing their own scripts. The students were permitted to use cue cards as prompts for their presentations.      

The presentation of their story was followed by questions from their classmates related to the experiences of the character portrayed in the role-play.       

In this task the teacher is seeking to assess how well the students can structure sentences in their spoken presentations, use new vocabulary they have learnt from their reading, understand questions they are asked and use intelligible pronunciation. The students are required to:       

  • present a short prepared formal talk of at least three minutes using cue cards for support
  • take part in a role play
  • use simple modelled language in appropriate contexts
  • uses pauses to make extended utterances intelligible
  • uses eye contact appropriately.

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold.


Transcript

0:06-3:25

Okay, so what we're going to do today is each of you are going to come up here and you're going to give your speech on the homeless person and the character that you've created, and then what I'll be doing is asking you questions based on that character. So think about what questions I'm asking before you answer, and just take time to think about what you're going to say before you do, alright?        

Hi, my name's Max, I am 14 years old. My father kicked me out from home. Mum, oh, I live at Sydney and I came to Melbourne. I live by my, I live with myself.  My level, the first time my level was very good, my father, my mum loved me. And one day I asked my dad, "Can I have money?" He said, he said, "Why?" I said to him, "Can I have money? I need to go with my friends." He said, "No," and after that he slapped me in my face. My mum came, my mum came, my mum came and asked me what happened and I was, told my mum, "Oh, my dad slapped me." My mum went to my dad, told, told my, my dad told my mum he need money and they talk, talk, talk, talk, and after that they went upstairs. And after that I stole, I stole my dad's wallet and run away from home. And I came to Melbourne. I came to Melbourne, first night I went to KFC. I find some scrap foods, foods. And one girl came to me. She said, "What are you doing here?" I told, I said to her, "I am a home, homeless person," and after that she helped me to find foods, to get a place to, where to live. And I was sleeping at a bus stop. One night cops came to me and the cops wake me up. The cops waking me up and the cops said, "What are you doing here?" And the cops, I told the cops, "I am a homeless people, I am a homeless person." And the cops help me to take the trains to police station and there they said to me, "Oh, you can sleep here for night and you can go tomorrow." After that, after that I was looking for, I was looking for food pers… to live somewhere, shelter to shelter. And my mum, my mum and my dad came to Melbourne. They ask my friends, "Where's Max?" And they ask my friends, "Where's Max?" and they told, "He's in Melbourne." And after that my mum and my dad came to Melbourne and they said, ah, they, to find me. My mum saw me at Flinders Street. She called me, "Max, Max." I thought, "That's my mum." I looked behind me, I saw my mum. I ran to her and my dad. My dad was standing near, near to my dad, to my mum. After that I, my dad said to me, "I'm sorry." We went back home with my family.      

3:26-4:37

Alright, so Max?      

Yeah.      

You said your family was a very loving family?      

Yeah.      

Why did you steal money and run away from them?      

Ah, because my dad, I was so small, I was 14 years old and my friend told me, "Get money from your dad. We can go camping." And after that my father didn't give me, he said, "You're too small for money." And after that, and my mum came, and yeah.      

And how did you get to Melbourne?      

One of my, one of friend, his dad help me to get in Melbourne. He was like kind of drunk and that, and he said, "Oh, do you know how to use credit?" I said, "No." And he, he showed me how I took some money from my, my dad's credit, and I came to Melbourne.      

Okay, and the last question is, how did people treat you when you were homeless? What did people on the street [overtalking]?      

Ah, one day it was sort of raining, and my dress was like so yucky, and the guy said, "Get lost from here." You know, you know how family and that, they feel me right, really sad, and yeah.      

Okay, thank you.      

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Use pronunciation and some non-verbal features to support communication (VCEALL630)
  • Use a range of verb forms with increasing accuracy (VCEALL626)
  • Use simple time and sequence markers to connect ideas in speech (VCEALL623)
  • Use topic-related compound words to extend vocabulary (VCEALL629)
  • Interact effectively with some confidence with a range of interlocutors (VCEALA617)

Overall, this student can also:

  • Present a short, prepared formal talk on a researched topic, using notes and props (VCEALC616)
  • Use subject–verb–object pronoun pattern correctly (VCEALL625)

Possible next steps for this student's learning

  • Providing cohesive devices to link ideas in speech (VCEALL624)
  • Practising the /d/ sound at the ends of words  (VCEALL631)
  • Developing personal word lists to build vocabulary (VCEALA621)
  • Using, revising and practising new vocabulary regularly (VCEALA621)
  • Completing a self-assessment and reflecting on things done well and areas for improvement (VCEALL631)
  • Recording presentations and discussing them as a class (VCEALC616)
  • Discussing the use and importance of non-verbal communication strategies when delivering an oral presentation (VCEALA618)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 9 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum.

Imaginative text - Role-playing a homeless person (2)

Student information

The student is almost 15 years old and has been in Australia for four years. She is from Liberia, where she spoke Liberian English and Kisi. She attended school to Year 5 in Liberia, where English was used at school. She entered mainstream schooling when she first arrived in Australia without attending an English language school. She is now in Year 9.      

Task

This assessment task required students to role-play a homeless person. This activity was part of a class unit of work on the theme of 'Homelessness'. The teaching cycle included a variety of speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks involving a range of texts and activities on different aspects of the topic. The students prepared for the presentation by reading the novel A Simple Gift by Steven Herrick which explores the nature of and attitudes towards homelessness. They watched a video interview of a homeless person and had a class discussion. The students used a radio interview from a website as a model for writing their own scripts. The students were permitted to use cue cards as prompts for their presentations.      

The presentation of their story was followed by questions from their classmates related to the experiences of the character portrayed in the role-play.       

In this task the teacher is seeking to assess how well the students can structure sentences in their spoken presentations, use new vocabulary they have learnt from their reading, understand questions they are asked and use intelligible pronunciation. The students are required to:       

  • present a short prepared formal talk of at least three minutes using cue cards for support
  • take part in a role play
  • use simple modelled language in appropriate contexts
  • use pauses to make extended utterances intelligible
  • use eye contact appropriately.

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold.


Transcript

0:00-4:02      

Okay, so what we're going to do today is each of you are going to come up here and you're going to give your speech on the homeless person and the character that you've created, and then what I'll be doing is asking you questions based on that character. So think about what questions I'm asking before you answer, and just take time to think about what you're going to say before you do, alright?        

Hi, my name is Anita, and am I've been homeless for the past three years now. I have been homeless um for the past three years now. Sorry. It's terrible for a young person like me to be homeless. Before I was living with my mother. Use to ah, she used to hit me when she was drunk. Sometimes she doesn't know what she's doing.  My mother was um abu, abusive and keeping hit me. Life was very difficult for me and understand, to understand. One day she become frustrated and got drunked. She hit me with the bottle in my head, and then I start bleeding. So I decided to leave her house before I die in her hands. I lived in Westall Station carriage, stealing left-over food, MacDonald's. I become, I become a friend with a girl named Marley. She's, she's drunked too. She drink alcohol all the time. One day I find her outside but I was scared to go and, to go and say hi to her, ask her.  But one day she come up to me and then, with a bottle of alcohol, and then she ask me, "What's wrong?" Well yeah, she was actually drunk and she doesn't know what she's talking. But I ask her, I said, "I'm homeless." I told her that I'm a homeless person. So um she said, "Okay." Marley looked at me, um there's this guys saw me one day sitting down with my friends, and then she look at me and she said, "That guy is looking at you. You should go up to him and talk to him and ask him what's wrong." Um I went up to him and said, and ask him, "What's wrong?" And the guy said he likes me, and then he ask me for how many years I've been living in this place.  I told him that I've been living in here for the past two years now, till I made this friend called Marley, and he said, "Okay." But this guy comes from a rich family, she help me from, getting away from problems. And he asked me to come with him to his house but I refused, and all my friends look at me and then they blinked and then they said I should go. So I went to his house and then um he said, he says to come in. Well first I was scared to go in because the house inside is like a mansion. A homeless person like me never been that house before, so he pulled me and then I went in, I went in, and then I sat down, and then he make a coffee, ah sorry, tea, and then he give it, he give it to me and then I sat down. And then he ask me, he ask me where's my family and I told him that I leave my family's house. My dad didn't care about me, my mum didn't care about me. I said, "All the time she get drunked, she doesn't know what she's doing so I leave her house." And that's how we fell in love with other and then he held me for my problems.      

4:03-5:28      

Yeah, so Anita, can you tell me how people treated you when you were homeless? What did they think of you?      

They think of me like, I'm a person with nothing.  So as all the time they see me walking the street, they um, they keep saying these terrible things to me and because, it's because their life is um is good, my life is not good so they taken, they think that I'm not in, I'm in a different world so they in a different world.  So I can't compare them to that stage.      

And how did you find food?  How did you find food before you found Marley?      

Um. I went to MacDonald's left-over before where, I went there when I finish it, then I find her there.      

Okay, and what happened to Marley after you met Michael?      

She was still in the um Westall Station, but then after that I went up to her and ask her if she want to come and live with my and if she said yes. And then I take, I took her, and then I took her with me and then we live together.      

Okay, thank you.        

You're welcome.      

      

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Use pronunciation and some non-verbal features to support communication (VCEALL630)
  • Use a range of verb forms with increasing accuracy (VCEALL626)
  • Use simple time and sequence markers to connect ideas in speech (VCEALL623)
  • Use a range of cohesive devices to link ideas (VCEALL624)

Overall, this student can also:

  • Present a short, prepared formal talk on a researched topic, using notes and props (VCEALC616)
  • Use subject–verb–object pronoun pattern correctly (VCEALL625)

Possible next steps for this student's learning

  • Providing a list of cohesive devices to link ideas in speech (VCEALL624)
  • Developing personal bilingual word lists to build vocabulary; provide regular opportunities for students to use and revise their lists (VCEALA621)
  • Practising using tense consistently when speaking (VCEALL626)
  • Learning about gerunds, for example, She kept walking(VCEALL626)
  • Asking student to complete a self-assessment and reflect on things done well and areas for improvement (VCEALL631)
  • Recording presentations and discussing them as a class (VCEALC616)
  • Discussing the use and importance of non-verbal communication strategies when delivering an oral presentation (VCEALA618)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 9 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum.

Persuasive text – Students should learn two languages

Student information

The student is 15 years and 10 months old. They had age-equivalent schooling in China before coming to Australia 9 months ago, and they speak Chinese at home. They are in Year 10, and currently studying in a new arrivals program. 

Task

The student has been learning about persuasive texts in their English class. They wrote their own persuasive texts about a topic of their choice and delivered it as a speech to the class. In this task, the student delivers their speech using the notes they prepared for class. 

The teacher is assessing the student’s ability to:  

  • express opinions and describe feelings
  • present a short, prepared formal talk
  • use a range of cohesive devices 
  • use modal verbs 
  • use topic related vocabulary.

The words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold.  

Transcript

00:05 - 04:16  

Today, I will talk about modern students should learn two languages. As the development of international communication increases we need more talented person who can speak at least two or more languages.    

Do we want future generation to be able to speak with people from all around the world, or embarrassed when other student talk another language? I believe students should learn two language to adapt to this global and mul - multicultural world.    

One of the main reason is because it's allow people to communicate with people from other countries. The other reason is because learning another language help review your own language. Finally, a second language will bring regional decision.    

Learning more than one language helps people to communicate with others from other cultures easier. In this changeable world, we're prepared to receive or become refugees anytime. It sounds a little tricky, but it's truly happen every day. Let's suppose a hypothesis. You are one of the refugees, it's convenient for you to adapt English, or you're a counter character who receive the refugees, you are pretty smart to keep other languages.    

Language learning provide a chance for us to concerned with different categories of people. Studying one more language helps mastering your original language. In recent year, bilingual school make a big progress on entrancing highest level education. University of Queensland bilingual education expert, Dr. Simone Smala said there was clear evidence on the benefits of learning language at a very young age. It basically makes your brain better. You basically have improve memory, improve mental processing capacity, you have mental flexibility she said.    

Studying the second language bring the r - regional decision. If we study the second language, we are affected by the second language environment, which can help us learn the culture logic. A study from the University of, of Chicago, psychologists prove we will make different decision with foreign tongue. Human will avoid the risk subconsciously when they face emergency situation, although they have a better choice, and second language learning can prevent native tongue to cause the situation effectively.    

In conclusion, learning one more language help getting a chance to learn another cultures. Other language help us proficient our original language. Second language help you make decision avoiding subconscious. Let's come and learn a second language.    

Could you tell me, when is it a good time to use English or Mandarin at school?  

Um, if, if some Chinese don't know the like, meaning of uh, of vocabulary, I will translate for him sometimes. And I usually use Mandarin in, during the lunchtime and the recess.    

Yep, thank you.  

And could you also tell me, how do you use Mandarin to help you learn English?  

We have got uh, vocabular, vocabulary books. I will, I will use, check the dictionary and find the English explanation and then translate in Mandarin.    

Did learning English teach you anything about Mandarin?  

Yeah. I have a deeply understanding of the meaning of a word. I sometimes check the Mandarin dictionary, too. Because I'm don't know the...I, I'm not quite sure about the meaning of in Mandarin, yeah.    

Thank you.    

    

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:  

  • Present a short, prepared formal talk on a researched topic, using notes and props (VCEALC616)
  • Use a small variety of text types for curriculum areas - formal speeches (VCEALL622)
  • Use a range of cohesive devices to link ideas (VCEALL624)
  • Use familiar vocabulary to convey shades of meaning (VCEALL628)
  • Use topic-related compound words to extend vocabulary - rehearsing and repeating learnt topic vocabulary (VCEALL629)
  • Use home language resources to support use of English (VCEALA620)
  • Self-correct and improve aspects of pronunciation that impede communication (VCEALL631)
  • Use subject–verb–object pronoun pattern correctly (VCEALL625)
  • Use a range of verb forms with increasing accuracy (VCEALL626)

Possible next steps for this student’s learning

  • Preparing and using props, such as a photo or treasured personal object, to enhance a presentation (VCEALC616)
  • Continue to practise a range of verb forms (VCEALL626)
  • Practise pronouncing word endings such as plurals and correct verb endings, based on specific guidance from the teacher (VCEALL631)
  • Continue to practise correct use of subject-verb agreement, for example, A second language helps you… (VCEALL625)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 10 student who is working within the range of Level C2 in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum. 

Related pages

Student work samples: Level C2 Reading and Viewing
Student work samples: Level C2 Writing
Student work samples: Level C1 Speaking and Listening
Student work samples: Level C3 Speaking and Listening