Level C4 Speaking and Listening

The student work samples on this page are also available to download:

C4 Speaking and Listening proficiency levels and Achievement Standard

The students' performance in these tasks suggest that they are working within the range of Level C4 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 C4, consolidating C4 or at the C4 standard in Speaking and Listening.

At beginning Level C4 students:

  • show confidence in attempting a wide range of mainstream spoken texts across the curriculum, although they are not yet capable of fully comprehending the meaning of those texts without some scaffolding
  • are willing to present their own point of view or perspective on topics in areas that are not directly related to their own personal experience
  • will make errors even though the intended meaning will generally be clear.

At consolidating Level C4 students:

  • experiment with differences between formal and informal register according to the audience and purpose, variations in intonation, rhythm, and stress, and the use of language to convey different shades of meaning when giving talks to convey opinions and emotions, rather than a focus only on the content to be delivered
  • are using language to talk about language in ways that enable them to rectify their own problems, for instance, How do I say Jones when there's an apostrophe after the 's'?'
  • have begun to take their own initiative to negotiate with peers and teachers to organise their own work plans, although this is still done in close consultation with the teacher.

At  Level C4 Achievement Standard students:

  • demonstrate greater autonomy and control over their use of English, combining their expanding vocabulary with the appropriate use of a wide range of complex grammatical features including modal verbs, passive voice and tenses
  • demonstrate understanding of the ways that pauses, stress, rhythm and intonation help to clarify meaning
  • speak clearly and pronounce most sounds correctly
  • take part in extended discourse on factual and interpersonal topics using an appropriate modelled structure and respond appropriately to listeners' reactions
  • identify the intention of supportive speakers, using their knowledge of how intonation, volume, stress and lexical choices support and convey meaning and emphasise opinions and emotions
  • identify examples of relatively explicit subjective language
  • extract information from challenging spoken texts, using guide questions and taking notes on key ideas.

Informative text - Reflection on historical research on the Black Death

Student information

The student was born in Romania and Romanian is her home language. The student completed two years of primary school in Romania and then missed two years of schooling. She has been in Australia for four years and ten months. She started in Year 4 when she commenced school in Australia. She also attended a Kumon program for one year. She is currently almost 14 and in Year 8 in a secondary school.

Task

The task is an interview in which the students reflect on their historical research. The students report on their research on a topic of medieval history, and they respond to questions, suggestions and comments from their classmates. 

The aim of the task is for the students to use reflection and feedback to assist their progress with an inquiry assignment on an aspect of the Middle Ages, as well as to provide an opportunity for the students to present to peers and negotiate with them to improve their plans for their assignment. Before undertaking this task, the students have studied various aspects of the Middle Ages over a series of ten lessons. 

The students have been given an inquiry task which requires them to come up with their own research questions. They have completed a lotus diagram to generate questions and have begun to research five questions using a data chart and a range of resources. 

The students have been asked to formally present their findings to date to a group of their peers, reflect on their progress and generate a plan of action through guiding questions from the teacher. They need to respond to the questions from their classmates and then redraft their plan.

In this task the teacher was assessing how well the student performed the following listening and speaking elements:

  • developing a new plan in response to the interview process
  • altering the tone to suit different purposes within the task, for example, speaking in more formal and complete utterances in reporting academic work, with a more conversational style in answering classmates' questions
  • structuring their speaking to organize their information
  • using language of prediction and modality, for example, will, could, should, might
  • qualifying and justifying opinions, for example, I think…because…

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold. The words spoken by the teacher and other students are in normal font.


Transcript

0:06-1:42

Today we're doing the research review as part of your Middle Ages enquiry assignment. Now the reason we're doing this is because when students have the chance to stop and reflect on their work midway through their work, chance to get some opinions about what they're doing and think more deeply about what they're doing, then often their work is much better at the end, in the way that when you watch a video of yourself doing a presentation you're able to improve that presentation the next time that you do it. So today some of you will have a chance to do that. The actual task that you'll be doing is you'll be presenting the findings of your research assignment so far:  what you've found and how you've found it, so your process. You'll be doing that in that fairly formal way to the group. Then I'll be asking some questions which are encouraging you to look at the way that we mark your work and also the way that we see if it's a good piece of work. And we'll also be encouraging you to respond to questions that are asked by your peers, by the students in the audience. As you're doing that, when you give the presentation, as I said it's got some formality to it, so we're expecting you to have a clear beginning, middle and end. We're expecting your language to be, include full sentences and probably some words that are specific to this topic, and also we'd like you to organise your thoughts logically when you speak in that first section, alright? Also, when you respond to people's questions or comments or suggestions, if you could just consider, respond thoughtfully to those questions and show that you understand them.

Transcript

1:43-3:42

I started my assignment by finishing my lotus diagram and I completed eight questions for each of my subjects, I mean um, yeah, that I picked. 

And the one that interested me most was the Black Death. I found a couple of questions and I researched them, and the first one was, "What were the effects of the plague?" The answer that I found in a couple of resources was you will start off with headaches, fever, dizziness, then you'll start to vomit. You will start to get a white coated tongue, you'll get lymph glands in your groin, your armpits and neck will swell, and you'll form this sort of black-blue lumps on your skin. They call them 'buboes'. They'll often leak pus and blood, and it will start to smell very badly, which leads to my next question which is, "What cures did the locals use?" 

The locals used a lot of questions, like a lot of cures, but they weren't really effective but they think they were. They would kill cats and dogs and they would burn them to ash. They would sit in a sewer cause they thought that the sewer smelled better than them, and they will place chicken bottoms on the lumps that they had. They would even sniff human waste. They would burn pine and lemon leaves, and they would even attach leeches that would make the lumps, they would cut the lumps open to remove the bad blood that they thought existed in the lumps.

3:43-5:05

What is your plan for finishing the assignment?

I'm planning to make my answers smaller and maybe combine more resources, so yeah.

Okay.  Have you asked your questions in a way that helps you to find the information you want, or do you think you need to change them to be more general or specific?

I actually did change my questions before because some of them I could not find answers the way they were written, so I changed them around.

Okay, that's part of the process, that's good. And if you still need to you have that choice.

Yeah.

How did you make sure you got a wide range of sources?

Well I had the questions in my, the other piece of paper that teachers give us. Um, yeah, I wrote the questions and I had an answer from each of the resources and I combined the resource together to make one answer.

Yeah, yeah. And what type of sources did you use for those, and what number of sources?

I used three resources. I used and encyclopaedia, our textbook and there's a TV show that is based on the medieval life.

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Sustain complex ideas and information in coherent spoken texts, taking account of audience and purpose (VCEALL748)
  • Use pronunciation, intonation, volume and stress to support meaning (VCEALL756)
  • Negotiate with peers and teachers in the full range of classroom situations (VCEALC736)

Overall, this student can also:

  • Prepare and deliver an extended talk that reflects a clear progression of ideas relevant to the audience and purpose (VCEALC742)
  • Formulate extended statements with increasing control over grammatical features (VCEALL751)
  • Use available repertoire of spoken English to participate effectively in a mainstream classroom (VCEALC737)
  • Shift between using formal and informal registers in response to purpose and context (VCEALA743)

Possible next steps for this student's learning

  • Providing stronger reasoning in responses by using concrete examples and referring to specific events  (VCEALC741)
  • Completing a self-assessment to enable the student to reflect on what was done well and areas for improvement (VCEALL757)
  • Discussing the use of non-verbal communication techniques when presenting an oral presentation (VCEALA744)
  • Identifying differences between formal and informal oral presentations (VCEALA743)

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 8 student who is working within the range of C4 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 in all language modes.

A Year 8 student should consistently demonstrate the final achievement standard in Pathway C (Level C4) in all three language modes before they transition to the English curriculum.

They will need to be equally capable across all three language modes to be able to meet the learning expectations in the English curriculum at the level taught to their mainstream peers, and without substantial language support.

They will need to be sufficiently proficient in understanding and using the academic language across the learning areas to participate in learning activities across the Victorian curriculum.

They will also need to be able to understand and use the academic English of the curriculum in subsequent years without substantial language support, when the cognitive and linguistic demands of the Victorian curriculum increase.

Depending on whether the student meets the eligibility criteria, they may be able to undertake VCE EAL in Year 12.

Informative text - Reflection on historical research about castle life

Student information

The student is of Romanian background but was born and educated in Austria before coming to Australia. Romanian is her home language and she also speaks German. The student went to school in Austria for just over six years, including primary school and some high school. The language of instruction was German and she learned English as a foreign language in primary school.  She has been in Australia for two years and eight months and is in Year 8.

Task

The task is an interview in which the students reflect on their historical research. The students report on their research on a topic of medieval history, and they respond to questions, suggestions and comments from their classmates. The aim of the task is for the students to use reflection and feedback to assist their progress with an inquiry assignment on an aspect of the Middle Ages, as well as to provide an opportunity for the students to present to peers and negotiate with them to improve their plans for their assignment.

Before undertaking this task, the students studied various aspects of the Middle Ages over a series of ten lessons. The students have been given an inquiry task which requires them to come up with their own research questions. They have completed a lotus diagram to generate questions and have begun to research five questions using a data chart and a range of resources.

The students have been asked to formally present their findings to date to a group of their peers, reflect on their progress and generate a plan of action through guiding questions from the teacher. They need to respond to the questions from their classmates and then redraft their plan.

In this task the teacher was assessing how well the student performed the following listening and speaking elements:

  • developing a new plan in response to the interview process
  • altering the tone to suit different purposes within the task, for example, speaking in more formal and complete utterances in reporting academic work, with a more conversational style in answering classmates' questions
  • structuring their speaking to organize their information
  • using language of prediction and modality, for example, will, could, should, might
  • qualifying and justifying opinions, for example, I think…because…

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold. The words spoken by the teacher and other students are in normal font.

 


Transcript

0:06-1:42

Today we're doing the research review as part of your Middle Ages enquiry assignment. Now the reason we're doing this is because when students have the chance to stop and reflect on their work midway through their work, chance to get some opinions about what they're doing and think more deeply about what they're doing, then often their work is much better at the end, in the way that when you watch a video of yourself doing a presentation you're able to improve that presentation the next time that you do it. So today some of you will have a chance to do that. The actual task that you'll be doing is you'll be presenting the findings of your research assignment so far:  what you've found and how you've found it, so your process. You'll be doing that in that fairly formal way to the group. Then I'll be asking some questions which are encouraging you to look at the way that we mark your work and also the way that we see if it's a good piece of work. And we'll also be encouraging you to respond to questions that are asked by your peers, by the students in the audience. As you're doing that, when you give the presentation, as I said it's got some formality to it, so we're expecting you to have a clear beginning, middle and end. We're expecting your language to be, include full sentences and probably some words that are specific to this topic, and also we'd like you to organise your thoughts logically when you speak in that first section, alright? Also, when you respond to people's questions or comments or suggestions, if you could just consider, respond thoughtfully to those questions and show that you understand them.

1:43-2:51

I put all the questions for castle in Castle Life which are eight questions. How did people build castles? What were the main features of the, of a castle? Show a drawing and a model. Describe the castle life. What is a siege? How did they invade and attack a castle? How do castles compare with ah, way countries defend themselves in modern society? Why did they build a moat, and what is a moat? And why did people build the kitchens away from the castle? 

And then I started researching and I found this information for how did people build castles? They built them out of firstly, the first castles were built out of wood, then they improved by building them by stone. What were the main features of a castle? Um, there was a great hall, there was a cellar, there was a treasury, there was a cellar stores and a chapel and the kitchens.

2:52-3:44

Okay, how can you Daiana, make sure you get a wide range of sources?

Well, a wide range of sources, well, I don't know. That is a very hard question for me. Um, well I like um, primary sources more because they tell you more stories than a, well a secondary source because secondary sources might be wrong and some might be right. And when you look in a primary source, which happened in the Middle Ages, it's easier to understand because you look at it, well you look at it, it happened and it lived there.  But if you look in a secondary source it just tells you what might have, what might have happened there.

3:45-4:26

How can you make sure you get the, get images which are interesting and informative?

Well, the internet is a very good source, but not really.  I wondered if I can look up in books because um, sometimes the internet just lies to you because internet just is a good source in a way, and a bad source. They might just tell you it's r… they might tell you something which is wrong and you just put it on your booklet.  So I was wondering if I could, if I better scan, like books and then just put the pictures on my booklet.

4:27-4:48

Mm.  Any comments about that girls?

You maybe could get pictures that might be linked to the story as well, more, then you go in the internet and maybe you could get the pictures from books.

Yeah.

So that was published a very long time ago.

Mm hm.

And yeah. 

Okay.

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

  • Negotiate with peers and teachers in the full range of classroom situations (VCEALC736)
  • Justify a point of view to peers with increasing confidence (VCEALC741)
  • Use pronunciation, intonation, volume and stress to support meaning (VCEALL756)
  • Use extended topic-related verb groups (VCEALL752)

 Overall, this student can also:

  • Prepare and deliver an extended talk that reflects a clear progression of ideas relevant to the audience and purpose (VCEALC742)
  • Sustain complex ideas and information in coherent spoken texts, taking account of audience and purpose (VCEALL748)
  • Formulate extended statements with increasing control over grammatical features (VCEALL751)
  • Shift between using formal and informal registers in response to purpose and context (VCEALA743)
  • Use available repertoire of spoken English to participate effectively in a mainstream classroom (VCEALC737).

Possible next steps for this student's learning

  • Using sentence stems when delivering an oral presentation, for example, My first question is…The information that I found for the first question is…  (VCEALC742)
  • Completing a self-assessment to enable the student to reflect on what was done well and areas for improvement (VCEALL757)
  • Providing the student with an opportunity to tell the class about an important historical event from their country of birth (VCEALL748).

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 8 student who is working within the range of C4 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 in all language modes.

A Year 8 student should consistently demonstrate the final achievement standard in Pathway C (Level C4) in all three language modes before they transition to the English curriculum.

They will need to be equally capable across all three language modes to be able to meet the learning expectations in the English curriculum at the level taught to their mainstream peers, and without substantial language support.

They will need to be sufficiently proficient in understanding and using the academic language across the learning areas to participate in learning activities across the Victorian curriculum.

They will also need to be able to understand and use the academic English of the curriculum in subsequent years without substantial language support, when the cognitive and linguistic demands of the Victorian curriculum increase.

Depending on whether the student meets the eligibility criteria, they may be able to undertake VCE EAL in Year 12.

Related pages

Student work samples: Level C4 Reading and Viewing
Student work samples: Level C4 Writing
Student work samples: Level C3 Speaking and Listening