Planning an oral presentation for two audiences
A student must give a five-minute oral presentation in Karen on a change in a community tradition, such as how weddings now combine older and newer elements. The audience is a mixed school group: some are fluent home speakers, some are second-language learners, and two teachers assess against criteria for fluency, accuracy, register and engagement. The student plans to read a dense script with long sentences and several archaic ritual terms, and to include statistics from a survey of 40 community members. Rehearsal time is limited to two sessions.
1. Recommend changes to the script and delivery, justifying each with reference to audience and criteria.
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Reading a dense script aloud tends to flatten intonation and reduce engagement, so the student should convert to a keyword outline with full sentences only for the opening and closing. Long sentences should be broken so the speaker can breathe and listeners can follow; this also improves accuracy because memory load drops. Archaic ritual terms should be kept to a few that carry the argument, each briefly explained in context, since unexplained terms exclude the learners and cost engagement marks. The survey of 40 should be reported with its size and a plain interpretation, not a string of numbers, so the evidence supports a point. Register should stay respectful but accessible, matching a school audience. Rehearsal should target the opening, the transitions and the closing, which carry most of the engagement and structure marks.
2. The student worries that simplifying the language will lose marks for register and accuracy. Respond.
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Accuracy and register are not the same as complexity. A simpler sentence can be more accurate if it avoids constructions the student cannot control under speaking pressure. Register is about appropriate address, courtesy and vocabulary level for the occasion, not about maximum elaboration. Keeping a few well-chosen formal terms and a respectful opening and closing signals register, while shorter sentences protect accuracy and fluency. The risk of losing marks comes from errors and from disengagement, both of which dense scripting increases. The student should check the criteria wording and note that engagement is assessed, which favours clarity.
3. Design a two-session rehearsal plan that fits the constraints.
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Session one: time the keyword outline, record it, and mark every place where the speaker hesitates or the meaning blurs; cut or rephrase those points and confirm the survey figures are stated correctly. Session two: rehearse in front of one fluent speaker and one learner, ask each to summarise the main points, and fix anything the learner missed; practise the opening and closing twice. Between sessions, rehearse transitions only, since these are where structure marks are won or lost. This uses limited time on the highest-value risks.