Oral communication (listening and speaking)
Oral communication (listening and speaking) assesses spoken Khoekhoegowab: comprehension of announcements, dialogues and short talks, and your own presentation and discussion. Pronunciation carries meaning, so clicks, vowel length and tone are marked.
Core rules
- Listen first for gist: who speaks, about what, and why. Then note details: times, numbers, places, decisions.
- Distinguish the four click letters by place and release: ǀ, ǁ, ǂ and ǃ. Do not replace one with another; a different click can make a different word.
- Keep vowel length and tone stable. A flat tone or a shortened vowel can change meaning or make you hard to understand.
- In a talk, use a clear frame: greeting, topic, two or three points, closing. Signpost with words for 'first', 'also', 'however', 'therefore'.
- In discussion, answer the question asked, give a reason, and invite a response.
Worked example
Task: give a two-minute talk on keeping the village clean. Plan: greeting; state the problem (rubbish near the water point); give two causes (no bins; dumping after market); propose one action (a weekly collection); close. Rehearse the click words slowly, then at normal speed. Reasoning: the audience can follow the structure, and the speaker has time for clear articulation. If a listener asks 'Why weekly?', answer with a reason, not a new speech.
Traps
Dropping or merging clicks; flattening tone; reading a script word for word; speaking too fast; ignoring the prompt; giving opinions without reasons; failing to answer a follow-up question.