Planning and delivering a spoken response (IA1): QCE Essential English Unit 3
“Create a spoken response that presents a perspective on a community, local or global issue to a particular audience, using spoken, non-verbal and persuasive language features, an appropriate role and relationship with the audience, and a coherent structure”
A strong spoken response has a clear role, audience and perspective, a structure of hook, arguments, rebuttal and call to action, persuasive language and cohesive links, and deliberate spoken features (pace, pause, volume, tone) and non-verbal features (eye contact, gesture, posture), rehearsed until natural.
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What this dot point is asking
IA1 in Unit 3 is a spoken response. You create and deliver a text that presents a perspective on an issue to a particular audience. Marks come from what you say (perspective, subject matter, structure, language) and how you say it (spoken and non-verbal features). Your school's task sheet sets the exact conditions, such as length and whether it is live or recorded.
The answer
1. Set up your role, audience and purpose
- Role: who are you speaking as? (a student, a local resident, a youth representative)
- Audience: who are you speaking to, and what do they care about? (council members, Year 10 students, parents)
- Purpose: what do you want them to think or do?
- Register: formal for a council, more conversational for peers, but always respectful.
2. Build a clear structure
- Introduction: hook, introduce yourself and the issue, state your perspective.
- Body: two or three arguments, each with evidence (facts, examples, a short story, an expert view).
- Rebuttal: acknowledge and answer an opposing view.
- Conclusion: restate the perspective, end with a memorable line and a call to action.
Use cohesive devices so listeners can follow: "Firstly", "Not only that", "Some people say... but", "Finally".
3. Use persuasive language
Inclusive language, rhetorical questions, emotive words, repetition, the rule of three ("safer, happier, stronger"), anecdotes and direct address ("you").
4. Deliver it well
- Spoken: pace, pause, volume, pitch, tone, emphasis, clear pronunciation.
- Non-verbal: eye contact, facial expression, gesture, posture, movement.
Plan them: mark your script with slashes for pauses and underline words to stress.
Rehearse aloud with a timer, record yourself, and use palm cards with key words rather than reading a full script.
Opening of a speech to the school P&C about a canteen healthy-food trial:
"Good evening. My name is Priya, and I'm in Year 12. (pause) Last Tuesday, I counted how many students bought a sugary drink at lunch. It was 142. (pause, eye contact) That's 142 afternoons of sugar crashes in class. Tonight, I'm asking you to support a one-term healthy canteen trial."
- Role and register: polite, formal greeting suits parents and teachers.
- Hook: a local statistic the student collected.
- Spoken features: pauses let the number sink in.
- Clear perspective and call to action in the final sentence.
- Reading from the page
- You lose eye contact and expression.
- Speaking too fast
- Nerves speed you up; plan pauses.
- No clear perspective
- Tell the audience exactly what you think and what they should do.
Practice questions
Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.
foundation3 marksWrite three different hooks for a speech to Year 10 students about joining a local volunteer group.Show worked solution →
- Question: "What if two hours on a Saturday could change someone's whole week?"
- Statistic: "Last year, our town's volunteers delivered over 3000 meals. Only 12 of them were under 20." (invented example figures)
- Anecdote: "When I first walked into the food bank, I thought I'd be stacking tins. Instead, I met Margaret."
Marking guide: 1 mark per engaging, relevant hook of a different type.
core4 marksPlan the structure of a three-minute spoken response to your local council arguing for more youth facilities in your town.Show worked solution →
- Introduction (about 30 seconds): hook (a short story about having nowhere to go after school), your role ("I'm a Year 12 student who has lived here all my life"), and perspective ("Our town needs a youth centre").
- Argument 1 (about 45 seconds): benefits for young people's wellbeing, with an example.
- Argument 2 (about 45 seconds): benefits for the whole community (less boredom and vandalism, local jobs), with evidence.
- Rebuttal (about 30 seconds): acknowledge cost concerns; suggest grants and partnerships.
- Conclusion (about 30 seconds): restate perspective, emotive final image, call to action ("Please include a youth centre in next year's budget").
Marking guide: 1 mark for an effective introduction, 1 mark for developed arguments, 1 mark for a rebuttal, 1 mark for a conclusion with a call to action.
exam6 marksExplain how you would use spoken and non-verbal features to make the conclusion of your council speech persuasive. Include at least four specific choices.Show worked solution →
- Slow the pace for the final sentences so the council hears every word of the key message.
- Pause before the call to action to build anticipation and signal importance.
- Lower volume slightly for the emotive image ("a kid sitting alone at the bus stop at nine o'clock at night"), then raise volume and firmness for "Please include a youth centre in next year's budget," to sound determined.
- Eye contact with each councillor in turn, making the request feel personal.
- Open hand gesture towards the audience on "our town", reinforcing inclusion.
- Upright posture and a calm, respectful tone, matching a formal audience and building credibility.
Marking guide: 1 mark per specific, well-explained choice (up to 5), 1 mark for linking choices to the formal council audience.