This is general educational guidance. Check the linked official sources and your child’s school instructions for the applicable syllabus and assessment year.
Know the current oral component
For 2026 Syllabus 1184, Oral Communication includes a planned response to a video and prompt, followed by spoken interaction on a broadly related topic. Candidates are assessed on ideas, organisation, expression, delivery and engagement.
Use the official syllabus for exact current requirements rather than relying on older oral formats.
Plan with a small number of strong notes
Write a clear position or main idea, two supporting points and one specific example for each. Notes should be prompts, not a full script that is difficult to deliver naturally.
Use details from the video when relevant, then move beyond description to interpretation or personal perspective.
Develop rather than list
For each idea, explain why it matters, give an example and connect it back to the question. A few developed ideas are stronger than many one-sentence points.
Practise transitions that show relationships between ideas, but keep language natural. The goal is clear communication, not a memorised speech style.
Train discussion through follow-up questions
After a response, ask ‘Why?’, ‘Can you give an example?’, ‘Would this always be true?’ and ‘What is another viewpoint?’. This helps the student extend and qualify ideas.
Record a two-minute practice response. Review one content priority and one delivery priority, then repeat the same prompt once before moving to a new topic.
Review each recorded response in these four areas:
- Content: relevance, development and examples.
- Organisation: a clear opening and connected points.
- Language: accurate, appropriate expression.
- Delivery: intelligible pronunciation, pace and intonation.