Grade 10 indigenous languages Writing – Oral Presentation Skills Notes

Target learners: age 15 (Kenya). Focus: grammatical matters that help learners prepare and deliver oral presentations, including storytelling, fluency and delivery—applied to learners' own indigenous languages.

Specific learning outcomes

• a) Identify delivery techniques for making an oral presentation (grammatical choices that support delivery).
• b) Deliver oral presentations to various audiences using correct grammar and cohesive language.
• c) Narrate stories on a theme using appropriate tense/aspect, connectors and reported speech forms.
• d) Acknowledge the importance of grammatical choices (tense, aspect, voice, connectors) in oral presentations.
• e) Identify categories of oral presentation grammar: storytelling (narrative grammar), fluency devices (fillers, discourse particles), content mastery (lexical accuracy), delivery grammar (imperatives, questions, politeness forms).

Key grammar points to teach and practise

1. Narrative tense & aspect
   - Teach the past (narrative) markers and aspectual contrasts (completed vs ongoing actions).
   - Example template (replace with equivalents in learners' indigenous language):
   [Subject] + PAST-MARKER + Verb-root + (object) → "I-Past-go-market" = "I went to the market."
   - Practice: convert present-tense story lines into the appropriate narrative past.
2. Aspect and sequence markers
   - Teach markers for progressive, habitual and perfect aspects used when narrating (helps listeners follow time sequence).
   - Example uses: "was doing", "had finished", "kept doing" — show local equivalents or affixes.
3. Connectors and cohesion devices
   - Important for coherence: connectors for sequence (first, then, later), cause & effect (because, so), contrast (but, however), emphasis (indeed).
   - Classroom task: provide a short list of common connectors in the target indigenous language and practise linking 4-6 short sentences into a smooth paragraph for oral delivery.
4. Pronouns and audience reference
   - Show how subject/object pronouns and respectful forms indicate audience (e.g., singular/plural, polite forms).
   - Practice: change sentences to address different audiences (friends, elders, classroom, officials) using correct pronoun/politeness markers.
5. Imperatives and rhetorical questions (delivery grammar)
   - Imperative verb forms for calls-to-action and audience engagement. Rhetorical question forms for emphasis.
   - Example templates: imperative root + inside-politeness marker → "Listen!" / "Let us go!"
6. Reported speech and direct speech shifts
   - How to switch between narrator voice and characters' speech (quotative markers, change of tense, pronoun shifts). Essential in storytelling.
   - Practice: convert a character’s direct speech into reported speech and vice versa.
7. Discourse particles, fillers and fluency devices
   - Common short words or particles used naturally in speech to hold the floor, signal thinking, or emphasize points (local equivalents of "well", "you see", "so").
   - Teach controlled use: helps fluency without overuse.
8. Repetition, parallelism and emphasis
   - Grammar for emphasis: repetition patterns, parallel structures and contrastive focus constructions. Useful in persuasive parts of presentations.
9. Question formation and tag questions
   - Teach forms used to check audience understanding or invite response (yes/no questions, information questions, and tag questions).

Short examples & templates (for classroom adaptation)

Use these templates to write sentences in your indigenous language. Replace bracket labels with the correct words/morphemes in that language.

Suggested classroom learning experiences (grammar-focused)

1. Sentence transformation drills: Give present-tense sentences in learners' indigenous language and ask learners to convert to narrative past and progressive forms. Pair-check and present aloud.
2. Connector-building activity: Provide 6 short statements; learners must join them into a coherent 3–4 minute oral paragraph using at least five different connectors (from their language).
3. Reported vs direct speech role-play: In groups, retell a short local story. One student reads direct speech; another retells in reported speech. Teacher highlights grammatical shifts.
4. Audience adaptation exercise: Take a short presentation and rewrite (and then speak) it three times: for peers, for elders, and for a local official—apply pronoun/politeness and register changes.
5. Fluency practice with fillers/particles: Create a short script that intentionally uses discourse particles correctly; students practice to maintain natural rhythm without overusing fillers.
6. Peer feedback checklist (grammar focus): Past/aspect accuracy, correct connectors, correct pronoun forms, accurate reported speech, clear imperatives/questions, minimal distracting filler repetition.

Assessment ideas (grammar-centred)

• Oral story (3–4 minutes) assessed for correct narrative tense and aspect use, connector variety, and correct pronoun/register use.
• Short written conversion task: convert direct speech to reported speech and mark all tense/pronoun changes.
• Checklist during peer listening: ticks for appropriate imperatives, question forms used, and use of discourse particles to manage speech flow.

Prepared for use in Kenyan classrooms; learners should be encouraged to insert actual morphemes and words from their own indigenous language when practising these grammatical templates.