Which weekend
Say which weekend you chose, in one sentence. Then stop.
One sentence is all the preparation you get. In four minutes you will be telling all of it.
One prediction before the drill.
1. You will tell the same story three times, in four minutes, then three, then two. What improves?
What the three rounds do
The drill
| Round | Time | Listener | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 minutes | Listener A | You find the story. Pauses, restarts, dead ends — all fine. |
| 2 | 3 minutes | Listener B | You know the shape. You cut what did not work. |
| 3 | 2 minutes | Listener C | Only what matters survives. This is the recording. |
Why a new listener each round. The same listener hearing it three times would be bored, and you would start abbreviating for them rather than improving. A fresh listener means the story still has to do its whole job — you just have less time to do it in.
One-to-one: your teacher plays all three listeners, and genuinely reacts as a first-time listener each round. It works, but say so out loud, or round three drifts into shorthand.
Three questions about how to do this well.
1. In round 1, you pause for six seconds looking for a word. What should you do?
2. In round 3 you have two minutes for a four-minute story. What do you cut?
3. What must NOT change between rounds?
What buys you time
Fillers that are not silence
Native speakers hesitate constantly — they just do it out loud. Tap each: these are said fast and flat, never stressed.
A silence over two seconds costs you the listener. A filler does not. These are not bad English — they are what fluent speakers do while their next clause assembles.
Note Actually, no —. That is Lesson 4's false friend, used correctly: it means in fact, and here it corrects something you just said.
Match each filler to the job it does.
Find the shape before round 1
Put the five parts of a weekend story in the order a listener can follow.
One word per gap. A model round-3 telling, two minutes long — fillers and past forms.
So, last Saturday. What was, my sister called at eight in the morning and said her car broken down forty kilometres away. The thing , I had not slept, so I was not thinking straight. I up and drove out there. It me two hours because of the traffic. And when I got there — actually, , it was more like three hours. Anyway, when I got there she already fixed it herself.
Four, three, two
Task card · Fluency drill · Portfolio
The weekend you chose, told three times, to three listeners.
Same story every round. Round 3 is recorded and goes in your portfolio — it is the unit's portfolio piece.
- Round 1 — 4 minutes, Listener A. Find the story. Rough is fine. Do not stop.
- Round 2 — 3 minutes, Listener B. You know the shape now. Cut what did not land.
- Round 3 — 2 minutes, Listener C. Recorded. Only what matters survives.
- Same events, same order, every round. If the content changes, the drill measures nothing.
- Monitor exactly one thing: the error you chose at the end of Lesson 6. Nothing else.
Answer after round 2, before round 3.
1. Compared with round 1, round 2 was —
2. What are you cutting for round 3?
3. How many long pauses were there in round 2?
Round 1 against round 3
Your teacher timed all three rounds and counted the pauses over two seconds. Look at the three numbers together.
The story did not change. Everything that improved was delivery — and that is the thing you cannot improve by studying.
Answer from the three counts.
1. Did the pause count drop between rounds?
2. Did you get the whole story into two minutes?
3. What does that tell you about your English?
Before the term review
One question.
1. What must stay identical across all three rounds of 4/3/2?
Before Lesson 8. Next lesson closes Term 1. Bring everything: the Unit 1 recording and "About Me", the Unit 2 voice note and neighbourhood description, the Unit 3 narrative and "A Place That Matters", and today's round-3 recording.
Listen to the Unit 1 recording tonight, once. It is eight weeks old and you will not enjoy it. That is the point.