FOA Reflection Form—Part 2—Language & Literature-SL
Submit to:
Examiner
Arrival date:
Session: May 2016
School number: 2090
0
0
8
2
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School name: American International School of Guangzhou
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Type or write legibly using black ink and retain a copy of this form.
Complete one copy of this form for each task.
Complete this form in the target language.
To complete this form, refer to the Further Oral Activity assessment details in the Language
& Literature guide.
Subject:
English A: Language & Literature
Level:
___SL_____
Candidate name: Simran Thadani
Candidate Session Number:
0 0 1 8 3 2
Area to which the task is linked—Please include the topic and sub-topic to which your task
is linked (e.g. comparing two newspaper articles for their use of bias).
My topic & sub-topic: Show the way mass media use language and image to inform, persuade or
entertain. Points to be considered could include: the diversity of audiences, use of style and register,
overt and covert forms of bias, layout and use of images, deliberate manipulation of audience,
placement and the selection of platform.
Activity type: Powerpoint presentation
In the table below, candidates must list the source of all reference and support materials that relate to
your FOA topic and argument, including those that you actually used or analyzed in your FOA.
Title of Work/Text
Author
Smile Train Patient Pinki
Unknown (Published by
Tosses the Coin at Wimbledon
Advertising and Sales
Text Type
Static Advertisement
Promotion)
Amul, Rasna, Vadilal, Nirma
Unknown (Published by
Ranks among the Most Trusted
Bennet, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
News article
Brands: The Brand Trust
on The Economic Times )
Report 2013
Pinki Performed the Coin Toss
Smile Train UK
Online report
Varma, Mini
Magazine article
at the Genlemen’s Singles
Final, Wimbledon!
Amul Butter Girl
TURN OVER
Further Oral Activity reflection
School name:
(reverse)
American International School Of Guangzhou
Aims for the task—In a well-developed paragraph, state your goal(s) and what you want the class to
learn from your oral activity.
My goal for this Further Oral Activity was to, “Show the way mass media use language and image to
inform, persuade or entertain”. This goal was achieved through the analysis and deconstruction of one
of Amul’s (an Indian dairy company’s) static advertisements. Generally, from the advertisements and
associated brands analyzed within the English Language and Literature Standard Level course it is
unlikely that brands are viewed as trustworthy because most advertisements’ sole purpose is to
encourage customers to buy certain products, and this may incur means of manipulation (of the
audience). Thus, the obscurity of Amul’s trustworthy ethos, exhibited by its number one ranking on
The Brand Trust Report in 2013, prompted me to highlight to the class the covert ways in which how
Amul utilizes a unique ethos, a positive pathos and the ability to create a rapport with its audience to
be viewed as the epitome of a trustworthy brand in its audience’s eyes.
Reflection:
In the space below, write a well-developed essay that integrates the elements listed below. Be sure to
include specific examples from your FOA to support your points. DUE within one week of viewing
your FOA video.
1. Briefly summarize your oral activity in terms of the topic, thesis, and the activity you chose.
2. Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of your performance.
3. Comment on how successful you were in achieving your goal(s) (i.e. learning outcomes) in your
FOA.
4. If you had to give your FOA again, would you do anything differently in terms of how you would
prepare for it, how you would structure or organize the oral activity, or how you would perform or
deliver it?
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This Further Oral Presentation consisted of a PowerPoint presentation exploring how
Amul (an Indian dairy company) has utilized a unique ethos, a positive pathos and the
creation of a rapport with its audience to become the Most Trusted brand in the Food and
Beverage sector within India in The Brand Trust Report published by the Trust Research
Advisory in 2013. Specifically, Amul was able to construct a unique ethos mainly by using
covert forms of association as seen in its usage of formatting techniques to associate the idea
of smiling for Pinki to smiling for Amul in order to promote its own trustworthiness. Next,
through its depiction of smiling characters using vibrant colours and the positive diction
employed in its message Amul’s positive pathos in turn helped develop its trustworthy ethos
and create a rapport with its audience. Thirdly, Amul specifically catered to its demographic
in terms of choosing advertising platforms, for example, thus, employing decorum in order to
make itself (Amul) seem more trustworthy.
Although, for the most part, the deconstruction and analysis of one of Amul’s
advertisements was of a relatively high standard, I feel that some clarifications should be
incorporated into my presentation. For example, when introducing the speaker in the
advertisement, I simply referenced the advertising firm that published the advertisement
without explaining that the specific artist’s name who created the advertisement. Although,
this information was not stated on Amul’s official website and neither was such a reference
discovered form a preliminary search on Yahoo. Moreover, although I included in my notes
that the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. operated under the brand name
Amul, I forgot to state this in my presentation while explaining the occasion of the
advertisement. This may have caused some confusion to the audience. In order to alleviate
the issue of the lack of explanation, I will record myself saying the presentation prior to the
presentation date (while specifically trying to identify areas that could confuse the audience).
Although, I would also like to point out that despite my inadequate explanation I made it a
point to support my arguments with specific facts. For example I stated the source of my
information when introducing the demographic of the Amul advertisements, and corroborated
Amul’s humble approach to association by pointing out the formatting techniques it used to
do so. This thus enhanced the credibility of my presentation and showed a good
understanding of the way language is used to create meaning. Another negative point about
my presentation was that I did not use the correct terminology when describing the joke
incorporated into the Amul advertisement about Pinki. Although, overall, I believe that aside
from this point, my presentation did incorporate the proper advertisement terminology into
the analysis. For example, when I talked about formatting I used the words “copy”,
“signature”, etc. Looking back, I realize that I could not have necessarily prevented this error
because I did not remember the terminology and could not have incorporated the word into
my presentation unless I was aware of it; therefore I think that the sole way that I could
improve would simply be to be aware of the term that I missed. Next, to improve this
presentation I would add a section explaining how the Amul advertisement about why the
Pinki ad was chosen because to an audience member who was not aware of my train of
thought (that the advertisement was representative of reoccurring themes in Amul
advertisements), the analysis of one supposedly random ad would not sufficiently show how
Amul utilizes this text type to promote its trustworthiness. Overall, I felt that the content of
the presentation itself conveyed a great depth of understanding of how Amul exemplified
trustworthiness in its advertisement about Pinki even though there are most certainly some
small areas of improvement that should have been addressed.
Upon analysis of my Further Oral Assessment, post-presentation, I realized that
although the content of the project was quite exceptional, the communication of the analysis
was subpar. One main area of improvement is the fluency of my presentation. Specifically, I
often used vocal fillers such as “Um”, my voice faltered more than once during the
presentation (especially when I was talking about how the Amul corporation used the
advertisement about Pinki to create a rapport with its audience) and I did not maintain much
eye contact with my audience. Moreover, I also muddled up a few sentences. One example
was when I stated, “…The words smile and Pinki, the latter word has a positive
connotation…” when I really meant to say, “…The words Pinki and smile, the latter word as
a positive connotation…”. This is evidence of the lack of practice I had presenting my
project. If I had the ability to redo my further oral activity, I would not only repeat the
presentation four to five more times, but I would also record myself while doing so in order
to identify and minimize the lack of fluency (in communicating the information). Although,
two main plus points of my presentation would have to be the fact that I employed varying
(vocal) tones in order to keep my audience’s attention focused on project and that I used a
relatively high degree of vocabulary and grammar during my presentation (excluding the
vocal fillers). Overall, the communication of the information was the largest downfall of the
presentation, but it did have its plus points. In conclusion, I hope that I can use my knowledge
to perfect future presentations.