FOA Reflection Form—Part 2—Language & Literature-SL Submit to: Examiner Arrival date: Session: May 2016 School number: 2090 0 0 8 2 8 School name: American International School of Guangzhou 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? ---------------------------------- 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.