Unit 5 · Competition readiness.

By the end State what the five scoring lines mean in their own words and score a story against them, out of 100.

You need The score sheet from usaenglish.com, one copy per student. It is OBEC's own hundred points.

1. 6 min — The five. Story 35 · vocabulary and structure 20 · pronunciation 20 · voice and expression 20 · keeping to time 5. Write them up. Then do the arithmetic out loud: sixty of the hundred points are the English itself. Accent is never a deduction; being impossible to follow is.
2. 10 min — Define them together. Story: a beginning, a middle and an end, and did we want to hear the end? Vocabulary: the right words for the story and the age, not the most words. Pronunciation: can every word be followed — the final sounds, /r/ and /l/, /v/, /th/? Voice: tone, pace, the body; did the room go with them? Time: inside the band, with thirty seconds' grace.
3. 12 min — Score a real one. Tell a story yourself, badly in one respect — a strong story with every final consonant swallowed, say. Have them score it on the sheet. They will mark you down on pronunciation, and the lesson lands.
4. 2 min — The consequence. A true story told clearly beats a borrowed one told fast. The hours go on the sounds, because that is where the points are — and the story still has to be worth hearing, because that is where the other thirty-five are.

To finish Homework: score your own story on the sheet, honestly, and write down the one line you lost most points on.

By the end Deliver the full story once, standing, to an audience, and be scored.

You need A full class period — two or three of them if your class is large. A timer. Copies of the score sheet.

1. 5 min — Set it up like the real thing. Chairs in rows, a clear space at the front, a timer visible, three student judges rotating.
2. 40 min — They go. Standing, full story, timed. No stopping, no restarts. The others are the audience and their job is to listen, not to look at phones.
3. 10 min — Scores handed back. The five lines of the score sheet, a total out of 100, and one sentence each. No discussion in front of the room.
4. 5 min — What happens next week. Name the single most common problem you saw across the class, and say which lesson fixes it.

To finish No homework. They have done enough today.

By the end Use one physical technique to steady nerves before speaking.

You need Nothing.

1. 6 min — Name it honestly. Nerves are not a sign you are unprepared. Experienced speakers feel the same thing. The aim is not to remove it but to have something to do with your hands and your breath.
2. 8 min — Box breathing. In for four, hold four, out for four, hold four. Three rounds. Do it with them.
3. 6 min — The first line, memorized cold. The single most effective anti-nerve tool: know your opening sentence so well you could say it asleep. Everything after it comes easier.
4. 5 min — The backstage routine. Teach a fixed sequence: water, three breaths, say the first line silently, walk on. A routine gives the mind somewhere to go.

To finish Homework: practice your first line until you do not have to think about it.

By the end Write an opening line that makes a room stop talking.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 6 min — Three that work. A moment in progress: 'My mother was counting money on the floor.' A statement that demands why: 'I did not speak to my father for four years.' A direct address: 'I want to tell you about a day I got everything wrong.'
2. 6 min — Two that do not. 'Hello, my name is… and today I will tell you about…' and 'Good evening, honorable judges.' Explain kindly: both are polite, both cost you the first fifteen seconds, and the first fifteen seconds are when the room decides.
3. 15 min — Write five. Each student writes five possible openings for their own story.
4. 5 min — Choose by ear. In pairs, read all five aloud. The partner picks the one that made them want to hear more.

To finish Homework: say your chosen opening aloud ten times.

By the end Write a closing line that lands without explaining the story.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 6 min — The trap. The most common ending is a moral: 'So this story teaches us that we should love our family.' Explain why it weakens: it tells the audience what to feel, and audiences resist being told.
2. 8 min — Three that work. Return to an image from the opening. State what you do differently now. Or simply stop at the last thing that happened, and say thank you.
3. 15 min — Write three endings. One of each type, for their own story.
4. 6 min — Test by silence. Read each to a partner. The best ending is the one after which the partner does not immediately speak.

To finish Homework: choose your ending and say it aloud with a two-second pause before it.

By the end Adjust the same story for a judge and for a friend, and know which they are doing.

You need Their finished story.

1. 8 min — What changes and what does not. The events never change. The turn never changes. What changes is how much context you supply and how formal the register is.
2. 12 min — Two versions of one paragraph. Students write the same paragraph twice: once for a close friend who knows the village, once for a judge from Bangkok who does not.
3. 8 min — Spot the difference. In pairs, identify what was added for the judge. Usually: who a person is, where a place is, why something mattered.
4. 4 min — The competition version. Confirm that the judge version is the one they perform, but the friend version is the one that sounds like them. The target is the honesty of the second with the context of the first.

To finish Homework: add three short context clauses to your story.

By the end Recover from a lost line without stopping or apologizing.

You need Nothing.

1. 5 min — It will happen. Say plainly: most speakers lose their place at least once. The audience only notices if you tell them.
2. 8 min — Three recoveries. Pause and breathe, then continue from the next thing you remember. Or repeat the last sentence you said, which usually unlocks the next. Or skip ahead — nobody knows what you planned to say.
3. 12 min — Practice being interrupted. In pairs, the listener claps once at random. The speaker must pause, breathe and carry on. Repeat until the clap stops being frightening.
4. 5 min — What never to do. Do not say sorry. Do not say 'I forgot'. Do not start again from the beginning. Each of those turns a two-second gap into a visible failure.

To finish Homework: run your story once and, in the middle, stop for three seconds on purpose, then continue.

By the end Identify three specific techniques from a recorded performance and name why each worked.

You need A recorded story with the teller's permission, or the teacher performing live.

1. 5 min — What to watch for. Give them the list before they watch: the opening line, one pause, one moment of stillness, one precise detail, the ending.
2. 15 min — Watch once, straight through. No notes the first time. Just watch.
3. 12 min — Watch again with pens. Second viewing, noting the five things.
4. 8 min — Discuss. Which technique could you use in your own story next week? Each student names one and writes it down.

To finish Homework: apply the one technique you named.

By the end Deliver a final full run in performance conditions and compare it with the Lesson 30 recording.

You need A full period — again, two or three if your class is large. A timer. The recordings from Lesson 30.

1. 5 min — Conditions. Same as Lesson 42, but stricter: proper introductions, no restarts, timed to the second, audience silent.
2. 35 min — Full runs. Record each one. As in Lesson 42, split a big class across sessions rather than rushing anyone.
3. 12 min — Then and now. Each student listens to their Lesson 30 recording and today's, back to back, and writes down three things that changed.
4. 8 min — Say it out loud. Go round the room: each student names one thing they can do now that they could not do ten weeks ago. Do not skip this. For many of them it is the first time they will have said such a sentence about their English.

To finish Homework: rest. Do not practice the day before.

By the end Arrive at the venue prepared, with nothing left to decide on the day.

You need The checklist below — on the board, or printed if you can.

1. 5 min — The night before. Do not practice. Sleep. Lay out clothes. Charge the phone. Know how you are getting there and leave an hour early.
2. 5 min — What to bring. ID, whatever your school has told you to bring, water, a jacket for air conditioning, a snack, one adult if you are under 18. Not a script — you will not be allowed to read from it.
3. 3 min — What happens when you arrive. Register, find your running order, sit down, listen to the others. Do not rehearse in the corridor while somebody else is on stage.
4. 2 min — The last thing. Say this and mean it: whatever the score, you will have stood in front of a room of strangers and told the truth about your life in a language that is not your own. Almost nobody in this province has done that.

To finish Nothing. Go and tell it.