UNIT

Macmillan
English Hub Intralinguistic Mediation – Speaking 2

Task
You work for the training section at an international design agency. Your boss has asked you to
prepare a short audio presentation for people who might be thinking of becoming graphic
designers to go on the company’s website. You will need to say something about what graphic
designers do and what it takes to succeed.

Record a speech of no more than one and a half minutes using the relevant information from the
article. Remember to sound enthusiastic so that you keep the listeners’ interest and avoid
sounding too formal.

Linguistic Mediation 2 © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 1

 UNIT
Macmillan
English Hub Intralinguistic Mediation – Speaking 2

Think you could make it as a … graphic designer?

In the latest of our series on different careers, we look at what it takes to
succeed as a graphic designer.
What is graphic design all about? Really, it’s about communication. It’s not just about being an artist, but about
getting your client’s message across in as visually effective a way as possible. Very often this involves working on
marketing materials for a company, but it is not limited to this. You could be designing pages in print
publications like magazines, newspaper, fliers and brochures; digital media like websites; or broadcast media
like television.

Some areas of specialisation might include:

• e-newsletters
• user-experience design
• web design
• logos
• book design
• branding and advertising
• product packaging

But, you don’t have to be limited to always focusing on just one of these. Many graphic designers work on a wide
range of very different projects across a range of media.

So, what skills do you need to be a graphic designer? Firstly, of course, there are the technical skills that you will
need. These include knowledge of design software like Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. Your IT skills need
to be of a very high standard. You need to be able to draw, and that includes drawing diagrams and charts.

And you need an eye for design: that ability to visualise something that will stand out and get your message
across effectively. Some people seem to be born with this, but there’s no reason why you can’t develop this ability
by keeping your eyes open for inspiration in the world around you. There are examples of great (and not so
great) design everywhere, so look out for these and ask yourself why something works or why it doesn’t.

Of course, another way to learn about design is to study graphic design at university. In addition to any
qualifications, you will also need an impressive portfolio to show prospective employers, so think about that and
how you will present it to them – perhaps you could set up your own website to showcase your best work.

But it’s not just technical skills that you need. You also need to have certain personal qualities. For one thing, you
need to be organised if you are going to meet all of your deadlines. Sometimes there can be a lot of very tight
deadlines to meet that all come at the same time, so you have to be able to work well under pressure. Very often
you are working on a project that involves people from a lot of different departments, so you need to be able to be
able to collaborate well and communicate your ideas clearly. And you must be prepared to see your ideas rejected
and criticised without getting demotivated.

You also need to have the drive to keep learning new things, to keep trying to find new ideas – you need to be
energetic and always pushing yourself to think of new and creative approaches to your work. The field of design
is always changing, so you have to stay current, both in terms of what the trends are in the industry where you
work and in terms of the technology that is used. If you don’t move with the times, you could find yourself left
behind.

So, if you feel that you have these qualities and you’re interested in finding creative solutions for communicating
visually, then a career in graphic design might just be for you.

Linguistic Mediation 2 © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 2


Macmillan
English Hub Intralinguistic Mediation – Speaking
Teacher’s guide
This activity can be used with lesson
2.2 Creative people after the Speaking
Hub.
Lead-in
Put students in pairs. Ask them to talk about
what creative activities they do. Do they play a
musical instrument? Draw or paint? Write
stories or poetry? Act? Decorate their home?
Get some feedback about the activities people
do and ask if anyone has ever considered
making a career out of their creativity.
Lesson notes
1 Point out the task and give the students
time to read it. Make sure they understand
the context and the task: they need to
record a short, informal talk about what
graphic designers do and how to succeed
in this field.
2 Make sure that the students are aware that
they must speak for one and a half minutes.
3 Give students five minutes to read the text
individually. They should underline or make
notes of details that are relevant to the task.
4 Put students into small groups. Ask them to
discuss which information from the text will
help them to complete the task. This step
encourages collaboration and the co-
construction of meaning.
5 Give the students ten minutes to prepare
their talk. Encourage them to write notes as
prompts rather than a word-for-word script.
This will help them to sound more natural.
6 Put the students in pairs and have them
practise their talk with each other. Tell them
to give each other feedback on how well
their talk meets the demands of the task
and on the accuracy of the vocabulary and
grammar that they use.
7 Ask students to record their talk at home.
They can then upload them to the platform
you use for assessment. Alternatively,
students can deliver their talk in class.
Linguistic Mediation 2 © Macmillan Education Limited 2020
UNIT
2
Assessment
Strategies
Students will have to make use of different
strategies to perform the mediation task
effectively. In this case, learners will have to:
 select, omit or adapt information.
 summarise information.
 paraphrase information.
The teacher may assess their production by using
the rubric provided, bearing in mind the strategies
and descriptors for the level.
For this task:
 the register should be informal.
 the production should reflect the functions
of giving information as well as being
motivating with the appropriate grammar
and vocabulary for the level.
Assessing the task
1 Students should produce a coherent
talk that includes the information they were
asked to provide.
2 Students will have to focus on the parts of
the text that are most relevant to the task.
3 Information will need to be paraphrased.
4 Students will have to adapt the tone of the
information to an informal one given the
context of the task.
5 Students should only speak for the stated
amount of time.
Mediation descriptors
(Royal Decree 1041/2017)
 Relay orally written or oral texts
paraphrasing or summarising the
information, data and opinions from long
varied texts … to produce a coherent
target text.
 Use appropriate strategies in order to
adapt source texts according to the
purpose, context, interlocutors and
communication channel without altering
information and stands.
 Quote and use references appropriately
according to the communicative context.
 Convey accurately the most important
points from the source text together with
details considered relevant to the
interest and needs of the receiver.
3
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Macmillan
English Hub Intralinguistic Mediation – Speaking 2

Oral Intralinguistic Mediation Rubric

PASS
SCORING FAIL PASS TOTAL
WITH MERIT

Range and  Insufficient use of  Sufficient use of the  Wide range of

accuracy vocabulary and vocabulary and the vocabulary and
grammar of the grammar of the grammar of the level
level. level. used.
 Lack of grammatical  Appropriate  Good grammatical
and lexical control. grammatical and and lexical control.
Errors impair lexical control. Very few errors
communication. Errors do not impair occur.
communication.
Coherence and  Unclear and  Clear and coherent  Clear speech and
cohesion incoherent speech speech with overall progression
with insufficient use appropriate though with good use of
of linking limited use of linking linking mechanisms.
mechanisms. mechanisms.
Pronunciation,  A lot of errors in  Pronunciation,  No or very few minor
fluency and pronunciation, fluency and errors in
intonation intonation and intonation are pronunciation,
fluency cause appropriate for the fluency and
difficulties in level, with some intonation.
understanding. errors.
Mediation of the  Does not take into  Selection of the key  Selection of the key
text account the context information taking information taking
and the needs of the into account the into account the
Micro interlocutor in context and the context and the
strategies: selecting needs of the needs of the
 Selection information. interlocutor. Some interlocutor. No
 Summary Relevant points are relevant points might relevant points are
 Paraphrase omitted, and the be omitted, although omitted.
 Streamlining task is not fulfilled. the fulfillment of the  Clearly
 Extension  Unable to task is not hindered. communicates the
 Interpretation communicate the  Communication, with information using all
 Other information using some difficulty, of the micro strategies
the micro strategies the information by required.
required. using the micro
strategies required.
Cultural  Relevant cultural  Any relevant cultural  All relevant cultural
mediation connotations of the connotations in the connotations in the
source text are not source text are source text are
communicated, communicated clearly
impeding although communicated.
understanding. incompletely or with
some omissions.
Register and  The register, length  The register, length,  A very good
task fulfilment and content are not and content are fulfilment of the task
appropriate for the appropriate for the in relation to
interlocutor and/or interlocutor and the register, length, and
the situation. situation. content.
 Unable to mediate  Mediation is carried  Mediation is carried
or significant out with little out with no difficulty.
difficulties doing so. difficulty.

Linguistic Mediation 2 © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 4