Practice Paper for as English Language

Language and Technology Practice Paper: Question 3 – Radio

The transcript is taken from a live evening football commentary broadcast on Radio 5 in September 2004. The two teams playing are Manchester United and Liverpool. As the people listening to the radio commentary can obviously not see the match taking place, they rely on the commentators to give them a visual idea of what is taking place. The listeners are trying to experience something that they are not physically involved in and so they rely on the commentators to help them feel part of it He will make sure to mention where the ball is being played and also other factors that may not be football related that you would notice such as the weather. For example, ‘clearly the rain’s had a little bit of impact here…’ letting the listener imagine being at the game. As the transcript is from radio and not television, the commentator must avoid silence at all cost with very few pauses – which the commentators do avoid. Another thing that they must be careful to do is to give the correct details with a sufficient amount for the listener to be able to understand what is occurring in the game but not too much that something else may have already happened and passed by the time the commentator finishes explaining the other thing. This would also involve finding the right speed to speak at to be able to include all of the important facts but whilst also getting an understandable structure to what is being said. Elision is also a huge part of the transcript. The commentators are not worried about using Standard English when speaking, as they are more focused on including all of the information in the short time that they are given to do so. An example of the elision is ‘Liverpool playing towards the…’ The standard way of saying this would be ‘Liverpool are playing towards the…’ but there is no need to include the word ‘are’ as the listeners can still understand what the commentator means and knows he has to speak quickly in order for them not to miss out on anything significant that happens in the game. The audience will be mainly made up of football fans that will be able to understand the lexis that is in the semantic field of football. For example, ‘kick-off’ which is the term used for the starting of the game – when one of the team passes the ball backwards to their teammate to start the game. Another example is ‘midfield’ which means to play one of the 3 players in one of the central positions.
The commentators do not just mention the game and the goals and the way they are playing. They also mention other things about the football – the weather, player’s background, their personal opinion, etc. As they are speaking of all of these factors, sometimes he will not finish what he is saying and start talking of something different that would seem to be important. For example, ‘gets the ball for the first time he’s not going to get it yet Silvestre’s given it to…’ The commentator was speaking briefly as one of the team members individually and then whilst he was doing that, something more important, about the match, happened that he had to comment on as the listeners care more about the second information rather than the first piece. The first piece may easily be to keep it flowing and to ensure there are no silences. As it is spontaneous speech, the commentator is unaware as to when to speak and finish and what to say – he is thinking about what he will say in the split second that it happens with maybe a small amount of research on his desk to avoid silence. This would also be the reason that there is a high lack of grammar.
The listeners are likely to be football fans that often listen to/watch football games and understand the jargon and terms that are used in the sport. The audience expect to hear lexis from the semantic field of football and so the commentators will use it in order to please the listeners who have come to expect it.
The way in which the speech would sound plays a big impact. As the listeners cannot see the match, they purely rely on what the commentators say and how well they say it. This is why commentators will emphasise words. Certain words are emphasised, as they would be deemed as more important and therefore more important to engage with the reader. For example, ‘Ronaldo now nearside for Manchester United…’ The footballer’s name, ‘Ronaldo’ is being emphasised as that is the main importance of what is being said. If they had been physically watching the game then they would have checked or noticed that Ronaldo was the one who was nearside. But as they are not at the match, the commentator must find a way to show his importance – he does this by emphasising his name.
The grammar is this piece is very much non-standard but this is mainly because of the speed it is spoken at – it is spoken so quickly that it is almost impossible to take long enough pauses to class a phrase as a sentence. Elision occurs often for the same reason as this, as said earlier.
The speech is very much football related and taken out of its context, it would make no sense to anyone who was to read it as you need to have the shared understanding that it is a commentary of a football match between Manchester United and Liverpool. Taken out of context, the speech almost means nothing.