RESOURCE 5: Interview with Jamie Neale (survived in the bush for 12 days)
jneale.jpg

http://on-walkabout.com/2009/07/video-of-lost-bushwalker-jamie-neale-on-60-minutes/
Explanation of the resource
It is an interview from the TV news show, '60 Minutes', between reporter Tara Brown and Jamie Neale, a man who survived 12 days being lost in the bush.
Relevance to the outcome
It is an engaging story for the children, to discuss the effects of lack of food, water and other extremities on the body. This will allow children to see more relevance in what they are learning. And gives them an opportunity to transfer their knowledge of the body into the real world.
Aspect of Literacy suitable to be explored
To develop understanding of purpose and audience of spoken texts and ability to distinguish between different varieties of English. The interview context exposes students to a new type of spoken text that has unique interactions between the interviewer and the interviewee. Students would have already explored interviews in previous lessons to gain an understanding of the dynamics in an interview. Interviews are also a good place to start when examining spoken texts because it follows a clear structure that is predictable and sequenced, ie. ‘Question by interviewer followed by answer by guest. Next question by interviewer followed by another answer by the guest.’ This is relatively easier to follow as opposed to conversational speech where physical context plays a larger part and so spoken language is more fragmented (Jones, 1996).

The task is a talk as performance task because it takes into account the audience. Students need to be clear in their phrasing of sentences and the confines of the interview (less contextual support) means students need to include all necessary information (Jones, 1996).

The probing questions are also an important element to examine in lessons, for children to develop a keen awareness of the different types of questioning available.

Students will practice listening to more complex explanations of phenomena given by participates in retelling. The retelling of the incident requires students to take out key points and develop a sequence of events in their mind to be able to correctly understand events as spoken texts mean phenomena is described as a process as opposed to product found in written texts (Haliday, 1985).

The video of the interview also develops a student’s understanding of multiliteracies. Where the textual is related to the visual, audio and spatial (Cope and Kalantzis, 2000). The interviewer in this interview does not remain a cold emotional distance away from the interviewee but rather allows her emotions to be presented on TV and there her countenance expressed concern for the plight that Jamie had to endure.