Speaking and Listening
Why speaking and listening is important
The importance of speaking and listening skills can't be emphasised enough. Talk is a rehearsal for writing; it is an outcome in its own right (especially in KS4, where it is orally assessed); and it allows students to extend and develop their Thinking Skills.
- Exploratory talk is an effective way of using language to think and is one of the building blocks of literacy
- Discussion is fundamental to an interactive approach to teaching and learning and leads to improved learning
- At Key Stage 3, where pupils encounter a wide range of subjects with distinctive ways of representing and organising information and ideas, speaking and listening play an increasingly important role in learning
- Effective discussion in English can lead to significant gains in pupils’ ability to recall, understand and respond to aesthetic elements in literature
- Real discussion is more likely to take place when there is an authentic task, a reason to communicate, and where pupils have negotiated a set of ground rules
- Although teachers believe they give prominence to discussion, observational research does not support this
- Pupils may have plenty of opportunities for talk but teachers are often unsure what and how to teach speaking and listening skills.
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