On this post I am going to concentrate on the wonderful skill of Speaking. Everyone will agree that is the most important skill, together with listening, when we learn a language. You can get away without writing the language, even reading it (long passages anyway) but not without speaking it!
Most importantly, students measure their language learning success against their oral ability and this tends to be low, which results in poor motivation and very low language uptake beyond GCSE, in the case of the UK. So, although not officially part of the GCSE exam this year, oral skills must not be forgotten in the current climate.
Speaking is perceived as difficult because it requires hours and hours of practice, which we just simply do not have in the curriculum. If we add to the equation a long syllabus content, we have a recipe for disaster, as students end up with cognitive load, meaning that there are not enough opportunities for students’ brains to embed the language and automatise it internally.
What’s the solution?
Creating real life experience opportunities where to use the language is important, as mentioned in two previous posts on the power of culture and the importance of providing extracurricular activities in the MFL curriculum. Similarly, teaching structures for students to use the language during lesson activities is vital too, including vocabulary to interact with each other: it’s your turn! You are cheating! I do not understand etc.. When you hear students using this language praise them! Make speaking in the target language fun and worth doing it!
Similarly, at the same time, we need to structure and plan speaking tasks, highly linked to listening, in our classroom experience as much as possible, including spontaneity. When doing this, think small! Less is normally more!
I tend to teach structures via Sentence Builders, I practise these, through listening and orally as much as possible in lessons and move to the next lot of structures: step by step, using retrieving practice in the process. I hardly do reading and writing activities in my lessons (unless they are part of short outbreaks of retrieval practice with mini whiteboards). I leave those tasks for homework. I use my lessons to provide as many listening and speaking opportunities as possible! These are some of my favourite classics!
Oral Battleships
A classic in my lessons. I do it as a listening but, mainly as an oral activity. The idea is simple: I write language on the top row (blue) and the first column (orange), which allows students to create different oral sentence combinations. Students tick 6/7 boxes (ships) and they need to try and guess where their partner’s ticks (ships) are by creating different combinations with the input on the row and column. See the example below.
I love battleships because it can be done at all levels and to practise ANY structure:
1. Different grammatical persons on the top and different infinitives on the column (like the example above), with the aim to conjugate verbs in a given tense. This can be expanded to say a sentence with the conjugated verb!
1. Sentences in the present on the top row and in the past on the first column, with any other verb tense combinations, so students create sentences using two tenses.
Example here on Present and Past practice on Holidays
2. Nouns on the top and adjectives on the first column, to practise adjective agreement.
Example here with Animals and Colours (second page)
3. Expressions needing subjunctive on the top and verbs in infinitive in the first column which require the formation of the subjunctive.
Example here on Subjunctive and Environmental issues
4. Vincent Everett also proposes to fill in the squares in the Battleships with extra chunks for students to reproduce orally: top row I swim in the sea, side column but I wanted to sunbathe, middle square, because it was more fun.
The possibilities are endless! To stretch able kids, I always ask students to extend their sentences with something they can think on the spot using high impact expressions, for example.
Information Gap Activities
Any type, any shape of these. Basically, any activity that requires students to get missing information from a partner or partners. Once structures haven been over practised through listening, reading and short, brisk translations, students can start practising the language themselves. This stage is still controlled production as I tend to specify in the activity what I want them to say: different SBs combinations!
Example of Information gap activity based on questions and exchange of information
Example of Information gap activity based on filling in an incomplete table, topic of health
My students love these activities because there is a real communicative purpose and they are achievable as they are based on the Sentence Builders practised in previous lessons. They also increase their confidence as I tend to use long paragraphs so there’s a sense of accomplishment.
Stealing Sentences
This idea is taken from the Gianfranco Conti repertoire. It’s uncomplicated and in its simplest form, it allows just reading: I usually display 7 sentences on the board, students choose 4 numbers at random which they write at the back of their books (I don’t give them pieces of papers anymore which they can physically steal because of COVID). Students move around the classroom reading the sentences to people. If the student they speak to has the number of the sentence they are reading, they are entitled to steal it: writing the number in their book, while the other student will have to cross it from their list. The person with most stolen numbers/ sentences wins!
Oral ping-pong
Another Gianfranco Conti classic. This is really a type of information gap activity. Students are given a sheet with a list of sentences in English. The sentences are the same in both cases but student A has the Spanish translation to the first half of the sentences while student B has the other half. Students take turns, hence the Ping-Pong name, to translate orally the sentences they do not have the translation for. Partners listen to their opponent and check the accuracy of oral translations using their sheet. If perfect, they award 2 points if there’s a mistake 1 point, more than 1 mistake, no points at all. When mistakes are made, students show the correct answer to their partners, creating really interesting metalinguitic discussions!
Find someone who
I prepare pairs of cards, examples:
1. Find someone with the same names as you. On cards: María Fernández, Luisa García. For Y7.
2. Find someone with two digits in their phone number the same as yours. On cards: 44 6422, 44 23 68. For Y7.
3. Find someone who plays this sport. On cards: Juego al fútbol.
4. Find someone whose sentence combined with yours, makes sense. Cards: ¿Vas a ir al cine mañana?, Sí, mañana voy a ir al cine porque ponen mi película favorita.
5. You are spy. You have to find your fellow agent who has the same secret codeword as you. You have to drop this word or phrase (on card) into a normal conversation. Cards: los sábados me gusta desayunar salchichas. For Y11 and Alevel.
Speed Dating
Students are placed in two lines/ or two circles, one inside the other, facing each other. They must have a conversation with the person opposite to them. At the signal from the teacher, often a clap, the children from the outer circle or one of the lines, move towards the left, changing partners. They now perform the conversation again, at a second signal, students move to the left again (from the outer circle or one of the lines) and so and so on. I tend to do this outside, weather permitting! I also give them a list of questions to choose from, or prompts to formulate the questions themselves! Great for all levels but it is a fantastic way to practise the General Conversation questions for the GCSE oral exam. Also, I ask students to answer their questions, say in 3 minutes, but when they change partners to do it in 2 minutes and finally in 1 minute so they develop fluency!
Dictogloss
Spider Game
Teacher throws a wool ball to one student and asks a question. This student gets hold of some wool and throws the ball to another student while asking another question, the third student answers the question, keeps some of the wool thread and throws the ball to someone else and asks another question and so on. The idea is that students create a spider web with the wool every time they throw the ball. It is great for generating questions but difficult to carry out in a Covid environment.
Piedra, Papel, Tijera: evolución! (Stone, paper, scissors, evolution)
I love this activity as it requires minimal preparation! The evolution part I heard it from Rachel Hawes. I put an open question on the board: talk about your holidays. Students play piedra, papel, tijera. Whoever wins needs to talk for a minute in the topic. If successful they move in the evolution chain. They evolve from egg, chick, bird, elephant to superman. Whoever gets to superman first wins! I have used this game with the GCSE photocard: students are given series of photos and they talk about the photo for one minute when they win. Students can also ask each other questions in the card.
Dice games in pairs or groups
There are lots of variations to this activity but basically, teacher prepares 6/12 key words on the board attached to numbers 1 to 6 or 2 to 12 if working with two sets of dice. Students work in pairs or groups by throwing the dice and saying a sentence with the key word which corresponds to the number in the dice. On the board, you can have question words, sentences to be translated and extended, key words to develop at Alevel etc... as dice cannot be used at the moment, I am still carrying out the activity using this digital version of dice. I share it with my students and they open the link on their own device: Interactive dice.
Board games
Any board game: snakes and ladders, connect four, trivial etc.. are great ways to practice oral: if students fall in a square they need to translate a sentence from a pack of cards, or create a sentence using a particular word, or create a sentence on a particular topic using a particular high impact expression. These can be in cards. I use these a lot to practise the GCSE general conversation exam. As boards cannot be used at the moment, I am using the interactive board games on Genially or from PowerPoint templates.
Jenga Same as above but students need to do something before they can remove a piece of Jenga. Unfortunate I haven’t found an interactive version of this game yet!
Oral activities and IT tools
Wheel of names
I talk about this app on a previous post here. In the current climate, I share my Wheel of names activity link with students who can play from their own devices in pairs. This is a hit at the moment in my lessons! There are many activities to do:
- you can display key words and students need to create a sentence
- Students need to translate a sentence
- Students need to create questions
- Students need to talk for a minute on a given topic
PowerPoint Games
Check these lists of interactive game templates below to practise oral skills as a whole class or individually!
Genially
You can use the templates within Genially to generate Boardgames to be played by groups of students together.
Flipgrid
This is a great app for oral practice. I create a group for each of my classes and then threads on whatever I want them to give a presentation on. I use this at the last stage of the learning cycle: Spontaneity and free output from students! Great to practice the GCSE photocard and General Conversion questions. I love this app because I can create model answers to questions and provide feedback to students based on a predetermined mark scheme. Students can also see each other videos, although you can disable this feature, and learn from each other’s answers and, even better, contribute with an opinion to a certain video. This last option works best with Alevel students! Check Jane Basnett's blog for further ideas using Flipgrid!
Padlet
Great for oral practice too! You can insert a picture and students record themselves describing it and answering to the questions that come with it! As in the case of Flipgrid, this is great for a sharing culture in the classroom as all students can listen to each other’s inputs. Personally, I find that extremely empowering!
Flippity
I love the Randomizer element of Flippity to practise oral skills. I enter the Sentence Builders in each box and students play the randomizer, and translate the sentences that appear. As a follow up they must extend the actual sentence or doing the sentence in writing.
HOW I TACKLE THE GCSE ORAL EXAM
Our department’s philosophy is NOT to teach for the exam but teach a skill which, if learned well, will allow students pass the exam. We do not start teaching exam style questions such as Roleplays and Photocards at KS3. Instead, we put oral skills at the core of our face to face lessons so students become confident speakers from day one in general. At a second stage, we, inevitably, prepare them for the GCSE exam, but not until they are actually doing their GCSE course.
This is the process I follow:
1. Oral activities, like the ones described above, are 100% embedded in all my lessons. Those activities which I have identified as good for GCSE are key to develop the skills the students will later need to tackle the oral exam.
2. After a topic is finished, I plan a couple of oral lessons where I go through Photocards and Roleplays. For this purpose we have an oral booklet with past Roleplays and Photocards to choose from. Activities such as Paper, Stone, Scissors are great for this! Also Flipgrid presentations for homework, where students need to prepare and talk about a photo from their booklet, including the surprise questions is good practice too.
Y10 oral booklet
3. Also for prep, students complete in writing, model answers for potential oral questions which they can use for the General Conversation, also available in their oral booklet.
4. We start a new topic but our oral assistant carries out one to one practice on either the general conversation questions or the photocard/roleplay.
5. I come back to step 1 but I always use retrieval practice to include in my oral/listening activities content from past topics.
6. Every 3 weeks during Y10 I plan oral an oral lesson where students practise the general conversation questions via Board Games or dice games. Our oral assistant keeps working with the students one to one during lessons.
7. In Y11 one lesson every other week is spent doing oral practice in pairs/groups: one lesson Roleplay and Photocard and another lesson just General Conversation questions.
8. For prep they get to carry out, without help, mini presentations on Flipgrid on a given topic.
Writing model answers to questions for the General Conversation and practising these in pairs or individually via Flipgrid mini presentations is key! Students start reusing the same vocab/structures over and over again. This will not only be good for the oral per se, but also for the writing exam! In Y11 to reinforce this idea, every other week we dedicate a lesson to time writing based on a topic of the syllabus, in exam conditions.
Finally, we aim to finish all the syllabus by the end of February in Y11. We conduct the oral exams after Easter. Therefore, we have around 7 weeks of teaching where each lesson (3 per week) is dedicated to one skill: oral, listening, writing/translation. Reading is done at home. To do this practice we use exam style questions via Exampro and Photocards, Roleplays from our oral booklet.
During the oral lesson, at this stage, I, and the oral assistant, work with students one to one while they work in pairs, providing individual feedback.
Finally, the circle closes with extra practice, in pairs, during lunch time and after school. We make these sessions compulsory and I create a timetable where all students, in pairs, are given a 15 minute slot. We start this extra practice in February in Y11 up to their oral exam.
This last strategy is a luxury, as we may not have time to do so a particular year because of school commitments etc.. but I always try to offer this practice at least a few weeks before the oral exam!
Whatever I do for the GCSE oral exam, the key is to embed oral skills in lessons as much as possible! So during Y10 and, especially Y11, I only need to focus on the actual exam structure not teaching students how to speak.
