Children need regular planned opportunities in the class to speak in a range of circumstances, including different audiences, such as the class, the teacher, other adults, with different levels of formality, such as with friends, to another class, in assembly, for different purposes, such as recounting events and telling stories.
If students are reluctant speakers, they should be involved in pairs or groups for discussion for a few minutes at the beginning or end of every lesson, on a current event or issue. When they are used to doing this, the teacher can slowly introduce other longer and more directed speaking activities and tasks.
Students can also practise speaking on their own, even though there is no response or feedback; simply speaking
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Schools provide massive opportunities and unique advantages for developing a child’s speaking and listening skills. But development depends upon:
• understanding what is said and knowing how to respond appropriately
• creating conditions for children to interact with others
• pupils engaging frequently in worthwhile talk and attentive listening
• building a good stock of words
• having the opportunity to explore how language works
Schools should give the development of children’s speaking and listening skills a high priority, because they are fundamentally valuable, and because they provide the foundations for the systematic teaching and learning of phonics and higher-order reading and writing