In a previous phase of a project based in a group of UK primary schools, speaking and listening was found to be an effective focus for improved learning across the curriculum and for teachers' professional development. At the project's second stage and in the light of recently changed Department for Education guidelines, these findings have been…

In this article it is argued that the development of young people's skills in using spoken language should be given more time and attention in the school curriculum. The author discusses the importance of the effective use of spoken language in educational and work settings, considers what research has told us about the factors that make group…

How to compute and report subscores for a test that was originally designed for reporting scores on a unidimensional scale has been a topic of interest in recent years. In the research reported here, we describe an application of multidimensional item response theory to identify a subscore structure in a test designed for reporting results using a…

Research (Martin, 2008) has shown that speaking and listening are the literacy skills most used in the world of work. Yet, employers frequently bemoan the lack of young people's communication skills, with many believing that it impacts their chances of making it through an interview and their future employability (Simon, 2009). Effective speaking…

This paper outlines a clear rationale for developing speaking and listening as part of the curriculum for young children and highlights several approaches which teachers can adopt to promote effective talk: dialogic teaching (an interactive approach to developing learning through talk) will be explored as a way to counter the initiation, response,…

Children with developmental disorders may present with listening and/or speech discrimination difficulties. This study explores whether teachers can identify these difficulties, using a questionnaire that rates children's listening, speech discrimination and comprehension abilities. The questionnaire was given to class-teachers of 52 pupils, aged…

Edited versions of selected major papers presented at the July 1971 study conference of the United Kingdom Reading Association, which had the theme "Literacy at All Levels," are included in this book. This group defines literacy as "the mastery of our native language in all its aspects, as a means of communication," and…

This handbook provides a detailed discussion of curriculum design for advanced French language instruction in British secondary schools, intended to assist in planning during a period of rapid educational change and newly mandated curricula. An introductory section offers background information on those developments, both statutory and…