King Edward VII School Sheffield, Glossop Road, The Michael Lewis Building

Something to Say?
Promoting Spontaneous Classroom Talk

James Burch
Director of Secondary PGCE Programme
University of Cumbria

OFSTED continues to report that students' speaking skills are an area of particular weakness in many lessons observed. There is insufficient emphasis on helping students to use the language spontaneously for real life purposes and situations, and this means that few pupils are able to speak creatively and make up their own sentences in an unrehearsed situation.

The speaker is the co-author of the CILT publication “Something to say? Promoting Spontaneous Classroom Talk” which brings together key research findings on the development of spontaneous classroom talk. Suggested strategies range from basic pairwork activities in the presentation and practice stages of a lesson, to problem-solving tasks at the end of a unit of work. This session will explore, on the basis of practical examples, how to get pupils talking 'spontaneously' in the classroom and how everyday classroom routines can be exploited to generate pupil discussion.

James Burch is one of the country’s most experienced trainers of secondary modern languages teachers. From his early career as an innovative and inspirational teacher and Head of Department he has developed a deep understanding of the processes of language teaching and learning. He is currently based at the University of Cumbria (formerly St Martin’s College, Lancaster) where for 20 years he was Head of Languages. He is now the director of the secondary PGCE programmes within the institution. His main area of interest is a fostering of the dynamics in the modern languages classroom so as to motivate pupils and to maximise their learning potential.

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