1. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education These materials have been designed to be reproduced for internal circulation, research and teaching or training purposes. They can be reproduced for free provided that this material is acknowledged as Crown copyright, reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. Adaptation of these materials for other languages is permissible, providing the original source is acknowledged. Questionnaire Findings LinkedUp project: Now you are talking

2. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. Findings from questionnaires regarding pupil confidence regarding speaking skills January 2011 Results collated from a questionnaire completed by a selection of 36 Key Stage 4 students from: Aldercar Community Language College, Alfreton Grange Arts College, Belper School & Tibshelf School

3. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 1. Which of the 4 skills do you feel most confident in?

4. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 2. Which of the 4 skills do you feel least confident in?

5. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 3. Please rate which of the following cause you to feel nervous when speaking in a foreign language? (6 = causes you to feel most nervous; 1 = does not cause you to feel very nervous)

6. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 4. Which of the following tools/activities to help improve your speaking skills have you tried?

7. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. What tools/activities do you find particularly helpful when practising your speaking skills?? The pupils interviewed named visits to the target language country as being important in forcing them to speak the language in an authentic and meaningful setting, and providing encouragement and help with pronunciation and accents in a natural way.

8. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. What tools/activities do you find particularly helpful when practising your speaking skills?? Pupils (notably females) also mentioned working with friends in peer-assessment activities as conducive to improving their speaking skills, as opposed to having to make mistakes in front of the whole class. Pupils mentioned they learned to use more everyday phrases and “vocab. which comes up in conversation” this way.

9. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. What tools/activities do you find particularly helpful when practising your speaking skills?? Pupils on the whole liked using Voki as it was interactive and provided instantaneous feedback.

10. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. What tools/activities do you find particularly helpful when practising your speaking skills?? Pupils responded well to working with Language Assistants because they could correct and help to improve their accents in the most authentic way. “If you speak with native people you pick up the language better.”

11. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. What tools/activities do you find particularly helpful when practising your speaking skills?? Pupils mentioned the “Big Challenge” which created pen-pals with French students and encouraged pupils to ‘chat’ via Instant Messenger with their pen- friends, thereby encouraging meaningful and colloquial conversation.

12. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. What tools/activities do you find particularly helpful when practising your speaking skills?? Pupils mentioned the “Big Challenge” which created pen-pals with French students and encouraged pupils to ‘chat’ via Instant Messenger with their pen- friends, thereby encouraging meaningful and colloquial conversation.

13. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. When asked how their teachers could help them to improve their speaking skills, the pupils interviewed listed the following as being most helpful: To be able to offer one-on-one sessions with the teacher to correct and improve pronunciation More feedback to be given on how to improve the accent and pronunciation, both in terms of feedback from peers and from teachers More emphasis on improving speaking skills in lessons to build pupils’ confidence

14. © Crown copyright 2011, Department for Education. This resource has been created through the LinkedUp Award Scheme. 5. When asked how their teachers could help them to improve their speaking skills, the pupils interviewed listed the following as being most helpful: The teacher could “start talking to me slowly so I understand and gradually get faster at talking with me.” “Talk slower when learning new things so we can understand a little bit better.”