Talking

Talking helps us sort out what we think and is the main means of social communication and interaction. It is through talking with peers, teachers and other adults that much of pupils' learning will occur. From the earliest stages, pupils should talk together about the issues within their common experience. Contexts for talking should be varied, with opportunities to discuss, to question, and to respond to books, other texts, and pupils' own talk and writing.

The whole curriculum offers a widening set of contexts for talk and it is through talk that the pupil makes sense of the range of ideas in that curriculum. Through personal experiences in and out of school, pupils should be encouraged to develop a growing awareness of the language appropriate to different audiences, purposes and situations. Most children will have acquired skills in talking before they come to school, but teachers at the early stages will ensure that pupils are given opportunities to:

learn the disciplines of effective talking - taking turns, listening to the other speaker;

talk in the reading and writing programme;

use talk in play to arrive at outcomes.

At all stages, in ways appropriate to their age and attainments, pupils will:

talk in Standard English, and their own dialect as appropriate;

talk to peers, other pupils, teachers and adults in the context of their class work;

engage in practical activities which will require them to talk together to produce an outcome;

make use of tape and video recorders to hear and to discuss their own and their classmates' performance;

play garnes and engage in simulations and roleplay, to develop their confidence and competence, and to facilitate talking;

give individual presentations to stimulate interest and command the attention of an audience;

be given opportunities for talking in drama and performance;

acquire knowledge about language which will help them in their talking activities.

The accompanying grid, which maps out content and teaching and learning approaches, has the following strands: conveying information, instructions and directions; talking in groups; talking about experiences, feelings and opinions; talking about texts; audience awareness; and knowledge about language. Detailed accounts of each of these strands developed as attainment targets can be found in Section 2.