ABSTRACT
As teachers you have responsibility for monitoring children’s progress and keeping records of their development. Talking to our students about assessment we found that many felt less confident about doing this in speaking and listening than they did in other areas. They were aware of the need to incorporate assessment into their planning but often felt that they had few models to follow and that they were not sure what constituted evidence or how to capture and record it appropriately. It is difficult to disentangle the different strands identified in Speaking, Listening, Learning (QCA/DfES 2003): Speaking, Listening, Group discussion and interaction, and Drama. It is hard to identify what counts as evidence of development and progression, both for individuals and for your class as a whole. Different aspects of talk can be identified: the social, the communicative, the cultural and the cognitive, all of which are affected by audience, purpose, context and content (Bearne and Elding 1996: 13). Other factors such as gender, personality, interests and confidence in whatever language is used will influence the way speakers behave. Teachers will need to take these interrelated aspects of speaking and listening into consideration in order to develop teaching strategies which incorporate different approaches to assessment.
