Tuesday 1 July 2014

Network for Languages Philip Campagna Group Talk

The second session at the Network for Languages event was led by Philip Campagna on Group Talk. Brain child of Greg Horton, we have been playing around with the idea of Group Talk for a while now so I was keen to hear what Philip had to say. Here are my notes: 

Developing independent learners 
Barriers to effective speaking: 
How do I monitor it? As opposed to other skills where I collect the answers in. 
Nature of the tasks - often mundane, transactional and predictable. Non-engaging stimuli. 
Often confined to pair work, lack of collaborative group work. 
Poor pronunciation due to lack of coverage of basic phonics. 

Talking cards round the room, pupils went round, pressed the button and answered the question. Made them think on their feet. This is something I could do with the iPads. 

Phonics 
a e i o u   Do a point and repeat exercise 
Do a chopping sign for acute / accent 
Give them mini flashcards with the sounds oi, ui etc and one person in group holds up the sound card as the teacher calls the sound. 
Phonic trains - join in as lead pupil in each train moves round class making the noise of their card. 

Sheets with image groups eg trois, poisson, oiseau etc. 




Restricted meaningful use of TL impacts negatively. Make it meaningful and purposeful. 

Peer pressure, not cool to speak out in class

3 names on slide, ¿cuántos años tienen? 
Opinions, speculative language . Give them this language. 

Rules of engagement 
Stage 1 
Groups of 5, first turns card over, says something and turns it back over. Next person does the same. No comment from others in group. 

Stage 2 
Give opinion (positive or negative) 

Stage 3 
Add adjectives, or justifying statements, 

Stage 4 
Others respond to the statement with agreement or disagreement 

Turn photos face up. First person says something. Only one person at a time, if two speak at once then one backs off. Tell them to have three responses to their comment in the group then move on to next photo. 

Give me one phrase from each table that you would have liked to have had 







Do the Group Talk sheet as a levelled framework 

Develop speaking activities which move away from role play activities 

Talk to the pupils about what they want to study eg past tense? 

Step away and don't comment when they are talking. 



MAKE A GROUP TALK DISPLAY BOARD 
Note to self: Bring photos back in at start of lesson as a starter, use the Guardian Eye Witness app

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