A review study on feedback and teaching oracy in secondary education
Submitted by:
Anneke J.G.R. Wurth
Abstract:
Spoken language is one of the domains of L1-teaching in Dutch Secondary education. This domain focuses on presenting, arguing, discussing and debating skills. Even though this is an important domain in Dutch L1-education (Meestringa&Ravesloot, 2012), research about how to teach oracy in the Dutch L1-classrooms is still in its infancy (Bonset&Braaksma, 2008). Moreover, Baxter (2000) states that international studies hardly provide any empirical evidence on how students’ development of L1-spoken language can be supported. Yet in our experience, Dutch L1-teachers report problems with how to support the development of the oracy skills of their students. Therefore, clearer guidelines for effective oracy education seem to be needed.
A systematic literature review study has been carried out on feedback and L1-education on oracy in the context of Dutch secondary education. The goal of this review is to gain insights into how feedback can be effectively deployed in the education of L1-spoken language. The review findings should lead to criteria for effective oracy education.
A digital search of national and international scientific articles was performed, using keywords, such as oracy, speech, formative assessment and feedback. Included were peer-reviewed studies, which reported on public speaking in secondary education and were published between 1995 and 2017. The snowball method was used to search for additional, appropriate articles which didn’t come up in the first, digital search.
The results show a collection of twelve international and national research articles about the use of feedback in teaching oracy in secondary education. From these articles criteria for effective oracy education were deduced. Examples of such criteria are: let students practice regularly with (different) oral tasks to support students to gain experience and feel more confident and show examples of speakers on video and discuss their presentations with students, to support students to reflect and develop their knowledge and skills related to oral performances.
To conclude, this review study sheds light on what scientific studies report about effective L1-oral language education, with a special focus on the role of feedback. The findings provide practical information on how to make oral language education more effective.
(355 words)
Literature:
Baxter, J. (2000). Going Public: Teaching Students to Speak Out in Public Contexts. In: English in Education, Vol. 34, No. 2.
Bonset, H. en Braaksma, M. (2008). Het schoolvak Nederlands opnieuw onderzocht, Een inventarisatie van onderzoek van 1997 tot en met 2007. Enschede: SLO.
Meestringa, T. en Ravesloot, C. (2012). Het schoolexamen Nederlands op havo en vwo; verslag van een digitale enquête. Enschede: SLO.