One Nice Thing about the New (current) GCSE

 **Note. In this post from 2021, the GCSE referred to as the "new GCSE" is the one they decided to get rid of.

The best thing about the new GCSE (examined in 2018 and 2019) is the way we can return to spontaneous speaking for the General Conversation.

The old GCSE was supposed to respond to the Dearing Review by making the Speaking Exam less "intimidating". This had damaging unintended consequences which may have set back languages teaching in the UK for a whole generation. The Speaking Controlled Assessment was set as a known task. A known topic, with known questions. Pupils learned it from memory, by rote. The markscheme privileged "variety" of language over a re-useable core, which again encouraged rote learning of specific one off fancy expressions rather than having a repertoire you could deploy across topics.

The new (current) GCSE specifically has marks for spontaneity and fluency. It has such a wide range of topics, that hopefully no-one would ask pupils to memorise all the possible answers by rote!

But have teachers adapted to the new GCSE yet? Have we lost the knowledge of how to teach pupils to respond spontaneously? After only going through the actual exam twice, have we managed to tweak our teaching so our pupils can give extended answers, developing coherent narration while improvising on the spot?

I have made this video on how I teach this over KS3 and KS4. (Click this link if the embedded video doesn't show.)

We don't know what the new new GCSE speaking exam is going to look like, and obviously we will have to make changes to our teaching to equip pupils to tackle the tasks and success criteria. I just hope the ability to speak fluently and develop answers in response to further questioning is something that continues to be rewarded.