What Role Will Role Plays Play in deciding between exam boards?

 Looking at the new GCSE specifications from AQA and Edexcel, it's the Speaking Exam that draws most of my attention. Because I feel this is the one that will have the most impact on what happens in the classroom.

Perhaps I am wrong here. Dr Rachel Hawkes warns against over-preparing pupils for the speaking exam, resulting in the Listening and the Reading grade boundaries having to work overtime to discriminate between pupils of different grades. But it always seems the case that pupils are either prepared for the speaking exam or not. And looking at the array of tasks they will face - reading aloud, role play, photo description, compulsory questions, conversation - it's going to take quite a lot of preparation just to negotiate the ins and outs of the tasks: 

Keeping track of whether to give a short answer or a long answer; if you are talking about the photo; if you are in character; if you are being yourself; if you are talking about the topic of the photo; if you've moved to a different topic now; if you are reading a text without worrying about meaning; if you are reading your notes; if you are listening and responding; if you are against the clock... I had to use semi-colons in that sentence which is always a sign that something is too long, convoluted and getting out of control.

In a previous post, I already looked at where the new exam gives scope for responding spontaneously to questions. Next, I want to look at the Role Plays and see how they fit in with the obstacle course of demands on pupils.

Both exam boards have Role Plays which pupils can look at in their preparation time. They can write out their answers and read them out. For both exam boards the Role Play is worth 10 marks. For short full-sentence answers. There are no marks for extending or developing, and no marks for the quality of language used.

AQA Role Play Marks

Edexcel Role Play Marks

Ostensibly these are marked solely for communication of the message. But the word "ambiguity" is a slightly ambiguous way of bringing in accuracy marks. By pretending that the message hasn't been fully understood because of some error or omission. For example Edexcel, which is selling their spec on the grounds of containing "real life communication", has the following guidance for a role play in a tourist information office:

Edexcel "partially communicated"

Asking for a plan of the town without a verb, is deemed to be only partial communication. Odd, I know. Especially as phrasebook learning of things like je voudrais is the opposite of what this exam was meant to be about.

This is at the heart of the difference between the two exam boards when it comes to Role Plays. Edexcel have ignored the new focus on teaching well sequenced grammar and vocabulary in that they have gone for situational role plays. Which smacks of pre-learned phrases.

The Edexcel Role Play will always be in one of the following formal transactional situations: 

Café / restaurant, shop / market / shopping centre, hotel, railway station, tourist information office, cinema / theatre / concert hall, campsite, leisure centre, doctor's surgery / hospital, in town.

Confusingly perhaps, it says the pupils won't have to use the formal register. At Foundation Tier answers are in the present tense or in familiar set phrases (!) such as je voudrais. And the pupil will have to ask the examiner one question. At Higher Tier, one of the bullet points will always be in a future time frame. And the pupil will have to ask the examiner two questions.

Personally, I am absolutely gobsmacked by the decision to go for transactional Role Plays. It seems almost to be going back to the teaching of phrasebook functions for a series of situations that we used to teach in the 1990s. The exact opposite of where the new GCSE was supposed to be taking us.

And it also seems potentially incompatible with the defined vocabulary list. The Sample Assessment Materials seem to draw very heavily on the 15% of words the exam boards were allowed from beyond the 2000 highest frequency words. They have to design tasks that can be carried out only using words on the list. The transactional words are very restricted - they have had to include a few items of food or clothing to work with. But this could quickly become unsustainable, as the exam must not repeat the same items year after year. Which means that the "transactional" role plays may not be as transactional as you are expecting. And Edexcel have form on this. In the current GCSE, the Edexcel "in a restaurant" Role Plays can take a sudden and disturbing turn, where you ask for the menu, and the waiter asks if you are alone and new in town and if you have any plans for later.

Sure enough, here is an example Role Play from the new Edexcel GCSE Sample Assessment Materials.

Edexcel sample role play

It's in a transactional situation. The first bullet is a je voudrais set phrase with one of the drink items from the vocab list. At a quick glance I have spotted coffee, tea, milk and water as the options. The second is a set phrase for asking how much something costs. With a choice of chocolate, cheese, French stick, ice cream, pasta, rice, fish, fruit, egg, cake, sugar or rabbit. The third bullet point is an opinion, with one of the aforementioned food items. Then the fourth is the future reference, answering one of the nosy waiter's impertinent questions. And finally the second question to be asked by the pupil, which is a mixture of a set phrase to ask "at what hour" and maybe a set phrase about closing, or perhaps testing the grammar/vocabulary knowledge to concoct a sentence.

Can't help wondering about the turn this has taken, with the pupil responding to the waiter enquiring about whether they have any plans for later, by asking what time they finish work...

Here's another example from Edexcel:

Edexcel sample role play

Again, it's a mish-mash. Some situational language learned phrasebook style. Some opinion/tense questions. Having the cues in English was meant to make the Role Play clearer, but even so, there are some questions on these sample role plays that leave me scratching my head. "Say why you are in France." Or "Say why your friend is paying." Taken in the high stakes exam context of constant chopping and changing between being yourself, being in character, talking about a photo, this topic, that topic, short answers, long answers... there is still the potential for pupils to be bamboozled and just not knowing what to say. I don't want my pupils to be bamboozled.

And I don't really want my teaching to be a mish-mash. I will have to have planned a grammar progression that covers the spec, building in each new item as part of the pupils' growing conceptualisation and repertoire. I will want to make sure they can express themselves on any topic, using opinions and reasons and tenses to develop an answer where required. I will need to be covering a huge vocabulary list of adverbs and adjectives. In addition to all this, do I really also want to have to fit in phrasebook learning for situational role plays that may or may not turn out to be situational transactional role plays? It seems like a whole extra dimension to the course for just 10 marks. Some people may love this idea. But I don't think I do.

So what do AQA role plays look like? Here's some.

AQA sample role play

AQA sample role play

In terms of the exam, these AQA Role Plays don't require the pupil to suddenly imagine they are in character ("Say why your friend is paying."?!?!?!) or in a bizarre conversation with a creepy waiter. 

And in terms of planning and teaching, they don't need me to teach set phrases in addition to the repertoire of vocabulary and grammar pupils are learning for the rest of the exam. In fact these AQA "Role Play" questions seem entirely in-line with the type of compulsory questions that follow the Read Aloud and Photo Card tasks (see previous post) and the Conversation questions I will be asking. I won't have to teach pupils a separate set of rote-learned language just for the Role Plays if we go with AQA.

I don't know if Role Plays will be the deciding factor for me in choosing between the specifications. There is a clear difference here between the boards which could make it easy to decide. There may be other features which could push me in the other direction. And of course I could be wrong or you may love the real life dimension or even the learning of useful phrases. This may be a really important feature for you. We will have to keep up the debate and sharing insights as we come to our own conclusions.

 

Colonial Curriculum

 At the same time as "the knowledge curriculum" is promoting the study of authoritative voices, the "best" of great literature and "standard" English, there is also a conflicting movement to "decolonise" the curriculum. In our subject, this is deeply problematic.

For a start, if we were decolonising the curriculum, why would we be teaching the languages of faded colonial powers? 

There is a hierarchy in the English establishment, of the status of different languages. Highest status are Latin and Ancient Greek. The original languages of heroic superiority, empire and unproblematic slavery. The signs of an elite education, where languages are an intellectual and cultural pursuit. The study of Latin and Ancient Greek came in handy in portraying a small remote island as the inheritor of ancient civilisation through an era when we were colonising in India and Mesopotamia: Civilisations who could trace back their own written culture for thousands of years to a time when agriculture and urbanisation were barely getting started in Britain.

After Latin and Ancient Greek in the hierarchy, comes English. The power dynamic is that we expect others to learn our language. It is beneath us to learn theirs. As language teachers we come across this regularly in the attitudes shown by our learners. Of course, the practical predominance of English is not down to us. It hangs firstly on the cultural and economic protagonism of the United States in the Twentieth Century. And secondly on the fact that English no longer belongs to us. Just as we may claim to have invented football, but the rest of the world are quite capable of playing it without our say-so, so English for most speakers is not the language of England. Much as we may try to pin our cultural commercial properties such as Shakespeare or the Beatles to the global English language business.

But if we do learn a modern "foreign" language, which one would it be? It would be French, German or Spanish. The languages of European colonial powers we grudgingly accept could have similar (if lesser) status compared to English.

Languages spoken in the British Isles such as Welsh are not deemed worthy of study. Languages spoken in our former colonies or by communities living here in the UK are not deemed worthy of study. This hierarchy of languages is clearly linked to colonialism.

But so too is how we study languages and what the study of a language involves. Because as an academic subject, studying a language is learning what millions of ordinary "foreigners" can already do with no intellectual effort! So we bulk out our A Levels and degrees with essay writing (often in English, to maintain standards of intellectual rigour), literature, culture, history and politics.

Our attitude to how to learn a language swings with political changes. For the right wing, language learning is intellectual study of complex grammatical terms and systems. Preferably of ancient languages. For the left wing, language is communication and engagement with authentic materials.

So where to start with "decolonising" such a colonised subject?

Firstly, on a national level, we should be questioning why we offer, for example, Urdu or Portuguese GCSE to speakers of those languages, but we don't think that it would be a superb idea for us (as teachers) and our pupils to learn to speak the languages spoken by families in our own community. Or British Sign Language.

Secondly, we should be looking at why it is that our pathways for language learning fizzle out in the dead end of worthy intellectual academic study. A Level languages or a degree in Philology, with study of literature and grammar and essays. That should not be the main offer of language learning. It should be (and is) for a specialist academic few. There should be the pathway of doing a language course in any language or languages, studying the language for the pleasure of learning and communicating. One thing we know the human brain can do is learn a language. It takes time and requires regular exposure to the language, without forced models of progress and pass/fail. We need to make language-learning the norm for our young people.

And meanwhile, what should we do in the French, Spanish, German classroom? Widen horizons, yes. Learn that what we know is only a small part of humanity. Question stereotypes. Teach how people are the same? Or teach how people are all different?

Having lived in Mexico, I see some pretty horrific attempts at diversification of approaches in Spanish resources. Factual error, cultural appropriation, stereotypes. Europe-centric (ie colonial) labels such as "with a strong accent" or "dialect". In fact a majority of Spanish speakers live outside Spain. Just as the majority of French speakers do not live in France. Were I to teach about French-speaking countries other than France, would I be perpetuating the same ignorant takes? I certainly avoid pictures of mud huts and cheerful resilient poverty. I follow the Jeune Afrique newspaper on Twitter and try to get a sense of local perspectives and modern life.

I admit I do concentrate on France. But in our booklets we use French musicians such as Louane or Oli and Bigflo. For our pupils they are the representatives of France. But when we study them, we learn that their parents came from other countries. With songs like Bienvenue chez moi, we see that they are as French as any other French person.

We try to set up communication with French pupils, often with schools with diverse intake. And look at everyday life in France rather than just tourist sites and special celebrations. What I need to do as much as possible is let French-speaking culture speak for itself, with authentic resources.

We are living through a phase of right wing emphasis on grammar and vocabulary selected from a specific corpus. Of communication being delayed until later. Of reading being word-by-word parsing of sentences to practise known language. Of authentic materials being questioned as encouraging guessing and frustrating pupils. Of Latin being revived for high status intellectual study. Decolonisation does not sit well with the current political pressures. It means resisting or at least questioning what we are being asked to do. I would invite you to go back through this post and click on some of the links to other posts to see how the issues we are currently faced with all tie into the power of the colonial hierarchy currently seeking to dominate language teaching.

Is the new GCSE a Conversation Killer?

 The new GCSE is a reaction to the 2009-2017 GCSE which ruined language learning for a generation. In that exam, Controlled Conditions speaking meant pupils memorising long scripted answers containing fancy language. So the new GCSE will be deliberately designed to stop this.

Of course, I hated the Controlled Assessment exam. And was glad to see the back of it. And although not perfect, the current GCSE means that rather than learning lots of answers off by heart, pupils can practise speaking spontaneously using a core and growing repertoire of language, interacting with the teacher in a conversation. They can deploy their core of language to any of the topics, with lots of speaking practice, making up different answers each time, and responding to prompts for more information and to develop their ideas further.

But it would still be possible for some teachers to ask pupils to learn a huge number of answers off by heart, if you are still stuck in the mindset of the old Controlled Assessment GCSE. So the new GCSE is designed to prevent that.

How is it going to do this? And what does it mean for teaching pupils to develop spontaneous answers and interact with further prompting and questioning?

I've looked at the speaking exam for AQA and for Edexcel, with my own personal perspective of hunting for where it rewards pupils' ability to develop spontaneous answers from language they can use across topics. Not just because this is what I want them to be able to do, but because this is how I want my lessons to be and what pupils seem to love doing.

So what does the exam look like, and what are the marks for?

There are the set pieces of the Read Aloud, the Role Plays and the Photo Description. In amongst these, there are the questions pupils will have to respond to spontaneously. These fall into 2 types. What I have called "scripted" (for the teacher) questions, where the teacher has to read the question exactly as set by the board. And "unscripted" (for the teacher) questions, where the teacher can decide what questions to ask and follow it up with further questions to make it into a conversation.

For AQA, all four "scripted" questions are based on the topic of the Read Aloud task. They are worth 10 marks. Then after the Photo Card, there is a Conversation where the teacher can ask their own questions and conduct an interactive conversation. This is worth 20 marks. So in total, there are 30 marks for speaking in response to unprepared questions.

For Edexcel, the four "scripted" questions are split between the Read Aloud task and the Photo task. In total, there are 8 marks for these questions where the teacher has to read the question set by the board. And after the Photo Card there is time for the teacher to ask unscripted questions. This Conversation is worth 16 marks. Giving a total of 24 marks for speaking in response to unprepared questions.

So AQA gives more marks for the unprepared questions overall, both for the ones where the teacher reads the set questions, and for where the teacher can conduct an interactive conversation. This is because Edexcel gives more marks to the Reading Aloud and to the description of the Photo.

It may well be that you like the idea of giving more marks to the set piece tasks that the pupil can make notes on in the preparation time. It might even be the case that I end up going for this, if it turns out I have to abandon teaching spontaneous developed answers. I know to my cost from the 2009-2017 exam that you can't carry on teaching spontaneous developed answers if the exam doesn't reward it.

Next, I looked at what the set questions are like. For AQA and for Edexcel, they are nice open questions. The sort of question that isn't designed to test if the pupil has learned an off pat answer to every obscure question. Or to see if they can remember specific vocabulary or use bits of abstruse grammar. No. They are the sorts of questions designed to invite the pupils to show off what they can say.

These are from AQA, so follow the Read Aloud task.

For both boards, the set questions are like this. Open questions on the sort of topics we are used to for the conversation, often asking for an opinion and details.

But. With Edexcel, when you look at how these are rewarded, you are in for a disappointment if you are looking for opportunities for pupils to show what they can do with their language or in developing an answer.

Marking for Edexcel set questions

The marks are for short correct answers with a verb. Similarly to the current GCSE Role Play marking, it's best to give a short answer to the question. Developing your answer further means no further credit and if by speaking more you make mistakes, it will cost you marks.

AQA looks a little more promising for marking these set questions.

AQA marking for the set questions

Here there is some reward for being able to develop an answer. So although it's not a real conversation with interaction, there is perhaps an opportunity for pupils to start to show what they can do in terms of their ability to use their language, rather than just testing their knowledge of bits of language.

And so to the Conversation itself. This follows the Photo Card and is on a theme determined by which card the pupil has been given.

Edexcel Conversation Marking - Higher

Edexcel do reward developed and extended answers, mentioning use of past, present and future.

AQA Conversation Marking - Higher

AQA Conversation Marking - Higher

AQA also mention developed answers and extended responses. They don't mention past, present and future, but these would be good examples of the wide variety of structures that is called for.

I also looked at the AQA guidance for the Conversation. It specifies open questions, designed to allow the pupils to show off their ability to use the language, and encourages the teacher to push for more detail and explanation with short prompts, like "Why?" rather than a list of different questions. BUT...

And it's a big BUT...

AQA conversation guidance

What do AQA mean by an extended answer? They mean 3 clauses. This is not what I mean by developing an answer. Not when I have pupils who can easily have a 5 minute conversation about a trip to the beach or a theme park or a zoo.

So that's what we've got. Reading Aloud, Role Play, Photo Card prepared and notes written. With some conversation style questions squeezed in between. Some of them are set questions, and some that can develop into more of a conversation. One of the boards, AQA, gives these questions more marks than the other. Edexcel focuses more on the pre-prepared tasks. AQA also has a markscheme that rewards more developed answers for the set questions. Whereas Edexcel want a short correct answer. It's important to note that AQA has used more of its allocation for accuracy marks in the Writing paper. So for AQA, the speaking emphasis is slightly less on accuracy and more on being able to express the information. Both boards do have scope for a Conversation at the end where pupils' ability to use the language is rewarded. There are no marks for interaction. But there are marks for developing answers, even if that means relatively short and simple development.

This was one of my fears for this new GCSE. In its attempt to stamp out the rote learning we saw in the old 2009-2017 GCSE, would it also stamp out spontaneous extended speaking? It's certainly tried. I think what will save it in my classroom, is ironically the Writing paper. Pupils are still going to have to write 150 words, developing ideas spontaneously. So lessons spent practising speaking will directly support that. Even if it's not required or rewarded in the actual Speaking exam anymore.

I am planning to look at other aspects of the Speaking exam such as the Role Plays, Read Aloud task and Photo Card in future posts. So watch out, because as with the Conversation questions, there are big differences between the boards.

This post was based on parts of my talk for the Association for Language Learning in the East. The video of the talk will shortly be available to members on the ALL website Secondary Zone along with Dr. Rachel Hawkes' presentation.