Speaking Survey

	: Speaking Survey	Reading survey
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The speaking survey included 4 items which invited students to record a rating response, as well as other questions which asked them to select from a list of options or to write down examples of speaking activities which they enjoyed or disliked. As noted above in the discussion of the reading survey, speaking was rated eleventh of twelve school subjects in popularity with students. This finding was verified when the same question was used in the speaking survey. The students were then presented with a list of nine activities which they might do in their spare time, and asked to tick up to three activities which they most like to do. The responses are shown below, in order of popularity for year 4 students:

The notable differences between year 4 and year 8 responses are the markedly lower interest of year 8 students in "doing art" and "making things", and their higher interest playing games or sports, talking on the telephone, doing musical things, and watching TV. Reading came off poorly at both class levels.

Activity

play video or computer games
make things
do art
play games or sport
play with friends
watch TV
talk on telephone with friends
music
read

% responses

49
42
40
38
37
32
20
17
17

45
25
13
51
41
41
30
27
13

Another question asked the students to write down or have the teacher record who they like to talk to and what they like to talk about. They could list as many entries as they liked, but only the first three were recorded. The responses are summarised in the two tables here.

Students like talking to:

friends
parents
brothers or sisters
other family or family in general
teachers
other

% responses

74
11
3
8
1
2

79
11
2
5
0
3

The results are very similar for year 4 and year 8 students, with the focus clearly on talking to friends about a wide range of matters.	Students like talking about: general chat, including gossip things which happen at school hobbies/interests other specific out of school things tv or computers problems homework other	% responses
		y4 45 13 18 13 4 1 1 4	y8 40 16 12 10 3 1 1 9

The students were also asked to indicate situations in which they did not like having to talk. Responses were recorded by 70% of year 4 students and 85% of year 8 students. At both levels, the most frequent concerns involved speaking to strangers or large groups, activities which were disliked by 17% of year 4 students and 30% of year 8 students. Nine percent of year 4 students reported that they didn't like talking when angry or annoyed, while 10% of year 8 students did not like talking when involved with school work or homework. Responses to the 4 rating items are presented below in separate tables for year 4 students and year 8 students.

Year 4 Speaking Survey	% responses

1. How much do you like talking to your whole class?	32	39	17	12
2. How much do you like talking to a group in your class?	57	29	11	3
	heaps	quite a lot	some times	never
3. How often do you get to talk to your whole class?	10	25	61	4
4. How often do you get to talk to others in your class?	45	31	22	2

Year 8 Speaking Survey	% responses

1. How much do you like talking to your whole class?	17	41	28	14
2. How much do you like talking to a group in your class?	51	39	8	2
	heaps	quite a lot	some times	never
3. How often do you get to talk to your whole class?	3	30	65	2
4. How often do you get to talk to others in your class?	50	37	12	1

The results show that: • a substantial proportion of students (particularly year 8 students) dislike talking to the whole class; • in contrast, talking to a group in class is a popular activity; • only about one third of the students at both levels get to talk to the whole class "heaps" or "quite a lot", but most have plenty of opportunities to talk to class members in other ways.

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