ENHANCING TALKING SKILLS WITHIN THE NATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACYFRAMEWORK, FOR YOUNG PEOPLE ATTENDING A BTEC DIPLOMA IN SPORT COURSE

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to enhance talking skills in line with the Welsh Assembly Government’s (2013) National Literacy and Numeracy Framework legislation. The Welsh Assembly Government’s (2013) Literacy and Numeracy Framework was introduced to improve the declining standards of literacy and numeracy within Welsh Education. This new legislation brought upon the termination of the Welsh Assembly Government’s (2008b) non-statutory Skills Framework. No research yet suggests that the Welsh Assembly Government’s (2013) Literacy and Numeracy Framework can be effective in enhancing literacy and numeracy skills, in particular talking skills of the oracy strand within Literacy, thus, providing a rationale for the study. Data was collected through an action research approach via observations, and accompanying reflections with a class of fourteen (M=11, F=3) mixed gender students from a variety of local schools in Cardiff. Post study a semi-structured interview with the teaching supervisor created new emerging data. Recommendations from the Physical Education Talking Toolkit Davies, Symonds and Mason (2013) introduced were exploited to plan critical teaching interventions. Findings exemplified the importance of Davies, Symonds and Mason’s (2013) Physical Education Talking Toolkit pedagogical visual tools in the enhancement of describing skills in the early stages of the study, which then corresponded to an increased literacy development later in the study where students competently used exploring and instructing skills. Reflections highlighted the importance of the teacher using a wide range of pedagogical factors to enable opportunities for enhancing talking skills within a Physical Education context. The introduction of talking skills within a Football environment as part of a BTEC course provided evidence the Welsh Assembly Government’s (2013) Literacy and Numeracy Framework is effective in improving literacy skills, in particular talking skills. Future research should investigate the whole oracy strand incorporating the discussion and listening skills, and whether this too can be improved along with talking skills.