The new MFL GCSE speaking component marks a decisive shift away from rehearsed performances towards spontaneous, controlled language use under pressure. Yet much classroom practice still trains students to memorise answers rather than develop genuine oral control — a mismatch that the new specification increasingly exposes.

Research in second language acquisition shows that speaking proficiency depends on automatised retrieval, reduced cognitive load, and extensive experience with structured oral tasks before independent performance (DeKeyser; Kormos; Levelt).

This evidence-based CPD session unpacks what the new GCSE speaking tasks actually assess and why many otherwise capable students underperform.

Drawing on research into speech production, task complexity and oral fluency (Skehan; Robinson), we will examine how classroom speaking activities can be redesigned to build accuracy, responsiveness and confidence over time — without relying on over-rehearsal or scripted answers.

The workshop will explore practical task types aligned to the new GCSE, including photo-based interaction, role-play and general conversation, and will show how teachers can scaffold spoken language development so that students are genuinely prepared to think and speak in real time.

Particular attention will be paid to supporting lower-attaining and SEN learners, for whom speaking anxiety and retrieval pressure are often the main barriers. Teachers will leave with fresh, research-informed ideas they can apply immediately to improve spoken performance and exam outcomes.

Dr Gianfranco Conti

Founder, owner and CEO of the leading language learning website The Language Gym, Gianfranco Conti is an applied linguistics MA and PhD graduate with many years of classroom experience. He has taught Modern Languages for nearly 30 years both at primary, secondary and university levels.

He has researched the impact of metacognitive strategies training and error correction on L2 essay writing under the supervision of Oxford University Professor Ernesto Macaro both during his PhD and a large-scale project in English comprehensive schools documented in Professor Macaro's 2001 book. In his current role as Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading, he has lexicogrammar acquisition, listening instruction, metacognition, error correction and learner autonomy as his main research interests.

Formerly head of languages at various schools in England and abroad where he has developed and implemented his instructional approach (Extensive Processing Instruction), he is currently a renowned and highly sought-after conference speaker and CPD provider very active in the UK, South-East Asia, Middle East and Australia. He delivers keynotes in major international events all year around, conducts more than a hundred workshops for language teachers a year and visits many schools in the same period of time either to provide professional development or to help them improve their curriculum design and delivery.

His mission is to make current Cognitive Science and Applied Linguistics research available to the busy classroom practitioner and to translate it in implementable and impactful instructional strategies which make languages accessible for all.He is well-known internationally for his teaching resources that have won him the TES Best contributor award and have been downloaded over 4,500,000 times by over 100,000 teachers around the world.

He runs a very influential blog on MFL pedagogy, The Language Gym (gianfrancoconti.com), which has won him several international awards. The professional development group he founded on Facebook, Global Innovative Language Teachers (aka GILT) is one of the largest and fastest-growing communities of its genre.

Gianfranco is also a prolific book writer. In the last five years he has co-authored with Steve Smith the best-selling handbooks for MFL professionals, The Language Teacher Toolkit, Breaking the sound barrier: teaching learners how to listen and 'Memory: what every language teacher should know. His most popular book, "Breaking the sound barrier", lays out the principles of the language teaching method he has created, E.P.I. (aka: Extensive Processing Instruction), a usage-based approach which has been adopted by thousands of language educators worldwide.

He has also published the best-selling Sentence builders series of workbooks aimed at classroom and independent learning for beginner to intermediate learners of Spanish, French, German and Italian, based on 'EPI', written with his former colleague Dylan Viñales, which is being currently adapted to Irish, Welsh, Dutch and other languages. He is also currently working on a series of revision books aimed at GCSE Modern Language learners, two of which have already been published, whilst German and Italian are still in the works.

Cost: £95 per delegate