Spoken learning is an educational approach that emphasises verbal communication and active listening. The New South Wales English curriculum uses spoken learning through various verbal assessments that students are required to undertake.
In today’s digital environments, where students are often consuming content the importance of developing verbal skills through spoken learning should not be understated.
There are three key benefits to spoken learning.
1. Improved retention and understanding
It is well-established that speaking out loud helps students reinforce learning by engaging multiple senses in their cognitive process. When students learn a concept, asking them to develop a speech to explain the concept ensures that the concept becomes engrained in their mind, resulting in life-long lessons through greater retention.
2. Enhanced Critical Thinking
Pushing students to explain ideas verbally forces them to think critically about those ideas, and break them down into sub-concepts that can be articulated clearly. Students are forced to think about how others would need to understand an idea, and how it can be expressed in the simple terms that verbal communication requires.
3. Building confidence
Once students are able to express an idea verbally, they become more confident in relying on those concepts in day-to-day life. This ensures that students are confident with the material that they learn and feel assured when expressing themselves in regular conversation.
Debating and public speaking classes for kids are one of the best ways in which spoken learning can be practicsed. Students are often taught about world affairs and philosophical concepts and asked to then apply those concepts through speech. This ensures that the benefits described above are bestowed on students weekly through their speaking classes.
The skills that students learn in debating and public speaking courses can be extended to the classroom and private study. Students often find that once they master the art of debating and public speaking, they can apply spoken learning methods to other subjects they learn at school.
We encourage our students to actively listen and express their ideas, taking the lessons they learn in debating and public speaking classes beyond their journey with Speakers’ Corner.
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