Speaking and listening exams are failing Gen Z’s anxious learners, it’s time for a rethink

Speaking and listening exam are rarely popular with learners. Currently English functional skills exams are split into three parts: reading, writing and speaking and listening. The first two are fine, the last part needs a rethink.

We are in an anxiety epidemic.  Yet we ask learners to chat with a group of other students, who they have often never met. We ask them to be involved in a group conversation lasting up to ten minutes, followed by an individual talk.

The vast majority of learners are fine with this format. Having witnessed speaking and listening exams where it goes wrong, both on-line and in person, from an informed view I feel that changes are needed to the current format.