Developing a classroom intervention to improve conversation skills

This project will develop an acceptable and feasible programme blueprint for teaching social conversation in classrooms.  

Why this research is important

Conversational ability is central to social communication. It is key to avoiding peer exclusion and poor social communication in primary school has been found to predict emotional and peer difficulties that persist through adolescence.  

To sustain a conversation, a child must provide on-topic responses to their conversation partner. Off-topic responding is strongly linked to peer rejection. Children must also monitor listener interest to determine when to stop talking.

However, some children struggle to maintain a conversation topic despite good vocabulary and sentence construction. 

How the intervention will be developed

Child conversation skills can be improved through instruction on conversational processes and practice with peers.

The research team will therefore develop a blueprint for teaching social conversation in mainstream upper-primary classrooms in four stages: 

1. Development of the intervention will be done in collaboration with upper-primary teachers using an iterative approach. The intention is to create a whole-class intervention for delivery over 6-8 weeks.  

2. Feasibility will initially be assessed through audio- and video-recording delivery in two schools and focus groups with participating educators, following which the intervention will be refined.  

3. Acceptability will be assessed by asking teachers to complete a weekly reflective diary and through qualitative interviews. An online survey of upper-primary teachers will solicit feedback on intervention materials and programme acceptability.  

4. A variety of measures will be collected prior to delivery to test-retest reliability and administration time. Children’s conversational skills, broader language skills, and social emotional behaviour will be tested during delivery of the programme. Outcome measures will be collected from children who participate in the second phase of feasibility work.  

How this research will make a difference

The project will create a resource for primary teachers to use to teach social conversation skills to all children, as part of Primary Spoken English and Personal Social Health and Economic education.

The research team intend to conduct further evaluation on a larger scale upon completion of the project.

Findings from the project will be shared through videos, lesson plans, activities, and written outputs.