Spanish GCSE son struggling with speaking and responding to questions

[Sata]

I would like someone to give me some help. My son is studying GCSE Spanish and is struggling with the section on talking and responding to questions. He has a good teacher who recommends the online Pearson work, which aligns with Excel. However, he does not enjoy this, and it is time-consuming and stressful pressuring him to do this. He has been doing Duolingo off and on and likes it, but he needs something more structured and GCSE-orientated. Has anyone had experience with a good app or anything else that focuses on speaking and responding to questioning? He likes apps that give feedback and allow him to monitor his progress. His results for Spanish and translating are pretty good, but he struggles with talking and responding to questions. If there is a Spanish teacher out there, it would be great to hear from you. Private tutoring is an option, but my finances are limited.

Is he in year 11 or (hopefully) year 10?
I presume he is taking Edexcel then - it is GCSE not IGCSE? I only ask bc Edexcel is not so popular so wanted to check it’s not the IGCSE.

MFL is my subject (not really Spanish tho) - I’ll post more later but knowing the board is helpful. Also what sort of work is he doing that he does not enjoy? Really for GCSE it’s about doing what you need to do to get a good mark.

Hi, thank you. He is in year 10 doing Edexcel. He finds the online Activehub Pearson a bit dry, and its exercises are mostly grammar.

Definitely GCSE not IGCSE? Just bc the speaking exams are very different. Won’t be IGCSE if he is at a state school tho.

Hi. For his GCSE, he has to discuss a picture and answer questions related to it.

The apps are rubbish for this sort of thing. There are a bunch of YouTube /tik tok folks who do various GCSE language prep advice. I don't know the Spanish ones but the French ones are decent.
The best thing is to find someone who speaks Spanish and get them to ask him questions in thr style of the speaking exam. If you cannot find anyone who can string a sentence together in Spanish then you could try setting it up in Chatgpt or similar where you upload the pic and then ask it to ask you questions from a set in Spanish and check the response.

Personally I'd be finding a MFL A level student from school to do a few speaking sessions for not too much £

Yes for sure, that’s true of both Edexcel IGCSE and GCSE. I’m trying to establish which he is taking as my advice will vary, depending which one.

Will he supply the picture do you know? Is he at a state school?

This is an example of how they are asked to respond.

@Sata tell your son to install the ChatGPT app on his phone. It does voice recognition. He can tell it the topic (or upload the picture in your example) and ask it to converse with him at GCSE level, and to tell him if he makes any mistakes.

My DH learns Spanish and uses ChatGPT all the time.

Thank you. I will follow your advice.

Thanks so much. I think using ChatGPT is going to be helpful having just tried it.

OK well there is a specific way he needs to respond to questions and boxes he needs to tick, but they vary from one spec to another - between different boards and GCSE/IGCSE. If you can't tell me for sure if it's GCSE or IGCSE then I will assume it is Edexcel GCSE (perfectly possible obviously).

I am sure ChatGPT will help tho obviously it will be fairly generic as opposed to specific to the board and spec. AWA and Edexcel GCSE are similar but not identcial.

I can't post longer now but I will come back with some pointers to watch out for and which boxes he needs to tick to do well in the Edexcel GCSE Spanish speaking assessment. If it’s IGCSE then ti will be different that's all.

Not specifically addressing your query OP, but my D1 did A level Spanish and used to watch Spanish shows on her laptop, also watched films (eg the Harry Potter films) dubbed into Spanish with English subtitles, just so she became more accustomed to hearing conversation.

It may be worth seeking out university students studying MFL who often do a bit of tutoring and conversation practise - may be cheaper than private in-person tutoring.

I think a uni or A level student is a good idea as long as they are familiar with the spec. I know I keep going on, but I do a lot of external assessments and cover a range of different boards and it amazes me every year how many students just don't know they need to ask me a question, or they should use a range of tenses in this section, or they should develop their answers here.

"I am sure ChatGPT will help tho obviously it will be fairly generic as opposed to specific to the board and spec"

If you tell ChatGPT which board and spec it is then it might be able to adapt to that. Or else point it to the marking scheme and ask it to evaluate your responses in line with that. It's worth a try.

I'm a Head of MFL. For the photo card you need to be able to give extended responses, including justified opinions. I always tell my students that easy ways of extending responses are: giving an opposing opinion, e.g if you've said what you like, say something that you dislike. Always explain why with phrases such as 'para mí, creo que'.
Give someone else's opinion after your own e.g mis amigos piensan que.
Add additional tenses. If the questions asks what you normally do at the weekend, answer as above and then say what you did last weekend.

Yes it is worth a try. Excuse me if I am a bit doubtful – my experience with AI is that it has come on a lot but it still a but flaky, and I doubt that it has mastered the differences between specs as yet. Showing it the mark scheme is a decent shout though.

Agree re the photocard; it's all about extending answers.

If he is taking the exam in 2025 he will be taking the new spec which includes reading aloud for the speaking, so that's something he could usefully practise.

The role play is just assessed on communication so there is no need to extend answers there. But for the photo card and the general conversation he needs to be able to narrate, to use a range of tenses, and to include opinions and justification.

So a useful activity is to draft out a range of phrases expressing likes and dislikes, a range of reasons why – because it is – and then some adjectives and modifiers.

It's also important to practise verbs including past and future tenses.

I don't have any wonderful apps that will help sadly, but has he tried recording himself saying some of the phrases and listening on his phone to help learn them?

Just for fun, I asked ChatGPT's opinion ...

Given these Edexcel marking criteria, do you think you could have a conversation with a GCSE Spanish student and evaluate their responses? https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Urdu/2017/forms-and-administration/Mark-sheet-Higher-speaking.pdf

ChatGPT said:
Yes, I can absolutely do that! That PDF you've linked is actually for GCSE Urdu, but Edexcel's marking criteria and assessment structure for GCSE Spanish (Higher Tier Speaking) are quite similar, especially in how they assess:
Communication
Knowledge and use of language
Accuracy
Pronunciation
The typical format includes:
Role-play (10 marks)
Picture-based task (24 marks)
Conversation (36 marks)
Each task is marked based on specific descriptors like how well the student responds, their use of vocabulary and grammar, and how natural their pronunciation sounds.
So yes, here's what I can do:
Simulate a GCSE Spanish speaking exam
Play the role of the examiner
Ask questions based on the actual structure
Evaluate the student’s responses using Edexcel's marking grids for Higher Tier
Give feedback (scores + how to improve)
Want to try a role-play, picture-based task, or conversation first? And should I speak only in Spanish, or mix with English like in the real exam?

haha very clever @morninall

That spec is not the right one but that's fine as long as he puts in the right one.

Not sure that the real exam mixes with English tho! It doesn't when I conduct them. Also I wonder if ChatGPT actually grasps the different AOs that apply to different sections – eg with the role play as long as it is clear, there are no marks for pronunciation. But yes it is for sure worth a go @Sata

Arrrgh just seen that my last posts says “if he is taking the exam in 2025” obvs I meant 2026 apologies

If you tell it where it's going wrong it will correct itself. To get the best out of it you do need to prompt it effectively. The more people who do that, the more it learns.

Sorry to jump on the thread but would you have any specific tips for an IGCSE German higher speaking candidate for the topic questions @clary ? It's been really useful reading through everyone's thoughts so far and I would never have thought of using chatgpt. Luckily I speak a bit of German so I can practise the speaking with DS but I don't know the strategies to tick all the boxes off!

For sure I can help. Can you clarify tho – I am not aware that there are tiers for IGCSE German (either CAIE or Edexcel boards) so I wonder if you mean GCSE rather than IGCSE (IGCSE is usually IME only taken by HE candidates or those at private schools)? Either way, which board? It makes a difference. :)

Thank you! It's definitely Pearson Edexcel iGCSE.

OK so is he all good on the picture he has chosen? The questions for that follow a formula as he will know, so it's possible IMHO to prep the first three and have a good guess at the fourth and fifth. He needs to narrate and extend answers, giving and justifying opinions, and use past or future as demanded by the questions.

Then for the general convo, that will focus on two out of the four remaining topic areas. He won't know which until the exam tho. Again for the highest mark he needs to answer with extended speech, narrating and also giving opinions and extended reasons; he also needs to reference past, present and future timeframes and use more complex vocab and grammar, and be accurate; there are also marks for quick and fluent responses.

Does that answer your question? I am not quite sure whether you are looking for info on a AOs or want to know what kind of questions he might be asked? Presumably he has drafted some responses to sample questions as prep.