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.

I know a really excellent online tutoring company for Spanish (I don't work for them!). My son's school is terrible at language teaching but he's really talented so I got him the tutoring. He's on track for a 9 and has learned everything from the tutoring. The next grade down in his class is a 6, most will be much less. He's been so inspired he wants to do A level.

@clary thanks so much! Yes that all makes sense. We are trying to find a balance between learning rote answers (which they have done for the photo) and practising actually being able to speak spontaneously! Thanks again for your help.

Learning languages in school is soul destroying. My daughter’s life changed for the better when she dropped Spanish. If he really does want to speak Spanish then maybe farm job in a non touristy area for a couple of months might be better.

I did French GCSE and my French was and is still appalling.

Yes, be wary of rote-learned answers even on the photo. He wouldn't be expected to know what the the last two questions will be (the other ones can be worked out within a couple of options) so if he appears to know them off by heart that might be concerning.

The best way to go IMHO is to learn lots of phrases that are generally useful (opinions and reasons, basic verb constructions, a range of adjectives) so that they can be adapted. If in doubt "Ich habe Fußball gespielt, es war super, weil ich gern Sport treibe" can be dragged into most convos haha

French GCSE will not (and does not make any claim to) end with you being able to speak French fluently. I have O level chemistry but I'm not a chemist. I get a bit fed up with the way there seems to be an expectation of much more from GCSE MFL than is reasonable.

Like all other GCSE-level quals, it's a gateway to maybe learn more. I’m sorry your DD didn't enjoy Spanish and it's true that not everyone gets on with MFL at school. I also agree that spending a decent amount of time in a country is a great way to pick up strong speaking skills.

Well my Y11 son is now more fluent than me and I studied Spanish for 3 years then lived in Mexico for a year! I think GCSE is adequate to get around and have simple conversation.

Yes and it's better now than it was (and I am talking only a few years ago). DD in 2017 learned answers to planned-out questions for her speaking; now the candidate has to have something amounting to a conversation where they will not know topic or questions beforehand.