Oral communication skills in elementary school

Writing and reading have long been considered to be the two most important skills that pupils must master perfectly. For this reason, written competence has been the protagonist in education, while oral communication via listening and speaking has traditionally remained in the background. However, most criticisms of this prevalence have not been based on empirical studies but on simple verifications that are old and have not been applied to Spain. Given the lack of data and the importance of oral communication nowadays, the aim of this study is to determine the current weight of oral skills in primary education. For this purpose, 433 teachers answered an online questionnaire to determine the importance of each skill, the work dedicated to each, the activities to develop them, and the students' perceptions. The results indicated that, although most teachers believe that the way in which oral competencies are taught has changed, these skills should have still greater importance. In fact, they consider that the content included in the school curriculum is insufficient. Teachers claim to devote similar percentages of time to writing and speaking, but not so much to listening. In addition, they consider that students experience greater satisfaction when carrying out activities related to oral skills. In conclusion, although the results are positive and some progress is being made in developing oral communication, there is still room for improvement to achieve full equivalence with the written word.