The Centre for Oral Communication (ZM) has a mandate to support teachers and schools in setting up projects that specifically promote oracy skills: It thus offers specialised consultations for individuals, groups, and schools. In addition, the ZM supports the students and employees at the University of Teacher Education Zug (PH Zug) in developing and improving their own communication skills, for example with individually tailored in-house speech coaching sessions for students and staff.

The ZM’s services include:

• Let's Talk!: Promoting speaking in the classroom: With the web platform "Let's Talk!", the ZM combines research and practice. Teachers and researchers developed the website together. There is a wide range of teaching and practice material as well as practical tips on the topics of multilingualism, listening, dialogue, parent talks and class council to discover. It's worth a look!
• Speech Coaching: This is an in-house offer for students and staff at PH Zug. These tailor-made individual sessions are designed and facilitated by Judith Kreuz, our trained speech scientist. As part of an in-house research and development course, Judith Kreuz also trains PH Zug students to coach their peers. For more information, please contact Judith Kreuz.

• Storytelling Festival: The ZM organises an annual storytelling festival  for local schools. Experiencing the art of storytelling first-hand as both orator and listener is a unique and memorable experience that connects people regardless of age or background. The festival, open to grades 1 to 4, incorporates an element of competition mixed with a healthy dose of fun. For the crowning finale, the children get to experience a Swiss storyteller up close on stage.

• The Swiss Read Aloud Day (“Vorlesetag) is a national day of action initiated by the SIKJM, on which the Centre for Oral Communication, the German department and the Mediothek of the PH Zug organise a read-aloud event for kindergarten and primary school classes as well as for interested groups from the school's supplementary childcare. Exciting stories are read to the pupils, which are then worked on in groups through play. 

• Listening Clubs: The ZM supports the establishment of listening clubs, which focus on the playful elements of listening, particularly with primary school learners. Based on a highly successful concept developed in Germany by the Stiftung Zuhören (the Listening Foundation), listening clubs encourage children to listen in a playful, focused, and attentive way. Club members listen to and create audiobooks and radio plays, experiment with sound, and play listening games. In addition, the ZM encourages primary school teachers to implement the spirit of listening clubs in their regular language lessons (German, English, French), in order to instil a love of listening at an early age.
• Assessment of school development projects: Feedback on assessment tools, conceptual frameworks, and documentation
• Development of listening test items to assess the achievement of basic competences: The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) regularly checks whether students in Switzerland are achieving the national educational goals (i.e. basic skills). Since 2016 the ZM has been developing the listening test items on behalf of the EDK. In 2018, a feasibility study was conducted to show which subjects can be tested in a digital format (i.e. using tablets) in the 4th grade. Based on this feasibility study, the EDK has decided to test listening comprehension (among other competences) in the main survey for the 4th grade.

Development of Teaching Material

• Development of specialised teaching units, including Drama in Education lessons for the primary classroom and the Franzel-DVD, which features tips for teaching French as a Foreign Language.
• Development of teaching tools, such as the Klangrad (Wheel of Sound), an educational listening game co-developed with edufix. The Klangrad is the first instalment of an educational programme aiming to promote listening skills, and it focuses on distinguishing between non-linguistic sounds. In June 2015, a beta version of the program was successfully tested by students from two middle school classes at the PH Zug.
• Development of free online teaching resources, such as the Volksballaden relo@ded (Folk Ballads relo@ded), which invites teenagers to re-examine Swiss folk ballads by exploring current issues such as migration, emancipation, and love in song texts from Switzerland’s past. The ZM has developed teaching units for the secondary school level, which promote oral language skills and invite students to connect with a thus far neglected piece of Swiss cultural heritage. The ballads have been "reloaded" through their performance by the students and staff of the music department at the PH Zug.