English in Education

Oracy in Education

The term oracy was coined by Andrew Wilkinson in Spoken English (1965) to describe the “general ability in the oral skills” (p. 14). Wilkinson acknowledged that the construct had “merely been given a name”, and that the real challenge was to further define it, discover the best ways of teaching it, and connect it to wider educational concerns, such as literacy and numeracy. This special issue of English in Education takes up that challenge.

Oracy has long been the subject of educational discussion, with major reports — including the Bullock Report (1975) — making the case for a more deliberate and explicit focus on speaking, listening and communication. Yet oracy has remained on the margins of education policy and practice, particularly when compared with literacy and numeracy.

There are signs that its profile is changing. Political pledges to help “every child find their voice” and make oracy a core part of curriculum and assessment and a growing number of schools choosing to prioritise the development of their students’ speaking, listening and communication skills, suggest that oracy is gaining momentum. Yet, despite the inclusion of the term in the review’s terms of reference, the interim report from the Curriculum and Assessment Review made no mention of ‘oracy’, leading some to question whether it will once again be overlooked.

At this moment of uncertainty and possibility, we seek contributions that engage with the challenges posed by Andrew Wilkinson over 60 years ago. We welcome papers from classroom practitioners, teacher educators, educational researchers and policy thinkers. The list of options which follows is indicative not prescriptive.

Theoretical perspectives: the challenge of further defining oracy

●       What is oracy? What are the most useful ways of defining it?

●      How might oracy be defined more helpfully over fifty years on from its original formulation?

●      How is oracy conceptualised and enacted differently in the educational practices of other jurisdictions?

●      What critiques have sociolinguistic perspectives offered of existing theoretical models of oracy, and how might these critiques themselves be examined or challenged?

Policy: connecting oracy to policy and practice in literacy and numeracy

●       What can we learn from past initiatives like the National Oracy Project or the design of spoken language study at GCSE and A Level?

●      How has oracy policy developed and been implemented since 1965, and how has it been weighted or treated in comparison with literacy and numeracy?

●      How might oracy be meaningfully embedded in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment policy?

●      What role does oracy play in the new GCSE curriculum in British Sign Language, and how does this broaden or challenge traditional definitions of oracy?

Practice: discovering the best ways of teaching oracy

●       What pedagogical approaches are most effective in developing oracy?

●       How can oracy education be inclusive of all learners, including those who are non-verbal or who have Speech, Language and Communication Needs?

●      How can teachers and school leaders ensure students learn to, through and about talk?

●       How has oracy been meaningfully embedded in the curriculum? What difference has this made to children and young people?

●      What are examples of disciplinary oracy, and how have these been fostered effectively in the classroom?

●      How might oracy be approached as ‘memorable speech’, and what is the significance of the poetic dimension of spoken discourse?