Page 9 - The East Sussex Way

Robust oracy education promotes social equality for all pupils
because:

● Oracy has the potential to empower young people to
advocate for themselves.
● Oracy helps young people negotiate difÞ cult conversations
and empathise with alternative perspectives.
● Oracy can strengthen democratic participation and political
literacy.

‘Too much oracy is left to chance.’ (APPG, 2021)

Spoken language is too often seen as something that will develop
naturally and the oracy curriculum is therefore not sufÞ ciently
planned or prioritised. There is a perception that oracy is only
occasionally relevant and the production of written outcomes
is allowed to dominate. This may be partly due to the apparent
challenge of demonstrating progress in oracy, alongside the fact
that it is not valued in the assessment frameworks at the end of key
stage 2 or at GCSE.

In fact, the cognitive beneÞ ts of oracy are reß ected in the robust
evidence that quality classroom talk has a measurable impact on
academic attainment (Alexander, 2012). These beneÞ ts include
greater retention of subject-speciÞ c knowledge, vocabulary
acquisition, and reasoning skills. They are not conÞ ned to subjects
traditionally associated with discussion and dialogue, such as the arts

and humanities: the beneÞ ts of talk-rich teaching and learning can
be found across the curriculum, in mathematics and science (Jay, et
al., 2017).

‘Great speakers are made, not born.’ (Stott & Gaunt, 2018)

Good practice in oracy is risky and messy. It does not always go to
plan. It is teacher-guided but student-led. But schools and teachers
need to feel empowered to embrace the ‘messiness’ of exploratory
talk. Speak for Change found that school policies that insist on
evidence of learning in books can be counterproductive and a
particular barrier to oracy education (APPG, 2021). Best practice in
oracy will emerge when teachers and pupils understand that the talk
is the work and not just an added extra to prepare pupils to write.

A lack of conÞ dence and expertise in oracy teaching, exacerbated
by an absence of high-quality training, resources and guidance,
means that some teachers do not have a clear idea of what

‘good talk’ looks like or how talk can be used to support teaching
and learning. Teachers don’t even agree on the types of talk that 4