Getting started
with Oracy
What is oracy?
Oracy refers to the skills involved in using spoken language to communicate effectively.
Although cultural norms regarding politeness and the appropriate forms of language to use in different social settings may vary, the essential skills that support oracy are not specific to any language or culture. The key principles for making an effective spoken presentation apply in any language, and that is also the case for using talk to work well in a group or team.
It is useful to think of oracy as having two aspects.
- The first mainly concerns a teacher’s effective use of talk in the classroom to enable the interactive process of teaching and learning. This is called dialogic teaching.
- The second concerns the explicit teaching of spoken language skills to students – helping them learn how to talk. This is called oracy education.
Watch this video to hear some reflections on talk and why it's important:
What is oracy?
Oracy refers to the skills involved in using spoken language to communicate effectively.
Although cultural norms regarding politeness and the appropriate forms of language to use in different social settings may vary, the essential skills that support oracy are not specific to any language or culture. The key principles for making an effective spoken presentation apply in any language, and that is also the case for using talk to work well in a group or team.
It is useful to think of oracy as having two aspects.
- The first mainly concerns a teacher’s effective use of talk in the classroom to enable the interactive process of teaching and learning. This is called dialogic teaching.
- The second concerns the explicit teaching of spoken language skills to students – helping them learn how to talk. This is called oracy education.
Watch this video to hear some reflections on talk and why it's important:
What are the benefits?
Oracy is a life skill
We need oracy skills in all aspects of our lives – at home, at school, in the workplace and in our communities.
Various oracy skills are needed in different situations. For example, if you are making a public speech, voice projection will be important. But in a personal, face-to-face conversation, we need to know how to listen actively. To listen actively is to interpret what the speaker is saying, recognise the key messages and be able to respond either verbally or in writing.
Children’s experience of communication varies enormously outside of school. Some may be regularly involved in thoughtful conversations, discussions, word play and other kinds of spoken interactions, while others may have a much more limited involvement in talk. This is why many researchers and teachers now believe oracy education – the explicit teaching of spoken language skills – should be a significant part of every child’s educational experience, to benefit them in life and beyond school.
Oracy improves academic achievement
The quality of children’s early language experience has been shown to be a powerful predictor of their future educational achievement across the curriculum, not just in those subjects most closely related to language (Law et al., 2017; Roy, Chiatt & Dodd, 2014).
In all subjects, if students know how to work well in a group, well-designed talk activities, such as the following, encourage active learning.
- Listening actively to other students’ ideas helps learners gain knowledge to build on their own ideas.
- Opportunities for philosophical questions or debating encourage children to think critically.
- Developing ideas through talk provides opportunities for learners to add more into their written answers.
- Using vocabulary and terminology out loud develops learners’ confidence to use it in their written work.
- Trying to put their thoughts into words can help children clarify their own understanding.
Oracy skills improve wellbeing
Learner wellbeing is at the heart of a good education. How learners feel about their life and how they function, flourish and feel connected to others all represent their overall wellbeing. Research has shown that children who are regularly and actively involved in whole-class discussions and conversations have more positive attitudes to school. Offering learners more opportunities to take part in discussions with others will help them to improve their social and emotional awareness, leading to better human connections. Understanding how to listen out for emotional needs and express their own emotional needs can help to form healthier and more respectful relationships in which each person has a voice, and each person is prepared to listen with compassion. Also, learners who can express themselves will be better able to identify their emotions or perhaps have the confidence to reach out to a trusted adult when they need support.
What are some challenges and common misconceptions?
Oracy is all about public speaking and debating
Making a public speech is, of course, an example of a task that requires oracy skills, but it is only one element of oracy, in the same way that trigonometry is only one element of maths. Even within public speaking, there are many other necessary oracy skills, such as listening to, clarifying or summarising another speaker’s ideas. You also need the ability to understand different points of view and formulate and structure ideas and responses. Within their set of oracy skills, learners will have different areas of strengths that can be celebrated. People often think debating should be public, competitive or extracurricular. However, meaningful debate can be formal or informal and can take place in paired or group work, without spectators or the need for a ‘winning side’.
Oracy skills only benefit certain subjects
All subjects can benefit from teaching and learning oracy skills. Not only do all subjects offer the opportunity for paired and group work, where learners have to use and improve their oracy skills, but they can also offer more opportunities for public speaking and debating skills. All subjects include areas of interest for meaningful discussion and presentation, such as the big questions that can be posed in science lessons and the key themes explored in literature lessons.
Some subjects, such as maths, can be misinterpreted as not having any opportunities for oracy. Maths has less discussion and debate and requires logical thinking and more work with numbers than with words. However, it offers many opportunities for students to present their working out or discuss how effective different problem-solving methods are. Oracy tasks can also aid metacognition in maths lessons, by giving students opportunities to recognise errors and explain why they might have made a particular mistake. This could even be demonstrated as a role-play interview between students in paired work. Rather than having students respond to a question immediately, maths teachers can help nurture confidence in oracy by allowing students thinking and processing time to translate their abstract mathematical thinking into a clear explanation. Also, if students are taught how to work well together, maths lessons offer good opportunities for student-led learning and group work – which can improve attainment.
I am not used to teaching oracy skills as part of my subject
Some teachers might understandably lack confidence in their own oracy skills or their knowledge of how to teach these skills, but many of the same pedagogical skills for structuring lessons apply to teaching and learning oracy. For instance, if you normally scaffold writing tasks by providing sentence starters and key vocabulary, you can use similar prompts when asking learners to share their work orally. If you often ask learners to present their ideas to the class, you can ask the class to use the Oracy Skills Framework to assess, with other learners, the oracy skills of the presenters.
A really simple way to encourage learners with their oracy skills is to praise them for their efforts. If a learner presents their ideas confidently, invites someone to contribute or builds on the ideas of others, you can praise this specifically to show that it is valued. This also can help children learn how to use talk well.
Becoming aware of how learners use talk in the classroom is the first step to supporting them further. When you are aware of oracy in your classroom and refine how you teach these skills, it helps you to reflect on your own oracy skills and improve your own communication in and outside of the classroom.
I won’t be able to promote behaviour for learning if there’s lots of talking in lessons
Although there will be times when it is necessary for a class to be in silence, talk-based activities can make an important contribution to children’s learning and the development of their spoken language skills. Some teachers might worry that lots of talking is a sign of poor behaviour management. However, meaningful talk, paired work, whole-class discussions and working in groups are all examples of behaviour for learning.
A noisy classroom is not necessarily a naughty classroom. Allowing learners to take part in meaningful and clearly structured talk activities enables them to demonstrate positive behaviours. The more often this takes place, the easier it will be for learners to understand the expectations around talking in the classroom. Developing oracy skills will encourage learners who might otherwise either remain passive or use talk disruptively to actively take part in the lesson.
It’s not possible to assess oracy skills
Oracy can be assessed formally throughout lessons through feedback from the teacher, peer assessment and self-assessment. You can use the Oracy Skills Framework as the basis for this.
It is becoming more widely recognised that, because of their importance, oracy skills deserve to be formally assessed (as is the case for skills in literacy and numeracy). According to Simon Child and Paul Ellis in The What, Why and How of Assessment, “the future of assessment will be dependent on a range of factors which deserve careful thought and attention… Assessments need to be fit for the purposes for which they are intended, maintain principles, use common language, and be recognised by other levels of education, employers and the general public.”
Some learners are too shy to talk, and some learners talk too much!
For teachers, knowing our learners and building positive relationships with them is the key to helping them succeed. Often, teachers can play a role in finding out why a learner might be showing signs of shyness. For example, the learner may need help to scaffold their ideas before sharing them, or they might need an opportunity to talk in a pair or small group before they feel comfortable to talk in front of the whole class. Similarly, if a learner is dominating the talk in lessons, perhaps they need help to invite and respond to the ideas of others, structure their contributions or use appropriate spoken language. Giving learners a clear group role during talk activities can help to focus those who are more vocal and encourage those who are less so.
Oracy is a natural skill – some learners are just better at it than others
For a long time, oracy has not been taught specifically in schools. As a result, it can often be misconceived as a skill that learners naturally either have or do not have. However, oracy skills can be taught and refined just like any other skill set. The more opportunities learners are given to practise their oracy skills, the better they will be become.
What are some challenges and common misconceptions?
Oracy is all about public speaking and debating
Making a public speech is, of course, an example of a task that requires oracy skills, but it is only one element of oracy, in the same way that trigonometry is only one element of maths. Even within public speaking, there are many other necessary oracy skills, such as listening to, clarifying or summarising another speaker’s ideas. You also need the ability to understand different points of view and formulate and structure ideas and responses. Within their set of oracy skills, learners will have different areas of strengths that can be celebrated. People often think debating should be public, competitive or extracurricular. However, meaningful debate can be formal or informal and can take place in paired or group work, without spectators or the need for a ‘winning side’.
Oracy skills only benefit certain subjects
All subjects can benefit from teaching and learning oracy skills. Not only do all subjects offer the opportunity for paired and group work, where learners have to use and improve their oracy skills, but they can also offer more opportunities for public speaking and debating skills. All subjects include areas of interest for meaningful discussion and presentation, such as the big questions that can be posed in science lessons and the key themes explored in literature lessons.
Some subjects, such as maths, can be misinterpreted as not having any opportunities for oracy. Maths has less discussion and debate and requires logical thinking and more work with numbers than with words. However, it offers many opportunities for students to present their working out or discuss how effective different problem-solving methods are. Oracy tasks can also aid metacognition in maths lessons, by giving students opportunities to recognise errors and explain why they might have made a particular mistake. This could even be demonstrated as a role-play interview between students in paired work. Rather than having students respond to a question immediately, maths teachers can help nurture confidence in oracy by allowing students thinking and processing time to translate their abstract mathematical thinking into a clear explanation. Also, if students are taught how to work well together, maths lessons offer good opportunities for student-led learning and group work – which can improve attainment.
I am not used to teaching oracy skills as part of my subject
Some teachers might understandably lack confidence in their own oracy skills or their knowledge of how to teach these skills, but many of the same pedagogical skills for structuring lessons apply to teaching and learning oracy. For instance, if you normally scaffold writing tasks by providing sentence starters and key vocabulary, you can use similar prompts when asking learners to share their work orally. If you often ask learners to present their ideas to the class, you can ask the class to use the Oracy Skills Framework to assess, with other learners, the oracy skills of the presenters.
A really simple way to encourage learners with their oracy skills is to praise them for their efforts. If a learner presents their ideas confidently, invites someone to contribute or builds on the ideas of others, you can praise this specifically to show that it is valued. This also can help children learn how to use talk well.
Becoming aware of how learners use talk in the classroom is the first step to supporting them further. When you are aware of oracy in your classroom and refine how you teach these skills, it helps you to reflect on your own oracy skills and improve your own communication in and outside of the classroom.
I won’t be able to promote behaviour for learning if there’s lots of talking in lessons
Although there will be times when it is necessary for a class to be in silence, talk-based activities can make an important contribution to children’s learning and the development of their spoken language skills. Some teachers might worry that lots of talking is a sign of poor behaviour management. However, meaningful talk, paired work, whole-class discussions and working in groups are all examples of behaviour for learning.
A noisy classroom is not necessarily a naughty classroom. Allowing learners to take part in meaningful and clearly structured talk activities enables them to demonstrate positive behaviours. The more often this takes place, the easier it will be for learners to understand the expectations around talking in the classroom. Developing oracy skills will encourage learners who might otherwise either remain passive or use talk disruptively to actively take part in the lesson.
It’s not possible to assess oracy skills
Oracy can be assessed formally throughout lessons through feedback from the teacher, peer assessment and self-assessment. You can use the Oracy Skills Framework as the basis for this.
It is becoming more widely recognised that, because of their importance, oracy skills deserve to be formally assessed (as is the case for skills in literacy and numeracy). According to Simon Child and Paul Ellis in The What, Why and How of Assessment, “the future of assessment will be dependent on a range of factors which deserve careful thought and attention… Assessments need to be fit for the purposes for which they are intended, maintain principles, use common language, and be recognised by other levels of education, employers and the general public.”
Some learners are too shy to talk, and some learners talk too much!
For teachers, knowing our learners and building positive relationships with them is the key to helping them succeed. Often, teachers can play a role in finding out why a learner might be showing signs of shyness. For example, the learner may need help to scaffold their ideas before sharing them, or they might need an opportunity to talk in a pair or small group before they feel comfortable to talk in front of the whole class. Similarly, if a learner is dominating the talk in lessons, perhaps they need help to invite and respond to the ideas of others, structure their contributions or use appropriate spoken language. Giving learners a clear group role during talk activities can help to focus those who are more vocal and encourage those who are less so.
Oracy is a natural skill – some learners are just better at it than others
For a long time, oracy has not been taught specifically in schools. As a result, it can often be misconceived as a skill that learners naturally either have or do not have. However, oracy skills can be taught and refined just like any other skill set. The more opportunities learners are given to practise their oracy skills, the better they will be become.
What does the research say?
The term ‘oracy’ was first used by a British professor of education, Andrew Wilkinson, in the 1960s to emphasise the educational importance of spoken language skills and give them the same level of importance as literacy (reading and writing) skills (Wilkinson, 1965). Wilkinson defined oracy as ‘the ability to use the oral skills of speaking and listening’. In recent years, the term has come to be used more widely and internationally, reflecting a growing awareness of the importance of developing young people’s spoken language skills for their own futures and those of their communities.
Recent educational research has shown that the effective use by teachers of talk in the classroom – how they use talk themselves and how they organise its use by their students – can have a big effect on their students’ educational attainment. It has therefore been argued that oracy should be made part of the normal, mainstream school curriculum in all countries (English-Speaking Union, 2016).
Recent large-scale school-based research has shown that students’ educational attainment is most effectively promoted by dialogic teaching (Alexander, 2020; Howe et al., 2019; Mercer, Wegerif & Major (Eds.), 2019). This means that for at least some of the time, students need to be actively involved in dialogue with their teacher (and other students) about the curriculum they are studying. In particular, it seems important that teachers achieve a balance between two ways of using talk, as shown in the table below.
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In authoritative presentation, the teacher:
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In interactive dialogue, the teacher:
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does most of the talking; informs students about a subject through a prepared talk or lecture; instructs students on how to carry out a task or procedure; demonstrates a fact or procedure; and checks students’ knowledge through specific questions about subject content. |
talks less; gives students opportunities to take long turns when talking; encourages students to discuss and question each other’s ideas; avoids always judging students’ contributions as either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’; encourages students to ask questions about things they do not understand; encourages students to share their thoughts and misunderstandings; and expects students to justify their ideas with reasons.
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In recent years, researchers in developmental psychology, linguistics and education have emphasised the importance of talk for children’s cognitive and social development (Whitebread et al. 2013). This idea was first expressed by the Russian psychologist Vygotsky, who recognised the central importance of language and interpersonal communication for cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1978) and it has since been developed by other researchers (Daniels, 2001). Research from neuroscience and evolutionary psychology now supports the view that language has evolved as an integrated part of human cognition, rather than being separate and distinct (Mercer, 2013 and Mercer, N 2019).
Humans have a great capacity for learning and, uniquely, a special capacity for learning language. This in turn enables us to learn from, and with, other people. By acquiring language, we become able to not just interact, but to ‘interthink’ (Littleton & Mercer, 2013). That is, we are able to think not only as individuals, but with other people. In this way, humans have (for better or worse) transformed the world.
Young people depend on interaction with others to develop their communication and thinking skills. However, most will need the help of their teachers to become effective speakers and listeners. Through educational research, we now know some very practical ways that teachers can provide the relevant guidance and instruction.
Practical tips
Ground rules and respect
Even in talk-based activities where learners might challenge an opposing point of view, respect and politeness is still necessary – you can remind learners that only the subject matter is there to be challenged, not the person. Also, it is important that all learners are given an opportunity to share their views and hear the views of others, celebrating a variety of perspectives.
All classrooms should be a positive learning environment, where everyone respects each other. To successfully promote respect in the classroom, you can:
- at the beginning of a new school year or unit of study, establish a set of ‘ground rules for talking together’ with a class;
- develop the ground rules by inviting learners to offer their suggestions for what makes group work go well or badly, and agree a list of rules together; and
- keep the ground rules on display so that it is easy to refer to them when necessary.
A staged process for developing ground rules with a class is described below, under ‘Teaching talk skills for group work and collaborative learning’.
Watch this video to hear more about ground rules:
The Oracy Skills Framework
Until recently, there was no clear specification of the range of skills that are involved in using spoken language to communicate effectively. The Oracy Skills Framework (as shown below and available online with a glossary) was created by researchers at the University of Cambridge, working with members of School 21 (the first UK school to put oracy firmly into its curriculum).
Teachers and learners can adapt this framework to explore, assess and self-assess the four strands of oracy skills, like this Talk Detectives table shows.
Teaching talk skills for group work and collaborative learning
Teachers can develop students’ skills in using talk when solving problems with others.
There are six crucial steps in this process.
Step 1: Use a whole-class discussion to raise students’ awareness of how they talk and work together.
Step 2: Ask students to say what they think makes a good – and bad – discussion.
Step 3: Pick out the most important features of a good discussion.
Step 4: Convert these into a set of ground rules for carrying out effective discussions, which students should agree to adopt.
Step 5: Give students some well-designed group-work tasks.
Step 6: With students, review their activity at the end of each week, focusing on the quality of their discussion.
The key features of a productive discussion are incorporated in the concept of exploratory talk (Mercer, 2000), and it is this way of using language for thinking collectively that students should be adopting.
In exploratory talk, people:
- actively take part;
- share relevant information;
- engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas;
- give reasons for their views;
- check understanding by asking questions;
- build on each other’s responses; and
- aim to reach agreement.
Teaching presentational skills
Innovative schools that have prioritised oracy education, such as School 21 in the UK, have used an approach to teaching presentational skills that is mainly based on the following six steps (Gaunt & Stott, 2018).
Step 1: Set up a safe setting for learning, such as a small group of students who will learn together.
Step 2: Ask each student to choose a subject they feel confident with. (Keep to simple topics and suggest one if necessary.)
Step 3: Ask each student to prepare a two-minute presentation. (Note: this should not be a script – students can only have a list of key words as prompts.)
Step 4: Get students to work on their ideas with a classmate.
Step 5: Ask each student to present in turn.
Step 6: Build up students’ confidence with critical but supportive feedback (which might usefully refer to the Oracy Skills Framework).
You then repeat this process, with students preparing longer and more adventurous presentations until they feel confident to speak to larger and less familiar audiences.
Teaching debating skills
Another way for students to develop their skills and confidence in public speaking is to involve them in debates. Some debates are formal discussions in which individuals or teams argue for or against a specific proposition. Some organisations, such as the English-Speaking Union (ESU), provide guidance for schools on formal debates and organise international debating competitions.
Practical tips
Ground rules and respect
Even in talk-based activities where learners might challenge an opposing point of view, respect and politeness is still necessary – you can remind learners that only the subject matter is there to be challenged, not the person. Also, it is important that all learners are given an opportunity to share their views and hear the views of others, celebrating a variety of perspectives.
All classrooms should be a positive learning environment, where everyone respects each other. To successfully promote respect in the classroom, you can:
- at the beginning of a new school year or unit of study, establish a set of ‘ground rules for talking together’ with a class;
- develop the ground rules by inviting learners to offer their suggestions for what makes group work go well or badly, and agree a list of rules together; and
- keep the ground rules on display so that it is easy to refer to them when necessary.
A staged process for developing ground rules with a class is described below, under ‘Teaching talk skills for group work and collaborative learning’.
Watch this video to hear more about ground rules:
The Oracy Skills Framework
Until recently, there was no clear specification of the range of skills that are involved in using spoken language to communicate effectively. The Oracy Skills Framework (as shown below and available online with a glossary) was created by researchers at the University of Cambridge, working with members of School 21 (the first UK school to put oracy firmly into its curriculum).
Teachers and learners can adapt this framework to explore, assess and self-assess the four strands of oracy skills, like this Talk Detectives table shows.
Teaching talk skills for group work and collaborative learning
Teachers can develop students’ skills in using talk when solving problems with others.
There are six crucial steps in this process.
Step 1: Use a whole-class discussion to raise students’ awareness of how they talk and work together.
Step 2: Ask students to say what they think makes a good – and bad – discussion.
Step 3: Pick out the most important features of a good discussion.
Step 4: Convert these into a set of ground rules for carrying out effective discussions, which students should agree to adopt.
Step 5: Give students some well-designed group-work tasks.
Step 6: With students, review their activity at the end of each week, focusing on the quality of their discussion.
The key features of a productive discussion are incorporated in the concept of exploratory talk (Mercer, 2000), and it is this way of using language for thinking collectively that students should be adopting.
In exploratory talk, people:
- actively take part;
- share relevant information;
- engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas;
- give reasons for their views;
- check understanding by asking questions;
- build on each other’s responses; and
- aim to reach agreement.
Teaching presentational skills
Innovative schools that have prioritised oracy education, such as School 21 in the UK, have used an approach to teaching presentational skills that is mainly based on the following six steps (Gaunt & Stott, 2018).
Step 1: Set up a safe setting for learning, such as a small group of students who will learn together.
Step 2: Ask each student to choose a subject they feel confident with. (Keep to simple topics and suggest one if necessary.)
Step 3: Ask each student to prepare a two-minute presentation. (Note: this should not be a script – students can only have a list of key words as prompts.)
Step 4: Get students to work on their ideas with a classmate.
Step 5: Ask each student to present in turn.
Step 6: Build up students’ confidence with critical but supportive feedback (which might usefully refer to the Oracy Skills Framework).
You then repeat this process, with students preparing longer and more adventurous presentations until they feel confident to speak to larger and less familiar audiences.
Teaching debating skills
Another way for students to develop their skills and confidence in public speaking is to involve them in debates. Some debates are formal discussions in which individuals or teams argue for or against a specific proposition. Some organisations, such as the English-Speaking Union (ESU), provide guidance for schools on formal debates and organise international debating competitions.
Teaching listening skills
Listening is key to learning, yet although children are constantly reminded to listen, it is rarely taught as a skill they can achieve. Teaching children how to listen involves giving them clear strategies that help them to understand what has been said.
So, it is helpful to do the following.
- Create the classroom conditions needed for an inclusive education.
- Ask students to say what helps them to listen, and what makes listening difficult.
- Offer students listening activities designed to focus their attention for increasing amounts of time, or on increasingly complex ideas.
- Discuss with the students what effect the activities had and encourage them to see themselves as increasingly able to listen to a range of things in a variety of environments.
The use of authentic listening activities leads to greater improvement in listening comprehension than if artificial tasks are used. You can find examples of listening activities and more information at Waterford.org and Oracy Cambridge.
Watch this video reflecting on ideas about listening:
Encouraging parents to be involved
Some children are regularly involved in talking at home, but others might have much more limited opportunities. This gap can be closed by including parents and carers in homework tasks for several subjects. For instance, as part of a history or geography lesson, you might ask learners to interview a relative about their childhood and present what they find. Or you could give them a ‘for or against’ statement to discuss with a family member and record everyone’s opinions. Similarly, you can tell parents and carers about particularly significant speaking tasks, such as a whole-class speech or presentation, and encourage them to listen to their child rehearse. You can also invite parents to join events at school, in which learners are delivering a performance or presentation.
Be open about your own oracy skills
You should always be aware of the language you use in the classroom, whether you are encouraging positive behaviour, pitching your content at an appropriate level or modelling examples of using spoken language. Oracy is a life skill that we do not stop refining in adulthood. So, it’s often helpful for teachers to reflect with friends, colleagues and family members on the areas of oracy that we feel the most or least confident about. Often, simply being aware of how we use language and our levels of confidence is the first major step to refining our own skills.
Vocabulary and terminology
Learners in any given class will have varying levels of vocabulary. Some learners may have limited vocabulary and will need support to learn new, more adventurous words and use them in their speech and writing. Similarly, these learners will need support when being introduced to terminology specific to a subject. Other learners may have a very extensive vocabulary that they are able to use confidently in their work and you will need to support them to be stretched towards using more sophisticated vocabulary. You can also support these learners to explore a range of high-level terminology and use it confidently in their work.
Whatever the subject or the varying levels of confidence, all learners will benefit from being expected to use well-chosen vocabulary and accurate subject terminology out loud, in class discussions, presentations, paired work and group work. The more that learners are given opportunities to use words out loud, the more familiar they will become with those words and the more likely it is that they will be able to use them confidently in their written work.
It is always great to engage learners in improving their vocabulary by praising them for using certain words in class or by offering rewards or specific merits for each time a word is used. Using ‘word of the week’ or even ‘word of the day’ is also a great initiative for introducing new vocabulary or subject terminology. It’s important not to expose learners to a high number of new words in one go but instead to introduce new words gradually, offering opportunities for learners to use them in context and familiarise themselves with them before moving on to the next. It is helpful to establish where learners are with their vocabulary and terminology by compiling a list of which words they should be using in class for each lesson or unit of study. This practice is probably already in place for the written work and assessments of each scheme of work – the key is to make a conscious effort to introduce the expectation of using these words out loud in class.
Below is a helpful example from Literacy in Focus of how to identify varying levels of vocabulary use.
And you can also read this blog on how tiered vocabulary can affect instruction.
Teaching listening skills
Listening is key to learning, yet although children are constantly reminded to listen, it is rarely taught as a skill they can achieve. Teaching children how to listen involves giving them clear strategies that help them to understand what has been said.
So, it is helpful to do the following.
- Create the classroom conditions needed for an inclusive education.
- Ask students to say what helps them to listen, and what makes listening difficult.
- Offer students listening activities designed to focus their attention for increasing amounts of time, or on increasingly complex ideas.
- Discuss with the students what effect the activities had and encourage them to see themselves as increasingly able to listen to a range of things in a variety of environments.
The use of authentic listening activities leads to greater improvement in listening comprehension than if artificial tasks are used. You can find examples of listening activities and more information at Waterford.org and Oracy Cambridge.
Watch this video reflecting on ideas about listening:
Encouraging parents to be involved
Some children are regularly involved in talking at home, but others might have much more limited opportunities. This gap can be closed by including parents and carers in homework tasks for several subjects. For instance, as part of a history or geography lesson, you might ask learners to interview a relative about their childhood and present what they find. Or you could give them a ‘for or against’ statement to discuss with a family member and record everyone’s opinions. Similarly, you can tell parents and carers about particularly significant speaking tasks, such as a whole-class speech or presentation, and encourage them to listen to their child rehearse. You can also invite parents to join events at school, in which learners are delivering a performance or presentation.
Be open about your own oracy skills
You should always be aware of the language you use in the classroom, whether you are encouraging positive behaviour, pitching your content at an appropriate level or modelling examples of using spoken language. Oracy is a life skill that we do not stop refining in adulthood. So, it’s often helpful for teachers to reflect with friends, colleagues and family members on the areas of oracy that we feel the most or least confident about. Often, simply being aware of how we use language and our levels of confidence is the first major step to refining our own skills.
Vocabulary and terminology
Learners in any given class will have varying levels of vocabulary. Some learners may have limited vocabulary and will need support to learn new, more adventurous words and use them in their speech and writing. Similarly, these learners will need support when being introduced to terminology specific to a subject. Other learners may have a very extensive vocabulary that they are able to use confidently in their work and you will need to support them to be stretched towards using more sophisticated vocabulary. You can also support these learners to explore a range of high-level terminology and use it confidently in their work.
Whatever the subject or the varying levels of confidence, all learners will benefit from being expected to use well-chosen vocabulary and accurate subject terminology out loud, in class discussions, presentations, paired work and group work. The more that learners are given opportunities to use words out loud, the more familiar they will become with those words and the more likely it is that they will be able to use them confidently in their written work.
It is always great to engage learners in improving their vocabulary by praising them for using certain words in class or by offering rewards or specific merits for each time a word is used. Using ‘word of the week’ or even ‘word of the day’ is also a great initiative for introducing new vocabulary or subject terminology. It’s important not to expose learners to a high number of new words in one go but instead to introduce new words gradually, offering opportunities for learners to use them in context and familiarise themselves with them before moving on to the next. It is helpful to establish where learners are with their vocabulary and terminology by compiling a list of which words they should be using in class for each lesson or unit of study. This practice is probably already in place for the written work and assessments of each scheme of work – the key is to make a conscious effort to introduce the expectation of using these words out loud in class.
Below is a helpful example from Literacy in Focus of how to identify varying levels of vocabulary use.
And you can also read this blog on how tiered vocabulary can affect instruction.
Sentence stems
Many subject areas involve activities that include sentence starters or sentence prompts to support learners to structure their answers. These same prompts can be presented to learners as expectations for their spoken contributions.
For example, in an IGCSE English Literature lesson on an extract from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, learners might be asked How does Dickens present the character of Scrooge? and be expected to write a PEARL paragraph (see below), answering the question.
Point – make a statement that answers the question about the text
Evidence – provide a quotation
Analysis – explore the connotations of a particular word or literary device
Reader – consider the reader’s response
Link – link these ideas to the social or historical context, as well as to another part of the text
They might then be given the following sentence stems and vocabulary lists.
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Sentence stems |
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Dickens uses the metaphor of … The use of the verb … connotes … This creates a sense of / makes the reader feel … The writer uses the character of … in order to represent … This reflects the class divide / lack of medical treatment / highly religious beliefs in society at the time because … This reminds the reader / teaches the reader
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Subject terminology |
Sophisticated vocabulary |
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Dialogue Adjective Contrast Connotations Adverb Imperative verb Didactic Pathetic fallacy Simile Metaphor Exclamation Superlative |
Additionally Moreover Furthermore Suggests Generates Connotes Avarice Avaricious Philanthropy Philanthropic
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Materials like these can be presented to the class as clear expectations and support for the spoken contributions of learners.
Sentence stems for talk can also be used for class, group and paired discussions.
Here is a helpful example from Oracy Cambridge.
Sentence stems
Many subject areas involve activities that include sentence starters or sentence prompts to support learners to structure their answers. These same prompts can be presented to learners as expectations for their spoken contributions.
For example, in an IGCSE English Literature lesson on an extract from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, learners might be asked How does Dickens present the character of Scrooge? and be expected to write a PEARL paragraph (see below), answering the question.
Point – make a statement that answers the question about the text
Evidence – provide a quotation
Analysis – explore the connotations of a particular word or literary device
Reader – consider the reader’s response
Link – link these ideas to the social or historical context, as well as to another part of the text
They might then be given the following sentence stems and vocabulary lists.
|
Sentence stems |
|
Dickens uses the metaphor of … The use of the verb … connotes … This creates a sense of / makes the reader feel … The writer uses the character of … in order to represent … This reflects the class divide / lack of medical treatment / highly religious beliefs in society at the time because … This reminds the reader / teaches the reader
|
|
Subject terminology |
Sophisticated vocabulary |
|
Dialogue Adjective Contrast Connotations Adverb Imperative verb Didactic Pathetic fallacy Simile Metaphor Exclamation Superlative |
Additionally Moreover Furthermore Suggests Generates Connotes Avarice Avaricious Philanthropy Philanthropic
|
Materials like these can be presented to the class as clear expectations and support for the spoken contributions of learners.
Sentence stems for talk can also be used for class, group and paired discussions.
Here is a helpful example from Oracy Cambridge.
Role play
Many subjects offer opportunities for simple role play, allowing learners to practise their speaking and listening skills in character. Role play in lessons other than Drama and Theatre Studies does not need high levels of acting skills, but does need subject knowledge and improvisational skills. For example, in many subjects, learners can play a ‘hot seating’ activity, where one person takes on the role of a subject expert, a historical figure, a character from a novel or a person of interest, and the rest of the class or a group of their peers asks them questions in relation to the relevant topic.
A fun way to encourage learners to reflect on good oracy skills is to ask them to create their own role play about bad examples of oracy – such as talking over each other, interrupting, or making generalised statements without any information to back up their points. These activities can be powerful when followed by reflections on how and why oracy is important.
Group roles
In order to promote active learning and make sure that learners’ contributions are equally distributed in group work, it can sometimes be useful to assign group roles to learners and rotate these roles in different talk activities. For example, if a particular learner is often passive, they could be given the ‘chief editor’ role, where they are responsible for writing or typing out the ideas contributed. If a learner is particularly skilled at interpreting information, they could be given the role of analyst. Or, if a learner would benefit from better listening skills, they might be given the role of silent summariser, where they are expected to listen and make notes on the group’s ideas, ready to present these ideas to the class afterwards. These examples can then be rotated once learners gain confidence in these roles. They can then start taking on more challenging roles, outside of their comfort zone.
In a group discussion, you might give learners roles according to De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, as shown below, allocating a particular approach to the discussion that learners are expected to adopt. Whatever the group task, make sure that each learner has a role to play and that everyone is clear about what is expected from those roles.
Getty Images
Inclusive education
Any talking task should be designed with accessibility in mind. From the start, you should consider how to include all learners, not just the 'average learner' with added special arrangements for some individuals. Making the learning accessible to everyone is a better and fairer approach and will also save time in the long run. Also, access alone is not enough for learners to thrive – they need to be able to first access information to enable them to take part and make progress.
Speaking and listening activities may not be immediately accessible to learners with hearing difficulties, autism or specific language difficulties. For example, the noise levels of group work can make it difficult to single out the voices in the group they are working with. It’s important that learners with hearing difficulties are given the appropriate resources, such as a pen-microphone, which the teacher can wear during class instruction. Pen-microphones need to be moved around the classroom when necessary. For instance, during group work, learners should each hold the pen-microphone while they speak, so that their contributions are made clear among the background noise. Similarly, differentiation strategies can benefit all learners. For example, providing instructions on a handout, breaking down instructions into smaller chunks, recognising the neurodiversity of all learners and clearly showing the support available.
Quick swaps
Oracy education and dialogic teaching do not require demanding revision of existing schemes of work or resources. It can often be easy to simply reflect on the following example questions about possible quick swaps.
- Can this homework task be made into an oracy activity, such as interviewing a family member or memorising a poem, ready to recite it in class?
- Can this research homework be put into the form of a speech or presentation that students need to deliver the next day?
- Can I turn a written activity into a talking activity, using the same sentence starters?
- Can a student teach one of the lessons today?
- Can we celebrate different languages for part of the lesson today by asking learners to share words in a different language?
- Can a student take the register at the start?
Classroom layout
Some classroom layouts may not help meaningful talking activities. For example, while rows of desks might be necessary for a formal assessment, they don’t always benefit group discussion. You should think about how you might like to rearrange the desks in your classroom before a lesson that will involve talk-based activities. You should also consider how you might like the learners to move around and position themselves around the usual desk layout.
Voice 21 have devised an excellent starting point for teachers to use when planning and carrying out activities, as shown in the resource below. For example, learners who lack confidence with spoken English often benefit from the ‘trio’ style of learning. A paired activity might put them under unnecessary pressure, and a larger group might risk them not being able to contribute as much as others. However, a trio, including two who are welcoming and confident speakers, will greatly help a less confident learner to learn from good examples of spoken English.
Talk about talk
If learners in your school or class are not used to explicitly being taught about speaking and listening skills, they might benefit from first simply talking about their views and levels of confidence around speaking and listening. It is great to start with simple, relatable topics about talk, encouraging them to share their own thoughts and opinions on particular ‘talking points’. This example of some talking points (from Oracy Cambridge) can be used or adapted for teachers as well as learners.
Watch this video to hear about talking points:
Quick swaps
Oracy education and dialogic teaching do not require demanding revision of existing schemes of work or resources. It can often be easy to simply reflect on the following example questions about possible quick swaps.
- Can this homework task be made into an oracy activity, such as interviewing a family member or memorising a poem, ready to recite it in class?
- Can this research homework be put into the form of a speech or presentation that students need to deliver the next day?
- Can I turn a written activity into a talking activity, using the same sentence starters?
- Can a student teach one of the lessons today?
- Can we celebrate different languages for part of the lesson today by asking learners to share words in a different language?
- Can a student take the register at the start?
Classroom layout
Some classroom layouts may not help meaningful talking activities. For example, while rows of desks might be necessary for a formal assessment, they don’t always benefit group discussion. You should think about how you might like to rearrange the desks in your classroom before a lesson that will involve talk-based activities. You should also consider how you might like the learners to move around and position themselves around the usual desk layout.
Voice 21 have devised an excellent starting point for teachers to use when planning and carrying out activities, as shown in the resource below. For example, learners who lack confidence with spoken English often benefit from the ‘trio’ style of learning. A paired activity might put them under unnecessary pressure, and a larger group might risk them not being able to contribute as much as others. However, a trio, including two who are welcoming and confident speakers, will greatly help a less confident learner to learn from good examples of spoken English.
Talk about talk
If learners in your school or class are not used to explicitly being taught about speaking and listening skills, they might benefit from first simply talking about their views and levels of confidence around speaking and listening. It is great to start with simple, relatable topics about talk, encouraging them to share their own thoughts and opinions on particular ‘talking points’. This example of some talking points (from Oracy Cambridge) can be used or adapted for teachers as well as learners.
Watch this video to hear about talking points:
Next steps
If you are planning to give more attention to oracy in your school, it will be important to consider the following.
• Do all teachers have a clear, shared view of what oracy means?
• What oracy skills are you hoping that students will develop?
• How aware are you of students’ current levels of ability?
• How will you know if they are becoming more proficient or not?
• What activities will teachers use to develop and practise these skills?
• How aware are teachers of the principles of dialogic teaching?
• How will the oracy curriculum content for different year groups be related?
• How will you assess progress?
You can also explore the ways in which we support oracy practice.
• Training such as our enrichment workshop on Effective Talk and Questioning gives teachers the opportunity to develop these practices further. We also offer training on complementary areas such as active learning, assessment for learning and metacognition.
• The Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary English programmes include a speaking and listening strand that focuses on developing oracy skills. For example, communicating information clearly to a range of audiences and in various contexts, and being reflective about the role of talk. Similarly, the Cambridge IGCSE First Language English syllabus continues to support students’ progression to oracy skills. For example, the ability to express thoughts and present ideas and opinions fluently, and to listen and respond appropriately in conversation.
• The Cambridge Global Perspective programmes are designed to develop students’ communication and oracy skills through activities that promote dialogue and exploratory and reflective talk, expressing opinions and evaluating arguments.
• Our online resources provide teachers with a theoretical understanding of oracy and how they can support their students to develop oracy skills in the classroom.
Here is a selection of resources from across Cambridge
Blog: How teachers can develop their students’ speaking skills. https://blog.cambridgeinternational.org/how-teachers-can-develop-their-students-speaking-skills
World of Better Learning: Oracy in the ELT classroom. This site provides links to a range of Cambridge resources on oracy. www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/campaign_page/oracy-elt-classroom
Cambridge Primary Path: Cambridge Primary Path is an English language and literacy course that will help young learners become articulate speakers of English. www.cambridge.org/gb/cambridgeenglish/catalog/primary/cambridge-primary-path/product-details/oracy
What is Oracy? This is a link to a set of videos in which researchers, teachers and students discuss oracy and illustrate how it can be included in primary school lessons. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGQByIxTIzI
Cambridge Schools also have access to Resource Plus on the School Support Hub, which includes a range of resources and videos to support the teaching and learning of Speaking and Listening for Cambridge IGCSE First Language English.
Want to know more?
Here is a printable list of published texts, online resources and videos that support oracy practice.
Glossary
Accessibility
The quality of something being made easy to understand or use.
Active learning
Putting the child at the centre of their learning, so they are engaged and thinking hard, rather than passively listening and receiving information.
Behaviour for learning
An approach to understanding and developing children and young people’s behaviour that focuses on their relationship with their self, with others and with the curriculum, and prepares them for education.
Dialogic talk
The effective use of talk in the classroom to enable the interactive process of teaching and learning.
Exploratory talk
The concept that in productive discussions, students should actively take part, engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas, give reasons for their views, check understanding by asking questions, build on each other’s responses and aim to reach agreement (Mercer, 2008).
Ground rules
A set of standards agreed by learners in order to make sure that discussions are always respectful and productive.
Inclusive education
Teaching that engages students in learning which is meaningful, relevant and accessible to everyone. Inclusive education embraces the view that individual difference is a source of diversity, which can enrich the lives and learning of others (Hockings, 2010).
Metacognition
Children being increasingly aware and in control of their own mental processes, and using this awareness to become more effective learners. For example, talking about how they plan to carry out a task, making changes to their plan during the task and talking about how successfully they completed a task.
Oracy
The skills involved in using spoken language to communicate effectively.
Pedagogy
The methods and practices of teaching and learning, including how the educational environment is managed, the resources and activities provided, and the type of educational interactions which take place.
Safeguarding
The actions taken to promote the welfare of learners and protect them from harm.
Scaffolding
Where the teacher provides appropriate guidance and support to enable learners to continue to build on their current level of understanding to gain confidence and independence in using new knowledge or skills.
Sentence stems
Short prompts to help learners structure their verbal or written answers.
Talking points
Short discussion statements that are designed to encourage agreement or respectful disagreement among students.
Wellbeing
How individuals feel and function, cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally. This can include how we recognise and manage positive and negative emotions and how able we are to engage in meaningful activities and interact with others.
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