For oracy teaching to be effective, it needs a whole-school approach. But what does that mean in practice? Louisa Searle shares five tips that secondary schools can implement right now
Speak up: Students need to be taught the foundations of oracy just as with any other skill – and they need lots of opportunities to practise speaking - Adobe Stock

The publication of We need to talk, the final report from the Oracy Education Commission in England (2024), makes a compelling case for the importance of oracy (speaking and listening) – not just as skills that will help young people to learn and to flourish personally, but as tools that will help strengthen our communities and society as a whole.

Making oracy the fourth “R” (alongside reading, writing and arithmetic) will, the report argues, bring a whole host of benefits that have been evidenced in earlier studies, from increasing attainment (Gascoigne & Gross, 2017; Hanley et al, 2015), confidence and emotional wellbeing (Jay et al, 2017), to boosting employability, social mobility, and helping to close the growing disadvantage gap (EEF, 2021).

It would also promote healthy civic engagement and social equity, allowing everyone to make their voice heard (Jay et al, 2017; Hanley et al, 2015).

Achieving this utopia is not going to be easy, and the commission’s report makes a number of recommendations about how we might get there, from positioning oracy as a core aspect of education from early years onwards, to how it can be built into teacher training and development.

These are excellent suggestions and build on other recent reports, for example calling for a redesign of the English language GCSE (OCR, 2024) and encouraging the development of new National Professional Qualifications for leading oracy (Centre for Social Justice, 2023).

The issue is that, assuming the government accepts and invests in such approaches as part of its stated aim to promote oracy education, these will take time to evolve and filter through.

So while we wait to see what policy will be developed after the Department for Education’s Curriculum and Assessment Review has published its final report (due later this year), what practical things can you do to start making a difference in your classroom today?

 

Break-down the skills needed for confident communication and reinforce them at every opportunity

Confident communication comes down to four key skill-sets:

  • Reasoning and evidence: How well we can explain and justify the message we wish to convey.
  • Listening and response: How well we understand and question what others are saying – or not saying.
  • Expression and delivery: How we choose our vocabulary, tone and register or presentation style.
  • Organisation and prioritisation: The clarity with which we structure our arguments.

This applies across all communication – spoken as well as written – and across all subjects, from challenging a scientific hypothesis to explaining a literary character’s motivation.

While it may seem obvious to us, students need to be taught these foundations. As with any other skill, they need lots of opportunities to practise them, and they need to be rewarded with feedback when they do.

Since the skills clearly lend themselves to so many subjects and situations, this is easy to do. Remember that praise is your best friend. If a student asks a particularly pertinent question, uses technical vocabulary correctly, or reads a passage with real animation, champion their achievement or ask other students to pick out what their peers did well – it will build a positive feedback loop and encourage more of the same.

It doesn't end there. Building these skills adds a new, more joyful dimension to classroom time, in which students who might struggle with written work have a chance to shine, and in which social and emotional skills such as team-work, respectful listening, and turn-taking can be fostered.

 

Develop teachers’ skills

The commission report is clear that for oracy to be the priority all teachers – not just English teachers – need to understand the benefits of good speaking and listening skills and need to be comfortable teaching them.

Ideally, this would happen as part of teacher training, whichever route one follows, and then be regularly topped up via CPD. We do not live in a perfect world, however, so for many schools, some form of ad-hoc CPD is going to be called for.

If there is already an oracy advocate on staff or within your school – perhaps soon the position of oracy lead will be commonplace – this could take the shape of in-house training. If not, then many providers (including the English Speaking Union) offer bespoke sessions.

 

Create extra-curricular opportunities and activities

One of the best ways of putting oracy at the heart of the school is via inter-year or inter-school competitions.

Competitions can have a galvanising effect – not just on the students involved who can benchmark themselves against others (often much more positively than they might first assume), but on the whole school which should come together to celebrate their successes.

At Oxford Spires Academy, winner of the ESU’s Oracy Culture Award in 2022, participation in oracy competitions is recognised with colours which students wear on their uniform and all this is celebrated in the school newsletters and prospectus and, crucially, feeds into the house cup.

There are a host of oracy competitions out there for all ages and interests, from the ESU’s public speaking, debating and performing Shakespeare competitions, to mock magistrate or trial competitions (such as the Mock Trial competition from Young Citizens). Others include the National Gallery’s Articulation Prize, and the Speaker’s Trust Speak Out Challenges (see further information for a host of links!).

And even if you don’t want to go down the competition route just yet, a drama club, debating club, or lunch-time book or film club (in which key works are discussed) are all effective ways of harnessing students’ passions and helping them to build their oracy skills.

 

Make it fun

The Oracy Education Commission report focuses a lot on the joy that oracy should bring to the classroom – and it’s true. When children feel that they have the voice and the agency to politely question a teacher, to say what they really think, rather than trotting out the expected answer, that’s when real discussions can begin and when learning is at its most engaging.

As mentioned earlier, the way to achieve this environment of trust is through the constant practising and praising of speaking and listening skills. This needn’t be difficult or time-consuming.

The ESU has a bank of free resources – from quick ice-breakers and talking games to debating formats suitable for different lessons.

One example is “Where do you stand?”, a quick warm-up activity in which opposite ends of the classroom are assigned as “agree” and “disagree”. Students are given a statement and have to position themselves in relation to the strength of their agreement.

A student is then asked for their reasons for agreeing to which a disagreeing student must respond. Once all opinions have been aired, students can then move if they have changed their opinion, in which case they must discuss the argument that persuaded them to move.

This simple exercise sees students practising explanations and justifications, honing their listening skills and, most importantly, realising that there is not always a “right” answer.

 

Celebrate excellence

As well as celebrating student achievement, it is important to recognise teacher excellence too – who doesn’t perform better if they feel their efforts are being noticed and appreciated?

The ESU has two awards in this area – the Oracy Culture Award, mentioned earlier, for both primary and secondary schools that are placing oracy at the heart of their curriculum, and the ESU-Rutland Teacher Award for those teachers who have gone beyond the curriculum to equip their students with vital oracy skills.

This year’s teacher award winner was Jo Hunt, English and humanities teacher and deputy head of year 8 at Jack Hunt School in Peterborough, but it won’t come as any surprise that she, and all of our finalists, felt that their students’ clear enjoyment of the activities brought its own rewards.

She told me: “I genuinely love it. The debate club group is so engaged. If we ever have to reschedule a meeting, they will pester me until I rearrange it. They won’t just take the night off. Their commitment is admirable and it’s really motivating for me.”

 

Final thoughts

Adopting even just one of these approaches will soon bear fruit, helping your students find their voices and, in the words of the Oracy Education Commission’s report: “Helping to put the joy back into the classroom.”

  • Louisa Searle is director of education at the English-Speaking Union, a charity which, through competitions, workshops, teacher CPD and awards, works to develop young people’s speaking and listening skills. Visit www.esu.org 

 

Further information & resources

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