Oracy, vocabulary and year 7 transition

Placing oracy at the heart of vocabulary teaching and learning accelerates progress in reading, builds students’ confidence to use their voices in school, and enhances teachers’ understanding and delivery of oracy education.

These were the principle findings of Voicing Vocabulary – a project designed to explore the opportunities an oracy-rich approach creates to build and deepen students’ academic vocabulary at the crucial key stage 2 to 3 transition point.

Several disruptive factors coincide at this age affecting perceptions of self and academic attainment (Jindal-Snape et al, 2020). There is a notable linguistic challenge that many students experience as they move into year 7. To an extent, this is connected to an increase in both the quantity and complexity of disciplinary language across the curriculum (Deignan et al, 2022).