Since oracy hit the headlines as one of Labour’s flagship educational policies back in 2023, it may well have found its way into your staffroom and your to-do lists. When Keir Starmer name-checked oracy as ‘a skill for learning [and] a skill for life’ in a speech in July last year, Google searches for the term ‘oracy’ rocketed:
But – like so many ideas and terms in education – oracy can be interpreted in many different ways.
As Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom F. Wright put it in the editorial to our Summer 2024 Newsletter, oracy education is a political Rorschach blot. Everyone can see their own goals or fears reflected in it. The prospect of a ‘speaking-focused curriculum’ in state schools makes some people happy. Conservatives applaud oracy as a back-to-basics way of fighting declining standards and making pupils more employable. Progressives champion oracy as a tool for social justice, or a way of safeguarding civil debate and liberal democracy.
Meanwhile, from all political sides, sceptics see a whole host of pernicious motivations.
Critics on the right say that oracy is a fad that gets in the way of imparting useful knowledge. Critics on the left say that oracy just means powerful people telling poor and ethnic minority communities how to speak, while distracting from more pressing socioeconomic reforms.
At the English Association, we’re alive to the fact that educators need opportunities to explore how the principles and policies of oracy fit into their practice. We’re working to offer leadership for our discipline on this issue, to ensure that we all have a good understanding of the challenges, possibilities, and current thinking around oracy education across all phases of education.
You could start by taking a look at our growing bank of discussions with education experts. From reading aloud in the primary classroom to developing a successful spoken language curriculum to language and literacy in early years education, you can listen in to professional discussions on a range of topics. We have many more recordings to explore on our events page.
For a birds’ eye view of the social, educational, and economic impacts of oracy, you can read our brief submission to the Oracy Commission.
If you’re a member of the English Association, you can access our full suite of journals and magazines online, and you’ll find lots of practical tips and research-based practice to explore.
For a first foray into the debates around oracy, have a read of our summer 2024 Newsletter, which showcases key perspectives on the value of oracy, and the best ways it might be implemented at scale. You can sneak a peek into the conversation explored in this issue by watching the free recording of our online discussion forum.
Build your knowledge of cutting-edge research in oracy education by reading the spring 2024 issue of our journal, The Use of English. This special collection brings together the findings of action research projects into oracy across primary and secondary classrooms, with a wealth of tried-and- tested school-based strategies to explore.
For those working in EYFS and primary education, the spring 2024 issue of our magazine English 4-11 brings together ideas for embedding oracy skills in the classroom through small world play, story listening, and cross-curricular thinking.
Find out more about how the English Association can support you here, and get in touch if you want to know more. We’re always happy to hear from you! ceo@englishassociation.ac.uk
We are indebted to Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Dr Tom F. Wright for their contribution to and leadership of the English Association’s work on oracy.
The English Association provides a welcoming and diverse community for anyone involved with English studies. As a subject association and learned society which spans every level of education and every branch of the subject, the English Association is an ideal home for people who want to keep abreast of developments right across the discipline. Membership of the English Association will give you access to cutting-edge research and high-quality teaching resources; enable you to attend timely, relevant and action-focused professional development events; and provide a route to participation in national and international debates about the teaching and learning of English language, literature and creative writing. It costs just over £1 a week to join us and support our campaigning and advocacy work, and you’ll get access to a wide range of member benefits. Join us today!
Dr Becky Fisher is the Chief Executive Officer of the English Association. Her interests include early English language and literature, playfulness in education, and bringing academics, independent scholars, and the public together.
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