Oracy

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Teaching is not consistent Interviewees feel concern that the teaching of oracy can be inconsistent in their schools, and acknowledge that despite ‘pockets’ of high quality practice in their settings, provision is not always consistent. They believe this is because: • Some colleagues accord less value to oracy than others • Some teachers ‘drop oracy’ in favour of other, more short term priorities despite recognising oracy’s importance Interviewees also highlight variability in how teachers understand terms such ‘scaffolding’ and ‘modelling’, and consequently how ambitious their expectations are of pupils’ oracy. A teacher at a school that has recently begun engaging with oracy explains that with regards to modelling and setting expectations: “We aimed quite low to start with and said look the first thing is that we always say hello to everyone in the corridor, [that] you look for eye contact, that you look for affirmation” Bec Tulloch, Drama Teacher, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School Several other interviewees also feel that modelling talk and setting expectations, for example asking pupils to speak in full sentences and avoid using words such as ‘like’, are important in developing the quality of pupils’ oracy. Ultimately, schools need to start somewhere, and all our interviewees agree that ‘easy wins’ are needed at first in order to build consistency. These ‘easy wins’ should not represent the totality of oracy, though: Building consistency across the curriculum St Ambrose Barlow RC High School is keen to increase the consistency of oracy in lessons and throughout the school, and has introduced a five-step oracy challenge for all teachers. 1. Everybody is heard every lesson 2. Everybody makes eye contact and engages in talk positively 3. Everybody engages in active listening in lessons 4. Everybody speaks in full sentences, using an appropriate register 5. Everybody extends their answers This is a starting point, and the school anticipates building more sophisticated strategies as teachers’ confidence and expertise increases. Already Bec Tulloch, a class teacher, feels these steps have had a positive impact: “Kids said ‘morning’ to me [and] I’d said ‘morning’ to them, they expected it, they were ready and smiling. In terms of our whole school that’s just such a massive step forward” Bec Tulloch, Drama Teacher, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School “As a minimum … [some schools] pick up on students who aren’t speaking in full sentences, they will pick up on students who are saying ‘like’ every second word, so they’ll sort of take away the rough edges of someone … and the question is whether we can go beyond that. And I think that is having the mindset for the intervention on ‘weak speak’ as you would on weak reading and writing” Peter Hyman, Executive Headteacher, School 21 48
Whole-school practices Schools do not consistently provide meaningful opportunities for pupils to develop oracy outside the classroom. Apart from inviting pupils to speak or present as part of assemblies, only a small proportion of schools engage in practices such as reviewing the quality of teachers’ and pupils’ verbal contributions during lesson observations, or communicating with parents about their children’s spoken communication in school. xxix Whole school approaches to oracy are particularly rare in FE colleges. The relative paucity of whole-school practices is surprising given teachers’ overwhelming recognition of oracy’s importance. What strategies does your school use to support oracy? 906 Invites pupils to speak or present as part of its assemblies 54% Reviews or evaluates the quality of pupils’ verbal contributions as part of formal lesson observations 27% Has a debating club 25% Formally communicates with parents about the quality of pupils’ verbal contributions in lessons 20% None of these 18% Has a policy for ‘oracy’, ‘spoken language’, ‘oral communication’, etc. 16% Collects assessment or tracking data about pupils’ oracy (beyond that which is required for GCSE spoken language Supports the use of oracy-related activities organised by external organisations (ESU, LAMBDA etc.) 9% 12% Holds ‘no pens’ days or other one-off days focused on oracy 8% Don’t know 6% Has a discrete curriculum for oracy 6% Teachers from independent (46%) and grammar schools xxx (69%) highlight they are more likely than those in local authority schools or academies to have debating clubs. Such clubs are more common in secondary schools (38%) than primary schools (8%). Independent schools are also significantly more likely than state schools to use external organisations such as the English Speaking Union (ESU) or London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) to deliver some form of oracy-based activity, and to communicate formally with parents about the quality of pupils’ contributions in lessons perhaps, suggesting that independent schools place greater emphasis on pupils’ ability to publicly express their ideas and opinions. 0% 20% 40% 60% Formal assessment of oracy is unusual and in interviews teachers tend to describe their colleagues as sceptical about both the possibility and desirability of assessing oracy formally. This does not mean schools do not communicate about oracy, particularly at primary and Early Years level, where 30% and 38% of respondents respectively say they formally communicated with parents about pupils’ verbal contributions in lessons. On the other hand, such practices are far less common in secondary schools. Interviewees feel some ‘school-level’ strategies do not build on or relate to the activities taking place in lessons, either directly or indirectly. Furthermore, a number of interviewees in different phases and school types feel strongly that school-level strategies set the tone for a school’s culture and ethos, but feel some schools miss out on opportunities to bring pupils and staff together through these more highprofile public activities. Such schools are potentially missing out on ‘easy wins’ to raise the profile and status of oracy, and providing pupils with novel opportunities to develop their skills as public speakers. xxix Practitioners were asked about their school’s practices, with oracy defined as ‘the development of children’s capacity to use speech to express their thoughts and communicate with others in education and in life, and talk through which teaching and learning is mediated’ (based on Alexander, 2012: 10). xxx The base sizes are below 50 for grammar schools (n=29). Reference to results in relation to grammar schools should therefore be regarded as illustrative rather than representative. 49
Page 1 and 2: Oracy The State of Speaking in Our
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword 3 Executive Summa
Page 5 and 6: Foreword The things we say and how
Page 7 and 8: Executive Summary What does this re
Page 9 and 10: 1. Introduction 7
Page 11 and 12: 2. What is oracy? 9
Page 13 and 14: Learning through talk Oracy should
Page 15 and 16: Oracy framework School 21 uses the
Page 17 and 18: 2010s • The new National Curricul
Page 19 and 20: Several secondary practitioners say
Page 21 and 22: Secondary school and FE teachers al
Page 23 and 24: 3. Why does oracy matter? 21
Page 25 and 26: 55% Oracy is seen as a pre-requisit
Page 27 and 28: Why does oracy matter? Both the lit
Page 29 and 30: Using Makaton sign language to deve
Page 31 and 32: Elklan Language Training Elklan run
Page 33 and 34: Oracy can help pupils gain confiden
Page 35 and 36: Cognition Pupils’ cognitive devel
Page 37 and 38: In comparison with the linguistic a
Page 39 and 40: Yet while employers rate oral commu
Page 41 and 42: Social disadvantage Numerous studie
Page 43 and 44: Which pupils in particular benefit
Page 45 and 46: 4. How do teachers and schools curr
Page 47 and 48: Professor Alexander believes classr
Page 49: Developing ‘real-life’ oracy sk
Page 53 and 54: The ‘Woolsack Debating Society’
Page 55 and 56: Embedding oracy into learning The h
Page 57 and 58: 5. What helps and hinders oracy in
Page 59 and 60: Lack of time Proportion of teachers
Page 61 and 62: In contrast, teachers working in in
Page 63 and 64: Prioritisation Almost one in five t
Page 65 and 66: Teachers particularly lack confiden
Page 67 and 68: The applicability of oracy-based ac
Page 69 and 70: Who is responsible for oracy in you
Page 71 and 72: Championing oracy from the top Jan
Page 73 and 74: 6. Conclusions 71
Page 75 and 76: What helps and hinders oracy in sch
Page 77 and 78: 7. Appendix 75
Page 79 and 80: The Survey Pretesting The survey wa
Page 81 and 82: School name Location Phase / School
Page 83 and 84: References 1 Wilkinson, A. (1968)
Page 85 and 86: 51 Dockrell, J. E., Marshall, C., a
Page 87 and 88: 95 Ibid.: 3. 96 Mourshed, M., Farre
Page 89 and 90: Particular thanks goes to Big Chang

Oracy

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