Author: oracycamb

by Rupert Wegerif ​Socrates did not think much of writing. Writing, he thought, leads to fake understanding. Real understanding, by contrast, requires face-to-face dialogue. Anyone, he says to his companion…

by Clare Wagner Introduction I have taught in a variety of schools during my career, but most of my time has been spent in girls’ schools, initially as a history…

By Laura Kahwati  The Lost Years Having spent 15 years as a state school English teacher with a plethora of school productions and debating competitions under my belt, my teacher-ego…

by Topsy Page ‘You get more educated if you talk or ask about things’ When I think about the importance of developing oracy in schools, what keeps coming back to…

by Alan Howe I recently heard Pippa Evans being interviewed about her book ‘Improv Your Life: An Improviser’s Guide To Embracing Whatever Life Throws At You’.[1] Pippa is an award-winning…

A guest post by Helen Holt. Helen is the Deputy Head of Bolton School Junior Girls’ School (Hesketh House). Bolton School’s Primary Division comprises a Nursery, Pre-School Class, Infant school,…

by Lyn Dawes This is the second in a series of two posts: Why should we teach Speaking and Listening in the classroom? How can we teach Speaking and Listening…

by Lyn Dawes This is the first in a series of two posts: Why should we teach Speaking and Listening in the classroom? How can we teach Speaking and Listening…

by Neil Phillipson I often argue the case for dialogue as a medium through which young people can learn about curriculum subjects more deeply (see my series ‘A Teacher’s Guide…

by Prof. Neil Mercer The title of my blog is taken from a reunion album by a rock band I used to be very keen on, the Animals. They apparently…

by Prof. Christine Howe, University of Cambridge Introduction Based on research conducted during the latter part of the twentieth century (e.g., Galton et al., 1999), group work amongst British primary…

by Paul Warwick In his most recent Oracy Cambridge blog, Neil Mercer considers the language used by Donald Trump, and its contribution to his influence over nearly half of all…

by Prof. Neil Mercer As Donald Trump seems about to vacate, with little grace, his place of prominence on the world’s political stage, there are three questions I want to…

by Dr Lyn Dawes We hold a conversation. To hold something is not the same as to have something; we have a chat, we have words, we have a natter.…

by Marion Heron & Doris Dippold, University of Surrey Building on our previous work on oracy in higher education (see our previous blog for Oracy Cambridge here) we were awarded…

by Rupert Wegerif Recently I read a blog by a primary teacher unhappy that her class had all received personal iPads and so that now they worked individually instead of…

by Benjamin Strawbridge, Hughes Hall, Cambridge Technical or ‘tier 3’ vocabulary presents a significant challenge in the secondary classroom: as students become older the breadth and specialisation of vocabulary in…

by Dr Lyn Dawes Learning to listen is important. Learning depends on children’s capacity to attend, listen and think. These skills are more subtle than simply hearing what is going…

by Dr James Mannion This is the final post in a series of six extracts from Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time – and how…

by Dr James Mannion This is the fifth in a series of six extracts from Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time – and how to…

by Dr James Mannion This is the fourth in a series of six extracts from Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time – and how to…

by Dr James Mannion This is the third in a series of six extracts from Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time – and how to…

by Dr James Mannion This is the second in a series of six extracts from Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time – and how to…

By Dr James Mannion Ten years ago, I received an email from my head teacher at Sea View asking for volunteers to design and teach a Learning Skills curriculum. The…

by Dr Lyn Dawes On Wednesdays, I sort out and price the non-fiction books donated to my local Oxfam shop. This is of course an ideal opportunity to read lots…

by Pete Dudley School leaders and oracy leaders, like everyone else, have been plunged into a new and very different school environment this term. But of course, you still want…

by Wendy Lee It sounds so obvious, though something that I’m increasingly feeling is worth a mention how we communicate with children. While many of us are very comfortable talking…

Evidence presented by Professor Neil Mercer to the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry ‘Speaking for Change’, at the session held on 14/07/20: Curriculum, Assessment & Accountability. A recording of the…

by Paul Warwick and Victoria Cook As students engage with distance learning in this time of isolation and uncertainty, research exploring how technology can develop students’ spoken language skills is…

by Alan Howe, with a contribution from Daniel Booth-Howe This article should be read alongside its companion piece, Talking at a distance: Oracy in a time of isolation and uncertainty.…

by Alan Howe This article should be read alongside its companion piece, Talking Tech: Developing oracy online. I’ve been thinking about what effect the current necessary imposition of social distancing,…

by Professor Neil Mercer If you have been watching the latest series of University Challenge, you may have noticed that the Corpus Christi (Cambridge) team has been doing particularly well…

by Alan Howe It’s mid morning in early October in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. After a chilly start the sun is up and the air is warming. There…

by Laura Kerslake This blog post reports on the Inquiring Science project, and how our initial findings indicate that oracy has a key role to play in developing children’s internet…

In 2019 – excitingly – an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Oracy was established, with the aim of holding a series of inquiries to investigate the state of speaking…

by Ayesha Ahmed Last year, on returning from industrial action to protect our pension rights, I wrote a short blog about the conversations on our picket line. We have just returned…

by Marion Heron & Doris Dippold, University of Surrey Oracy practices have generally been discussed in the context of compulsory education, but rarely on the agenda in the higher education sector.…

by Alan Howe    ‘The spoken language in England has been shamefully neglected.’ This is the opening sentence of the original edition of Spoken English (Wilkinson, 1965) in which Andrew…

A guest post by Steven Johnson * In an earlier article, I made the case that students can learn a great deal as audience members for classroom debates – perhaps…

A guest post by Steven Johnson * I was a convert to oracy skill development long before I had any idea what oracy was.  I recall my first debate in…

by Alan Howe   “I’m boring.” “I sound terrible.” These are two responses from adults when watching themselves speaking on video. I suspect they are fairly typical reactions. Depending which…

by Lyn Dawes Some thoughts on teaching listening in primary schools In a conference workshop, I asked a group of teachers to listen to an excerpt from a poem. There…

by Ayesha Ahmed In discussing the importance of classroom talk, Douglas Barnes reminded us how important it is ‘for teachers to make it possible for pupils to think aloud even…

by Lyn Dawes Talk is made human by the tone of our voices. The tone in which we speak carries some of the message of the words, and is powerful…

Download the report Last year, Oracy Cambridge was commissioned to write a report entitled Oracy Across the Welsh Curriculum by the Newport Education Achievement Service and the Welsh government, to support…

  by Pete Dudley I was privileged to be asked to do some work recently with the first national cohort of ‘Oracy Leaders’ as they neared the end of their…

by Lyn Dawes Out with a group of children looking at a local pond, one of them was watching rooks who had made nests and were evidently incubating eggs –…

by Ayesha Ahmed During the recent wave of strike action by University staff to defend our pensions, many of us have been standing huddled against the cold weather, in groups…

by James Mannion   Last year, I attended a fascinating talk by Simon Lancaster, a professional speechwriter. It was a variation on a TEDx talk he did a couple of…

by James Mannion   A brief summary of an inspiring day at the inaugural Great Oracy Exhibition at School 21 in Stratford, London.  Today, I attended what was probably my…

by Alan Howe As a contribution to Oracy Cambridge’s exploration of spoken communication in the world of work, I discussed the value and role of workplace talk with Janice Booth,…

by Neil Mercer I am going to distinguish here between oracy education and dialogic teaching, because – as I will explain – I think that confusion between them has created…

| by Wendy Lee | I recently had a discussion with a fellow speech and language therapist about Oracy. They were worried that a focus on Oracy is hugely challenging…

| by James Mannion | Last Friday the University of Cambridge and Oracy Cambridge and AQA hosted a conference on Assessing Collaboration at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. Following the recent publication of…

by Ayesha Ahmed | A few weeks ago, on publication of the results of the OECD PISA assessment of Collaborative Problem Solving, we discovered that UK students are among those who…

| a guest post by Catherine Heinemeyer | The great educationalist Jerome Bruner wrote in 2006 that human minds think and know in two quite different ways. Firstly, there is logico-scientific…

| by James Mannion |   Last month, Hughes Hall College in Cambridge hosted the two-day launch of the inaugural Oracy Cambridge/Voice 21 ‘Oracy Leaders Programme’ (OLP). Cards on the table,…

| by Elsa Lee and Richard Irvine | * We are walking with a group of Year 6 students in the East Anglian fens to a copse that they call ‘Dead…

| by Pete Dudley | If you are an NQT and you are currently exhausted, or if you are a school leader who is responsible for NQTs, then you should…

| by Wendy Lee | We all see the world from our own perspectives. I’m a speech and language therapist down to my bones and most definitely see the world through…

 | by Lyn Dawes | It’s difficult when you don’t know something that you feel you should, or if you find yourself unable to remember what you thought you knew…

| by Alan Howe | I’ve been thinking about conversation. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ‘conversation’ as: ‘informal exchange of ideas by spoken words’ from the Latin ‘conversari: to keep company…

| by Paul Warwick | I have had many professional guises – teacher, teacher trainer, examiner, researcher – stretched over more years than I now care to contemplate. The central spine…

| by James Mannion | To be clear from the outset, the title is no click-bait: I genuinely believe this to be true. It’s not that I consider written forms of…

| by Pete Dudley | Let’s introduce ourselves. I am an ex-teacher – and someone who wants the best from education for all children and young people – and I think there…

This is an extract from Talk Box: Oracy Activities for Learning at Key Stage 1, by Lyn Dawes and Claire Sams. London: Routledge, second edition. In press: publication date May 2017. …

| by Alan Howe | One We’re going on a bear hunt (again). This time my 3 year old grandson is sitting at a whiteboard in the kitchen with a marker…

by Professor Neil Mercer Director, Oracy Cambridge The development of children’s spoken language skills has, thank goodness, been getting more and more attention in the media recently. Newspaper articles and…

| by Wendy Lee | Learning to talk is the most complex skill any of us will learn. It’s tricky learning to combine the various language components needed, with speed and accuracy,…

| by Ayesha Ahmed | Image: Pixabay As a low stakes classroom activity, teacher assessment of oracy skills can have a positive effect on learning and teaching. Teachers using assessment…

| by Nick Andrews | The popularity of the BBC programme, The Great British Bake Off is proof that everyone enjoys a piece of cake, especially when it has been made to…

| by Lyn Dawes | Children develop oral language by listening to others and creatively copying and using what they hear to form their own words for their own purposes.  Once…

  In this article, Professor of Education Neil Mercer argues that ‘talk’ needs tuition; state schools must teach spoken language skills for the sake of social equality. The value of effective…

by Alan Howe The recent conference ‘The Power of Talk’, organised by the newly established Study Centre for oracy at Hughes Hall in Cambridge, was oversubscribed and very successful.  Speakers…

 by Professor Neil Mercer Director, Oracy Cambridge, Hughes Hall The conference to launched our new study centre, Oracy Cambridge, was held at Hughes Hall on the 22nd of April 2016. Ninety…

In the world of work, the value of effective spoken communication is almost universally recognised. Job adverts emphasise the importance of being a confident communicator, or a strong ‘team player’.…