Category: Uncategorized
What conversational AI can do for oracy, and what it cannot
A guest post by Chloe Ye and Miranda Ding (MPhil in Education, University of Cambridge), co-founders of ChatnLearn Chloe: I remember a literature seminar in my first year of university.…
Kiku: A Quiet Power of Attentive Listening
A guest post by Luke Rolls at the British School, Tokyo “When I have been listened to and when I have been heard, I am able to re-perceive my world…
Choosing to Talk: How Can Choice-Based Resources Shape the Quality of Classroom Discussions?
A guest post by Dr Sam Holdstock (sam.holdstock@canterbury.ac.uk) Most teachers that I encounter routinely incorporate presentation slides into their lessons. These slides can be very useful – they allow us…
Oracy’s back in the curriculum – what does this mean for assessment?
by Ayesha Ahmed (Oracy Cambridge) and Amanda Moorghen (Voice 21) Oracy’s back in the curriculum The 2026 Schools’ White Paper reaffirms the government’s commitment to oracy as foundational, alongside reading,…
Between Worlds: The Function of the Teacher in ‘Twilight Role’
A guest post by Tim Taylor With renewed attention on speaking and listening across the curriculum, the challenge is not simply to increase opportunities for talk, but to ensure that…
Oracy in Mathematics: More or less talk?
by Jane Hawkins, Associate Deputy Director for Secondary, NCETM This blog sets out to suggest that oracy in maths isn’t ‘really just about talk’, and that it certainly isn’t just…
In the age of oracy, we neglect dialogue at our peril…
by Neil Phillipson. See below for a video version of this post. The age of oracy is beginning! The great levers of state are at last being used to incentivise…
Oracy and Speech, Language and Communication Needs
by Wendy Lee – Consultant Speech and Language Therapist and Associate, Oracy Cambridge Children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) require support to develop the foundational skills for learning…
Oracy Cambridge response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review
Oracy Cambridge warmly welcomes the government’s acceptance of the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s recommendation to introduce a national oracy framework to complement the existing frameworks for reading and writing. This…
The Power of ‘Tell Me’: Thinking about the work of Aidan Chambers
A guest post by Professor Fiona Maine, University of Exeter At some point in the early 90s the headteacher of the first school I taught in handed me a book…
Speak Up, Measure Up: Building Better Tools for Evaluating Classroom Conversation
by Estefania Gamarra, Marion Heron, Harriet Tenenbaum & Lewis Baker University of Surrey In this blog we share with you some of our reflections on how we can measure the…
Neil Mercer’s “enlightening”, “inspiring”, “immensely fun” new book!
For generations our education system has been built on the twin pillars of literacy and numeracy. But what if a third – and equally vital – pillar has been…
Precision-engineering learning through talk: Analysing the language demands of tasks
Pete Dudley This blog shares some ideas for supporting pupils to use talk in collaborative group discussions that not only spur on exploratory talk – they also make sure that…
Should we ask for volunteers during whole-class talk?
by Topsy Page Pupil voice about ‘participation systems’ for whole-class talk – how is it decided who speaks, and are the systems effective? We know that one of the…
Oracy in the Chinese Context: Challenges and Promises
A guest post by Dr. Yuchen Shi East China Normal University, Shanghai During my doctoral study at Teachers College, Columbia University, I conducted research with my advisor Dr. Deanna Kuhn…
How should we teach presentational talk?
by Alan Howe Image created with DALL-E by ChatGPT The unsettling rite of passage “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death…
The Oracy Cambridge response to the Oracy Education Commission report
by the Oracy Cambridge team Earlier this month, the Oracy Education Commission (OEC) published its report, We need to talk. This comes at a time when the government has made…
Visions and Voices: An interview with a National Gallery Educator…
by James Mannion Last year, Oracy Cambridge started a fascinating collaboration with the National Gallery education team called ‘Visions and Voices’. Working with three schools over a 3-year period, we’re…
Oracy: Four Interconnected Aspects
A guest post by Barbara Bleiman Learning to talk, learning through talk There has been lots of debate in recent months about oracy and what it is. There are many…
On defining oracy
by Dr James Mannion Edit: This blog led to an interesting debate on X, where I wrote two further long posts to clarify my position – please see here and…
Speaking with purpose: Douglas Barnes and oracy as ‘acting on the world’
A guest post by Dr Rupert Knight As the work of the recently formed Oracy Education Commission gets underway, there is certainly a buzz around oracy. With every new post…
Oracy: The urgent need for change and the role of schools as change agents
A guest post by Dr Elaine Allen OBE The uphill struggle The need to develop children’s spoken language capabilities in early years and primary education is nothing new. It…
“It sort of gets a little repetitive talking to the same person over and over again…”
by Topsy Page I’ve been thinking recently about children and young people’s experiences of school, and how they are often put with the same talk partner for several weeks (or…
Teaching and learning on Buber’s narrow ridge
by Neil Phillipson Relationship educates As they put to sea at the beginning of a new academic year, here’s a maxim that educators everywhere might like to hold tight to: relationship…
Will ChatGPT turn education back to Socrates?
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…
“Diminished Voices”: Why is it important to focus on oracy when educating girls?
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…
The transformative power of oracy
by James Mannion I’d like to share something I’ve ruminated on many times in recent years, but I haven’t ever really taken the time to articulate. Often, we talk about…
“Disturbingly different”: 5 great dialogic talk moves
by Alan Howe ‘We define dialogue as interaction where participants: position themselves in relation to others, recognising diverse voices, beliefs, and perspectives; pose open questions, critique and build on others’…
“Our Class”
In this insightful post, Dr Lyn Dawes highlights the challenges teachers face in making every child feel like they truly belong to “their class” – and shares a number of practical…
Helping Students Find their Voices in Creative Writing
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…
Out of the mouths of babes: Critical kids and classroom talk
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…
Improv your teaching
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…
Oracy for All? One school’s approach to integrating oracy across the curriculum
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,…
How can we teach Speaking and Listening in the classroom?
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…
Why should we teach Speaking and Listening in the classroom?
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…
The hopefulness of teaching for dialogue
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…
Before we were so rudely interrupted
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…
Group Work in Classrooms – Why We Should Never Willingly Say Goodbye
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…
On Donald Trump and cognitive dissonance
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…
The rhetorical legacy of Donald Trump
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…
On holding a conversation
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.…
Oracy in Higher Education: Key recommendations
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…
Oracy as the vaccine against truth decay
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…
Talking points for Year 7 scientists
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…
Listening for learning
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…
“It’s absolutely gripping”… The power of Philosophy for Children
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…
Creating confidence: the power of presentational talk
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…
Rehearsing for when you get to run the country: The importance of debate
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…
Collaboration and complexity
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…
The importance of talk rules – and how to make them work for your pupils
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…
Oracy in The Learning Skills Curriculum: Rationale
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…
On freedom of expression
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…
Why the obvious tool for leading oracy across your school is Research Lesson Study
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…
Communicating with children
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…
Prof Neil Mercer’s evidence to the Oracy APPG
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…
Research and Practice: working with teachers on classroom talk
by Neil Mercer I have worked with teachers on research on talk and learning in classrooms since the 1970s and have used a range of methods to do so. In…
“How was it for you?” Students’ views of using technology to assist productive talk
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…
Talking tech: Developing oracy online
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.…
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,…
Thinking Together: University Challenge and a reconceptualisation of the nature of human intelligence
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…
Getting below the surface: Oracy Down Under
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…
Inquiring Science: Developing Internet Literacy through Oracy
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…
Our submission of evidence to the Oracy All Party Parliamentary Group
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…
Oracy on the street: Conversations on the picket line (2)
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…
Working with oracy in higher education: what’s going on?
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.…
Yeast, not rulers: Oracy, 50 years on…
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…
Conference Programme: The Age of Oracy (July 3rd 2019, Hughes Hall, Cambridge)
Programme summary – please see below for details of talks and speaker biogs 8.45 – 9.15 Welcome and coffee 9.15 – 9.25 Anthony Freeling, President of…
Oracy is here to stay. Here’s why…
by Lyn Dawes and Pete Dudley Initiative overload plagues our education system. One benefit of this constant turnover of strategies and theories is that a great many educational ideas are…
Teacher talk: the beating heart of effective professional learning and development
by James Mannion (@RethinkingJames) Talk, eh? Isn’t it amazing how making weird noises with our throats can have such a profound impact on so many aspects of our personal and…
Book review: ‘Talk: the science of conversation’ by Elizabeth Stokoe
Review of ‘Talk: the science of conversation’ by Elizabeth Stokoe (2018; Robinson, London) The author of this book is, like me, is a psychologist who has specialised in the study…
But what will the rest of the class do during the debate (Part 2)?
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…
But what will the rest of the class do during the debate?
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…
BOOK REVIEW – Transforming Teaching and Learning Through Talk: the Oracy Imperative
by Alan Howe Transforming Teaching and Learning Through Talk: the Oracy Imperative Amy Gaunt and Alice Stott Rowman and Littlefield 2019 Deep in the sandy wastes of Sturt’s stony desert…
BOOK REVIEW – The Voice in Education: Vocal Heath and Effective Communication
by Lyn Dawes The Voice in Education: Vocal Heath and Effective Communication Stephanie Martin and Lyn Darnley Oxford: Compton Publishing, 2018 This book should be given to every new teacher…
BOOK REVIEW – You are not human: How words kill
by James Mannion ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ TL;DR: Read this book and buy a copy for everyone you know and love. Also, start teaching ancient rhetoric in all schools, like yesterday. — I…
Upgrading oracy: placing ‘spoken delivery and response’ at the heart of the curriculum
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…
How difficult to listen!
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…
Finding the voice to tell our stories
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…
Teaching Tone of Voice
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…
Oracy across the Welsh curriculum
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…
Leading Oracy in School – Part 1: the enduring potential and the wicked issues.
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…
Talk is for learning
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 –…
Oracy in action – conversations on the picket line
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…
The Language of Power: a one-day workshop
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…
The Great Oracy Exhibition
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…
‘Sounding people out’: talk and acupuncture
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,…
Oracy education and dialogic teaching: what’s the difference?
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…
How inclusive is Oracy?
| 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…
Assessing collaboration: grasping the nettle…
| 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…
Assessing Collaboration
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…
Is narrative an endangered species in UK schools?
| 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…
A voice from the chasm: “Please sir, can I have some more (oracy)?”
| 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,…
Walking and talking with children about place
| 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…
Talk your way out of NQT exhaustion and into better long-term practice
| 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…
A different lens
| 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…
Elaborate!
| 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…
Let’s converse…
| 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…
Oracy and dialogue: is there a difference and does it matter?
| 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…
Why oracy is more important than literacy and numeracy put together
| 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…
Oracy changing practice in the workplace: a dialogblogue
| 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…