Best Practice

Teaching oracy: 10 strategies for your classroom

Drawing on the work of two schools, Dr Leila Khouja Walker offers 10 helpful ideas and approaches to support oracy education in the classroom and across the school
Image: Adobe Stock

Effective oracy skills can help students to express themselves clearly, engage in meaningful conversations, and succeed in various social and professional contexts.

Oracy is “not a subject but a condition of learning in all subjects; not merely a skill but the essential instrument in the humanising of the species” (Wilkinson, 1970).

More than 50 years since Andrew Wilkinson first coined the phrase “oracy”, a seemingly endless number of articles and papers have been churned out, with huge stakes being attached to those educators who have adopted this pedagogy as a key component of their teaching toolkit.

“Taking oracy education seriously is perhaps the most powerful thing a teacher can do to positively impact the life chances of their pupils.” (Oracy Cambridge, 2020).

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