Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-hp6zs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-26T13:49:12.722Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Defending Oracy

from Part I - Debating Oracy in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2025

Tom F. Wright
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, Neil Mercer engages with some of the criticisms of oracy education. He looks back over his career as a key figure in the oracy debate and re-affirms his current understanding of oracy education. Engaging productively with the observations of Cushing, Cameron and others in this book, he re-asserts oracy’s importance for social equality and democracy, and its role in empowering young people for diverse communication scenarios. Unity among educators in pursuit of inclusive practices, he argues, will be crucial in ensuring equitable opportunities for all students.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Oracy
The Politics of Speech Education
, pp. 77 - 90
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alexander, R. (2020) A Dialogic Teaching Companion. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchan, H. S. (2024). Buchan Heritage Society: Doric workshops. https://buchanheritagesociety.co.uk/doric-workshops/.Google Scholar
Cushing, I. and Snell, J. (2022). ‘The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate’, Language in Society, 52(1). https://doi.org/10.1017=S0047404522000094.Google Scholar
De Meo, M. (2020). Subtitling dialect in Inspector Montalbano and Young Montalbano. inTRAlinea: special issue: The Translation of Dialects in Multimedia IV. www.intralinea.org/specials/article/2466.Google Scholar
Dockrell, J., Howell, P., Leung, D. and Fugard, A. (2017). ‘Children with speech language and communication needs in England: Challenges for practice’, Frontiers in Education, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2017.00035.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drummond, R. (2016). Leave off, will you? Britain should celebrate ‘regional’ accents. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/leave-off-will-you-britain-should-celebrate-regional-accents-67952.Google Scholar
Giles, H. and Powesland, P. (1975). Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hennessy, S., Calcagni, E., Leung, A. and Mercer, N. (2021). ‘An analysis of the forms of teacher-student dialogue that are most productive for learning’, Language and Education, 37(2), 186211. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2021.1956943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, C., Hennessy, S., Mercer, N., Vrikki, M. and Wheatley, L. (2019). ‘Teacher-student dialogue during classroom teaching: Does it really impact upon student outcomes?’, Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(4–5), 462512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jhingran, D. (2019). Early Literacy and Multilingual Education in South Asia. Kathmandu: United Nations Children’s Fund Regional Office for South Asia.Google Scholar
Lanza, E. (2004). Language Switching in Infant Bilingualism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McCluney, C. L., Robotham, K., Lee, S., Smith, R. and Durkee, M. (2019). The costs of code-switching. The Big Idea Series. https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching.Google Scholar
Mercer, N. (2019). Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercer, N., Warwick, P. and Ahmed, A. (2017). ‘An oracy assessment toolkit: Linking research and development in the assessment of students’ spoken language skills at age 11–12’, Learning and Instruction, 48, 5160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercer, N., Wegerif, R. and Major, L. (eds.) (2020). The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mercer, N. (2025). Oracy: The Transformative Power of Finding Your Voice (London: Penguin).Google Scholar
OECD (2019). Education 2030 Curriculum Content Mapping: An Analysis of the Netherlands Curriculum Proposal. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/contact/E2030_CCM_analysis_NLD_curriculum_proposal.pdf.Google Scholar
Ofqual (2013). The Ofqual Blog: Our announcement on speaking and listening assessments. https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2013/09/04/our-announcement-on-speaking-and-listening-assessments/.Google Scholar
Rampton, B. (1995). Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Sherrington, T. (2017) Empowering speech, challenges on ‘correctness’ and some questions for sociolinguists. Blog as Teacherhead: https://teacherhead.com/2017/10/26/empowering-speech-challenges-on-correctness-and-some-questions-for-sociolinguists/.Google Scholar
Strelluf, C. (2024). ‘Bengali Cockney, Black Cockney, East End Cockney, Essex Cockney, Jewish Cockney, Sylheti Cockney’: Why community languages matter. The Conversation, 1st March: https://theconversation.com/bengali-cockney-black-cockney-east-end-cockney-essex-cockney-jewish-cockney-sylheti-cockney-why-community-languages-matter-224767.Google Scholar
Voice 21 (2024). What is Oracy? https://voice21.org/what-is-oracy/.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, A. (1965). ‘The concept of Oracy’, Educational Review, 17(4), 1115. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013191770170401a.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, A., Davies, A. and Berrill, D. (1990). Spoken English Illuminated (English, Language, and Education Series). Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AAA

The PDF of this book complies with version 2.2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offering more comprehensive accessibility measures for a broad range of users and attains the highest (AAA) level of WCAG compliance, optimising the user experience by meeting the most extensive accessibility guidelines.

Content Navigation

Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

Reading Order & Textual Equivalents

Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Full alternative textual descriptions
You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.

Visual Accessibility

Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
Use of high contrast between text and background colour
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×