Training Courses and Educational Resources for Schools and Teachers

Much of the current discussion about oracy focuses on creating a culture of talk, increasing discussion opportunities and encouraging student participation. This article argues that these are not curricula. A serious oracy curriculum must first specify what students are expected to learn. It proposes six tests: defining a body of communication knowledge, rooting talk in meaningful content, teaching knowledge about communication itself, developing metacognition, specifying progression and making assessment possible through exemplification. Using Tongue Fu Talking® as an example, the article argues that effective oracy education depends not on more talk, but on a clearly defined, progressive and assessable communication curriculum.

A planned vocabulary spine can transform the way students think, speak and learn.This blog explores why carefully sequenced vocabulary teaching matters, how Tongue Fu Talking® brings vocabulary, metacognition and oracy together through the Five-a-Week Vocabulary Spine, and how students can move beyond simply learning definitions to using words to reason, explain and communicate with increasing precision.

There is a persistent misconception in schools that oracy is about performance. Clear voice. Confident delivery. Polished presentation.That is part of it.But it comes later.Before students can present ideas, they have to form them. And that process is not silent. It is shaped through talk.This is where oracy and metacognition meet.