Developing oracy: it’s talkin’ time!

2022-04-28T10:05:30+01:00December 29th, 2012|learning, literacy|

Talk is the sea upon which all else floats ~ James Britton, Language and Learning, 1970 Students spend a lot of talking, don't they? Everyone can speak, so why would we want to waste valuable time teaching them to do it? Well, while all this is undoubtedly true, many students don't speak well. This is, I hasten to add, not the same as being well spoken. As teachers we're pretty leary of the idea of talking in lessons. Teacher talk has got itself a very bad name. But in the best examples of talk lead lessons, teacher talk is generously interspersed with questions (both to [...]