By Naomi Flynn (Professor of Multilingual Education, University of Reading)
Oracy is having a significant moment in England. Education Secretary Lucy Powell has announced that oracy will have equal status to reading and writing as a new strand of the national curriculum. She has challenged the notion that oracy is the preserve of the privileged and committed to it “lighting up every classroom”.
For those of us working with multilingual learners, this is welcome news, but it also raises important questions. What does good oracy education look like in linguistically diverse classrooms? How can we ensure learners are not simply encouraged to speak more, but have meaningful opportunities to shape discussions, explore ideas, and influence their learning?
These questions underpin the Talk-Rich Teaching Toolkit, a free online resource I have developed in collaboration with expert teachers from Hampshire’s Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS). The Toolkit offers five principles to guide oracy education, alongside practical ideas and free resources for making classroom talk more purposeful and inclusive for learners using English as an Additional Language (EAL).
Why did we develop the Talk-Rich Teaching Toolkit?
My wider research in the UK and US has explored how teachers can develop more dialogic and culturally sustaining approaches to teaching multilingual learners. Working with US colleagues Annela Teemant and Kara Mitchell Viesca, I have examined how professional learning can help teachers create classrooms where learners actively participate in co-constructing knowledge.
A recurring insight is that teachers need to talk less, listen more, and create space for learners to exercise agency in their learning.
Our work with Mount Pleasant infant and junior schools in Southampton has further developed this thinking. Working with school leaders and teachers, we have explored how purposeful classroom dialogue can strengthen multilingual learners’ confidence, participation, and curriculum learning. Mount Pleasant’s commitment to belonging and learner voice shows what is possible when oracy is embedded in everyday teaching rather than treated as a bolt-on.
What does the Talk-Rich Teaching Toolkit include?
The Toolkit brings together insights from all the above through its research-informed principles: School Belonging, Talk-Rich Teaching, Inquiry-Led Learning, Collaboration, and Small-Group Learning. These steer leadership teams and individual practitioners to consider whose contributions are heard and how talk supports learning. Strategies and activities are cross-curricular, attentive to English proficiency, and locally adaptable to school development priorities.
For me, oracy is about more than speaking confidently. It is about whose knowledge is recognised and how, whose contributions are taken seriously, and who participates in the intellectual life of the classroom. For multilingual learners, this means building on their existing knowledge and full linguistic resources while supporting their development of English.
As the revised national curriculum takes shape, our challenge is to translate policy ambition into everyday practice that benefits all learners. I hope the Toolkit contributes to this conversation.