Oracy for global learning

Literacy and numeracy have for long been regarded as fundamental skills across all education levels. Oracy, however, has only recently emerged as the third pillar of the essential skills triangle (Oracy Skills Framework, 2020). But, research into oracy (conventionally defined as ‘speaking and listening skills’) has been mainly confined within compulsory educational contexts, despite efforts to ‘opening up the discussion on oracy skills in HE’. (Heron, 2019) This seems like a paradox, because by comparison to other levels of education, Higher Education has been shaped by expansive physical and virtual mobilities on national, international and transnational scales both for students and staff, who enrich university life with diverse accents, oracy cultures and multilingual competencies. Moreover, the advent of generative AI has elevated oracy skills to a marker of authenticity, as can be inferred by the recent increase of oral presentations (vivas) in assessment design. But how are students supported with developing and mastering oracy skills beyond deficit models and national contexts? (Cushing, 2024). My presentation aims to share research-informed insights into the role of oracy for global learning as a mode of ‘interthinking’ that ‘puts talk to work’ (Littleton and Mercer, 2013) on a transnational level. I will present on the design of a new project that draws on my previous research on ‘accentism’ (Loukopoulou, 2017) and on the ‘Inclusive Multilingualism’ toolkit developed in the context of Middlesex University (Lazar and Ryder, 2023). My project’s intended outputs will further support the implementation of the 2031 Learning Framework with new resources for embedding internationalisation, interactive and dialogic learning across all Middlesex campuses and transnational collaborations, which rely on spoken language and debate.
References:
• Cushing, I. (2024). ‘Social in/justice and the deficit foundations of oracy’. Oxford Review of Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2024.2311134
• Heron, M. (2019). ‘Making the case for oracy skills in higher education: practices and opportunities’. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.53761/1.16.2.2
• Lazar, G. and Ryder A. (2023) Inclusive Multilingualism: A Toolkit for Educators,
https://www.intra.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/services/centre-for-academic-pr...
• Littleton, K. & Mercer, N. (2013) Interthinking: Putting Talk to Work. Routledge
• Loukopoulou, K. (2017) ‘It’s not what you say, but how you say it’, Times Higher Education (28 September), online version:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/snobbery-against-region...
• Oracy Skills Framework (2020) https://oracycambridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/The-Oracy-Skil...