Oracy-Focused Teaching in England Boosts the Success of Multilingual Learners
Teachers in Hampshire, England, now have access to new, free, evidence-based resources designed to strengthen spoken communication in the classroom. Introduced ahead of the government’s forthcoming “national oracy framework”, these tools are seen as an important step towards embedding more talk-centred teaching across the curriculum.
Supported by the British Academy and led by Professor Naomi Flynn from the Institute of Education, the research was carried out in partnership with Hampshire’s Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS). The findings show that integrating oracy strategies into everyday teaching significantly improves the academic and social development of multilingual pupils.
According to the study, classrooms where teachers speak less and pupils speak more see clear gains in confidence, engagement, and sense of belonging – particularly among students who speak a different language at home or come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
As part of the project, a new digital resource called the Talk-Rich Teaching Toolkit was developed. Adaptable to each school’s priorities, it is built around five key principles: belonging, talk-centred instruction, collaborative learning, enquiry-based teaching, and small-group work. Methods piloted in nine Hampshire schools showed that even small adjustments – such as reducing teacher talk, using sentence starters, and creating small discussion groups – helped previously quiet pupils participate more actively in lessons.