Oracy? It's All Greek to Me

I am loving the work on oracy that has come my way since the rebirth in education of this amazing and powerful skill.

Who would have thought – when I left the ex-husband way back in late September of 1986 and returned to England after 17 years of teaching in the Caribbean – that my very first full-time teaching position would lead me to involvement with the original National Oracy Project of 1988 to 1993? I had obtained a post as Head of English at a large Bradford Middle School, and was thrilled to find that that school had registered to participate in this incredible initiative – the work of Andrew Wilkinson (lecturer and linguist at the University of Birmingham) who created the name ‘oracy’ in 1965 to re-promote the elaborated code of speech in schools and finally bring the power of talk into line with numeracy and literacy.

Basil Bernstein (linguist and researcher at London University: Institute of Education) had first advocated the teaching of elaborated code in all schools when his research revealed the great difference in achieving bench marks like learning to read and write for children who only spoke in the restricted code, when compared with those who spoke in the elaborated code all the time or who code switched with ease and impact between the two codes. He also demonstrated similar impact on examination results for older pupils at GCE (as it was then) and beyond.

Sadly, Wilkinson’s powerful relaunch had no more impact than Bernstein’s findings had had, as the original National Curriculum was launched in parallel – in 1987 – bringing great stress to the profession over those first years of the roll out and with its own version of Speaking and Listening being put on a par with reading and writing within the English Orders. Thus, the aspirations of Bernstein and Wilkinson to not only enable all children to become fluent and confident talkers, but also to enable them to code switch into the elaborated code of oratory whenever they so wished, were stifled in the Talk for Learning drive that underpinned the new curriculum.

The National Oracy Commission, led by Geoff Barton, has led to a rebirth of oracy and this opportunity must be seized and embraced in order to achieve that equality of opportunity and ability in the English language that we all aspire to and yet have failed thus far to achieve. If children can switch to a powerful oratory enriched with suave features, and delivered with confidence, coherence, passion and persuasion, they will not only empower themselves in daily discussion, debate and writing but they will also feel confidence to voice their opinions and knowledge in any forum before any audience. And all this whilst still talking in their daily lives in their natural family and cultural code of speech.

The great gift of rhetoric was first identified in ancient Greece and was recorded in parallel in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and China. The language of rhetoric was later found in the first versions of The Bible. This powerful language form was a driving force in both Greek and Roman education from the 5th Century BC and continued to be a force taught to young people across Western Europe until the 18th Century, when it gradually declined in popularity and was absorbed by such educational trends as ‘elocution schools’. With a slow rebirth throughout the 20th Century, rhetoric played a more central role in the worlds of Western education for orators, lawyers, historians, statesmen and poets – mainly through the public school system and universities.

In all my reading and research into the history of oracy, however, I was never more excited than to find that the power of rhetoric is also identified in the animal kingdom amongst the more social animals. It has been identified in the song of birds, the danger warnings of some species, the trickery of chimpanzees and the courtship of deer. Whilst these are defined as predominantly rhetorical actions and body language, they are fundamentals that are shared by both humans and animals. Indeed – there are sections on body language, including facial expression and gesture, in my books on oracy both for teachers and for pupils. Who would have thought it? Perhaps when I finish my current book on oracy written directly to children, I should write a third one for other animals?

I am reliably informed that the study of animal rhetoric is known as ‘biorhetorics’ – perhaps a future project I would enjoy? Or should I leave things as they stand right now? A mystery of nature… It’s all Greek to me!