Oracy

byNeil Mercer, Neil Mercer (Read by)

The Transformative Power of Finding Your Voice

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For years – centuries even – our education system has centred around the twin pillars of literacy and numeracy. But what if a third – and equally vital – pillar has been ignored? Oracy: learning how to talk, learning through talk and learning about talk.

Talk is a crucial component of everyday life; and by using it well or badly we may build or wreck relationships, gain opportunities or lose them, solve problems or compound them: get things done or fail to do so.

In this persuasive and powerful manifesto, Neil Mercer calls for oracy to have an equal footing alongside literacy and numeracy: students should leave school not only as readers and writers, but as accomplished speakers and listeners. With warmth, clarity and insight, he demonstrates how oracy education has nothing to do with “speaking posh”, or eliminating style, slang and regional accents, but instead empowers people to find and express their unique voice.

This is the first book to bring the most important step change in educational and social thinking in generations to a wider audience, expertly arguing that the impact of oracy doesn’t stop at the school gates: we all need oracy skills for our personal relationships, professional networks and social lives.

A tremendous, necessary and enlightening book that takes us into how talk ticks, and why we need to nurture it. Neil Mercer shows us in fine detail how better talkers are better learners

Michael Rosen

About Neil Mercer

Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, Director of Oracy Cambridge: the Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication, a Life Fellow at Hughes Hall and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has been a Visiting Fellow of the English Language Institute of Singapore, a judge of international speaking competitions for the English Speaking Union and was appointed as an Expert Advisor to the 2024 Independent Oracy Commission.

In 2019 he was given the Oevre Award by the European Association for Research into Learning and Instruction and in 2021 awarded the John Nisbet Fellowship by the British Educational Research Association for outstanding contributions to educational research.
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • ISBN: 9781529957419
  • Length: 254 minutes
  • Price: £14.00
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