MPs call for action as 92% of teachers say Covid has widened ‘word gap’

A group of MPs has called for better support for schools to embed speaking skills in their classrooms, after 92% of teachers reported that the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a widening of the ‘word gap’.

In a foreword to an interim report published by the Oracy APPG this morning, chair and shadow education minister Emma Hardy emphasised that the public health crisis has worsened the “inequities facing children in our school system”.

The report, titled Speak for Change, highlights recent concerns raised by schools regulator Ofsted that children hit hardest by the pandemic are “regressing in basic skills and learning”, including language, communication and oral fluency.

Introducing the report, Labour frontbencher Emma Hardy wrote: “Oracy has always mattered, but it matters now more than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic has widened the already stubborn ‘language gap’.

“While the Oracy APPG inquiry began its work before the pandemic struck, the importance of the work has come into ever-sharper focus since then. Oracy offers an important means by which we can address the injustices worsened by the pandemic.”

Research cited by the APPG found that 92% of teachers think school closures during Covid have contributed to a widening of the ‘word gap’ and that 94% found it challenging to support pupils’ vocabulary development while teaching remotely.

Hardy added: “Yet this is not a new debate. For years, there have been efforts across the UK to increase high-quality classroom talk, against a background of extensive and ever-growing evidence of oracy’s importance.

“Unfortunately, as this inquiry is finding, many barriers get in the way, resulting in a gulf between teachers’ intuition that oracy matters, and their capacity to support it in their lessons.”

The report pointed to recent trials of oral language interventions by the Education Endowment Foundation, which showed that when undertaken they have enabled students to make an average of five months additional progress over a year.

But the interim report published by the group this morning also found that over half of teachers surveyed responded to say the school they teach in does not have a consistent approach to oracy development among pupils.

The document released by the parliamentary group today aims to provide a “snapshot of the key themes arising from the evidence”. The full report and final recommendations will be formulated in spring next year.

The Oracy APPG is committed to helping children become confident communicators. The group exists to coordinate research, promote best practice and encourage the overarching principles of oracy in education and society at large.