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The aim of this study is to examine what perception grade 2 students has of dialogue when focusing on the Swedish language. The study is supported by phenomenography, which focuses on the students’ own conclusions surrounding the importance of dialogue. The survey is also supported by a metacognitive perspective. To achieve the aim, the following three questions has been formulated: What perceptions do students in grade 2 have concerning dialogue? In what way does the students’ perceptions of dialogue differ? Do the students perceive dialogue as something of value? In summary, the results of this study are that in each student group it is agreed upon that dialogues are important but a majority of the students finds it difficult to keep up a dialogue. Therefore, it is important that teachers get all the help they need to be able to work with oracy, i.e. the ability to use oral tools such as speaking and listening. For them to succeed Mercer (2017) urges that oracy, as a tool, receives much more attention in schools.

This doctoral thesis presents the findings of a mixed methods case study of Learning Skills, a new approach to Learning to Learn that was developed and implemented at a secondary school in the south of England between 2010 and 2014, and evaluated using data collected between 2009 and 2017. Learning to Learn is a field of educational theory and practice that aims to help young people get better at learning by focusing on the processes of learning (the how as well as the what), and by enabling them to take ownership over aspects of their own learning through activities such as goal setting, self-monitoring and structured reflection. The field has developed significantly throughout the last 40 years, with a number of approaches having been implemented on a large scale in the UK. Research into metacognition and self-regulation suggests that Learning to Learn programmes should help boost academic attainment. To date however, large-scale evaluations have found mixed results, with no clear impact on academic attainment. Using an intervention design used widely in medicine and other fields, Learning Skills reconceptualises Learning to Learn as a 'complex intervention' comprised of multiple areas of evidence-informed practice. The rationale for complex interventions is that the marginal gains emerging from any individual avenue of practice stack up and interact to yield a larger effect size overall. The Learning Skills programme, which started as a year seven taught course and developed into a whole-school approach to teaching and learning, focuses centrally on three key concepts: metacognition, self-regulation and oracy. This evaluation of Learning Skills incorporates eight strands of data collection and analysis over an eight-year period, using the previous year group at the same school as a control group. These include baseline measures; attitude to learning scores; psychometric questionnaires; a language of learning evaluation; reflective learning journals; student interviews; teacher interviews; and student attainment across all subjects in years nine and 11. The primary outcome analysis - student attainment across all subject areas at three and five years - found that Learning Skills cohort one achieved significantly higher grades than the control cohort, with accelerated gains among young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Secondary data analysis incorporating a range of qualitative and quantitative methods indicates a causal relationship between Learning Skills and academic attainment. As well as evaluating the impact of a new and promising approach to Learning to Learn, this study generates new knowledge about the implementation and evaluation of complex interventions in education.

Traditionally, children's formal introduction to print has occurred when they enter primary school around five years of age. The progress of this literacy development typically has been from the child's spoken language into reading. In this approach writing emerges out of reading experience. Montessori's theory suggests that children can come to literacy via writing, specifically via the sounds of the alphabet. Her approach rests on the view that the alphabet can represent the sounds of spoken language. Given the sounds/symbols to write the child can learn to map spoken language to print. As children explore the print system in writing they will build up knowledge and understanding sufficient to support easy access to reading. According to Montessori the pre-school years offer an optimal time for this development to occur. She maintains that where literacy acquisition emerges out of spoken language via writing into reading the potential for creative written expression may be more available to the child than where the progression is first into reading. In this latter approach the thoughts and conventions of other writers (reading) may limit the child's expression. Theoretical issues regarding young children's capacities to learn as well as issues surrounding the writing/reading precedence are discussed. To examine the process from children's spoken language into writing, a series of naturalistic observations were carried out in three Montessori classes. Children's progress from oracy to literacy and the learning environments which facilitated this process are documented and discussed. In presenting the children's learning environments an informal exposition of Montessori's approach to language learning at the pre-school level is given.

The purpose of this qualitative action research was to explore how early primary children respond to the implementation of culturally relevant oracy practices in an inclusive classroom. This study, which took place over five months in an inner city school in Western Canada, focused on children’s oracy skills following four events facilitated by an Aboriginal Elder. Data consisted of an oral assessment, transcriptions of the four events, artefacts created by the students, photographs, and the teacher’s research journal. Data analysis consisted of a comparative assessment of the student’s oral language skills and a content and discourse analysis of the transcriptions. Data analysis revealed that children respond favourably to culturally responsive oracy practices, that they are able to meet the B.C. Ministry of Education prescribed learning outcomes, and such practices adhere to the Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement (2005). / Graduate / 0727 / 0524 / winona.waldron@shaw.ca

The aim of this study was to identify discourses about oracy and the spoken language, how these discourses were constructed as well as investigating how these discourses compared to those about writing and written language. Through the use of a social-constructivist approach, we have analysed central documents in the Swedish school system and deconstructed these to uncover implicit meanings bound to them. The materials analysed include a standardised test taken by pupils in the 6th grade along with an excerpt from the Swedish curriculum, containing the aim of Swedish as a school subject, as well as a complimentary material provided for clarifying purposes. We’ve fragmented these documents to identify discourse-indicating variables and their possible function in constructing discourse. In this study we have identified small-scale discourses which we believe to be contributing to the present view on oracy as well as an implicit undermining of its legitimacy, something which we haven’t found any signs of in texts associated with written-language education.This undermining presents itself as language which is hard to decipher, which may be perceived as leading to the expressed uncertainty amongst Swedish teachers and a vertigo linked to these forms of educating. Conclusions drawn from this study point toward a favouring of written activities in the texts, reasons for which we believe could be historical and/or social in nature.

The aim of this study is to better understand how oracy education is viewed by a selection of active intermediate-school teachers in the school-subject Swedish. Oracy in the intermediate-school level of education is a subject which is rarely researched and this study thus seeks to broaden the base of knowledge available to future studies. Data was gathered through internet-based interview questions sent to respondents from a selection of Swedish schools as well as teacher students. This was then analysed through a discourse-analytic method. Through the use of this method, common themes were identified within many of the respondents’ answers which in turn pointed to some discourses about oracy. What I found was that common topics circled around the pupils and the classroom climate, Oracy in education and time in both a resource- and fairness perspective. These made up for three main discourses in the material: A preparatory-activities discourse concerning how the pupils are to be prepared for oracy education. This was separated into two discussions about: (1) the maturity of the pupils and (2) teaching proper preparation strategies. A benefits discourse centring on how the student benefit from oracy education. The respondents’ statements point towards there being two benefits of oracy education: (1) its role in providing a well-rounded education and (2) it acting towards their own personal maturity as speakers. A resource discourse which addresses the time-aspect of a teacher’s practice. Two main parts of this discourse focused on: (1) how teachers save time by taking notes during oral examination forms and (2) The problems with fairness faced when time constraints force an oral exam to be split into more than one period.

The study investigates the potential of teacher talk in enhancing learner capacity to negotiate learning, premised on a view of classroom interaction as guided construction of knowledge. It examines the extent to which levels of oracy - essentially, awareness of the language of instruction, and the ability to use it more effectively - can be raised by exposing teachers to an in-service distance education language-based course. The main research questions are: a. What are the effects of the course in classroom text and discourse on oracy in the high school classroom? b. How can the quality of classroom discourse be assessed in a relatively systematic and objective manner? With regard to the second question, an analytical framework was developed that defined three key constructs in terms of discourse acts, namely teacher dominance, teacher effectiveness and learner initiative, and these constructs formed the basis of the three hypotheses. Patterns of interaction in English, mathematics and geography classes during the first year of high school in Harare, Zimbabwe (main study) and Zomba, Malawi (supplementary study) were analysed. The Zimbabwe study used a pretest-posttest control group design, with six teachers in the experimental group and three as controls, while the Malawi study used a posttest-only control group design with three teachers in each group. The experimental groups took part in an intervention programme known as the Litraid Project, a course on classroom text and discourse. The findings, interpreted both quantitatively and qualitatively, showed that after intervention the experimental group teachers dominated classrooms less and used discourse input more consciously and effectively. Similarly, their learners showed improved ability to negotiate learning, as reflected in their heightened levels of initiative and discourse output, both in class and group discussion. Hence the conclusion that classroom praxis, specifically in English second language situations, benefits from a conscious enhancement of oracy, leading to more effective teaching and learning. / Linguistics / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

The study investigates the potential of teacher talk in enhancing learner capacity to negotiate learning, premised on a view of classroom interaction as guided construction of knowledge. It examines the extent to which levels of oracy - essentially, awareness of the language of instruction, and the ability to use it more effectively - can be raised by exposing teachers to an in-service distance education language-based course. The main research questions are: a. What are the effects of the course in classroom text and discourse on oracy in the high school classroom? b. How can the quality of classroom discourse be assessed in a relatively systematic and objective manner? With regard to the second question, an analytical framework was developed that defined three key constructs in terms of discourse acts, namely teacher dominance, teacher effectiveness and learner initiative, and these constructs formed the basis of the three hypotheses. Patterns of interaction in English, mathematics and geography classes during the first year of high school in Harare, Zimbabwe (main study) and Zomba, Malawi (supplementary study) were analysed. The Zimbabwe study used a pretest-posttest control group design, with six teachers in the experimental group and three as controls, while the Malawi study used a posttest-only control group design with three teachers in each group. The experimental groups took part in an intervention programme known as the Litraid Project, a course on classroom text and discourse. The findings, interpreted both quantitatively and qualitatively, showed that after intervention the experimental group teachers dominated classrooms less and used discourse input more consciously and effectively. Similarly, their learners showed improved ability to negotiate learning, as reflected in their heightened levels of initiative and discourse output, both in class and group discussion. Hence the conclusion that classroom praxis, specifically in English second language situations, benefits from a conscious enhancement of oracy, leading to more effective teaching and learning. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)