Research School Network: Talk the Talk: Integrating High Quality Talk into the Classroom Our ELE, Nick Harrison, explores how we can embed high-quality talk necessarily into the 21st century classroom

Talk is cheap…. not in my classroom! I am currently working as an Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for teaching and learning in an inner-city comprehensive school in Birmingham, where I have been working for 12 years! The question I have consistently asked myself over this time, is how do I get our pupils to sound sophisticated, confident and consistently articulate in their answers? In my current setting, nearly 80% of learners are classed as EAL – so how can we support our learners to talk the talk in an ever-competitive AI world where interviews and video clips trump written applications?

So, my strategy for high quality talk in the classroom is two-fold; Disciplinary talk and whole school talk strategies.

Disciplinary talk – Our Heads of Department and their teams are the subject experts; they are in the best position to teach children how to talk with purpose and accuracy in their subject areas. It is essential that the curriculum teams work together in dedicated CPD time to discuss opportunities for oracy in teaching and learning as well as assessment.

Words are the tools we all need to succeed and talk adds a rich layer of depth to our thinking and creativity. The EEF note how important structured talk can be and the importance of training pupils to access the academic language and conventions of different subjects (Improving Literacy in secondary Schools – EEF 2021) Words are just as important as actions in my book, in fact they are intrinsically linked. Without the disciplinary words we need to engage in a subject, how are we to begin to read and write about it? Here’s just a few ideas:

Whole School Perspective

From a whole school perspective, we have been on a journey of encouraging more purposeful talk in the classroom to ensure high levels of participation which was sometimes lacking despite excellent behaviour. We have decided to put high quality talk at the centre of our teaching and learning framework in school, – utilising the walkthrus series (Sherrington and Caviglioli et al), particularly, think, pair, share and cold calling. If you haven’t seen walkthrus, they are great for guiding teachers through key techniques in a structured way to make sure your teaching and learning really hits the mark.

Our pupils know that during any given lesson they could be expected to contribute as teachers take a no hands approach to questioning but before that moment comes, they will get a chance to reflect and discuss ideas with talk partners to build confidence and develop understanding. During this process, why not develop talk around wider reading, academic vocabulary/​tier 2 words and of course the vital ingredient of metacognitive talk. The updated EEF Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning Guidance Report (2025, p. 3) states that ​“Pupil-to-pupil talk and pupil-teacher talk can help to build knowledge and understanding of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. However, dialogue needs to be purposeful, with teachers guiding and supporting the conversation to ensure it is challenging and builds on prior subject knowledge”.

Pupils need to see that talk can be really powerful in developing their understanding as well as their social skills. Like I said, talk isn’t cheap, it’s rich in value so integration into the classroom is key, every pupil deserves to have a voice!