Describe the strategies you would use to promote speaking and listening in the primary English classroom. Make specific references to the following groups of students: ESL, bilingual or bi-dialectal.

Oracy is, according to Green and Campbell (2003, 58), the "umbrella activity for learning." Speaking and listening are integral to all English learning areas, and classroom talk is "the form in which learning is presented and delivered, and the vehicle by which learning is interpreted...learners must be communicators and thinkers before they can be effective readers and writers" (Green and Campbell 2003, 53). Given that this area is of utmost importance, it is critical that teachers themselves understand …

…all students can benefit. Speaking and listening play an important role in the primary English classroom, and indeed, the wider world. It is imperative that teachers are aware of the importance of the learning environment in which these skills develop, and are able to include all of their students in carefully planned, engaging and purposeful activities, that give all students the opportunity to practice speaking and listening in a wide range of areas and contexts.