Awareness, understandings, and teaching practices surrounding academic oracy in university preparation pathways

Abstract

University preparation pathways are an important equity mechanism for opening access to higher education to under-represented students. A vital focus of pathways education is on the academic literacy practices needed for successful undergraduate study, and this appears to mainly focus on academic writing development. Therefore, despite academic speaking and listening–known as academic oracy–also holding a crucial role in supporting students’ engagement with content, critical thinking, groupwork, teaching and learning, and in enhancing their success, the extent to which academic oracy forms part of pathways courses alongside other academic literacy practices remains unclear. Drawing on semi-structured interview data from pathways educators working in university-based pathways in six universities, we argue that consensus about the importance of academic oracy in pathways education is in contrast to awareness or expertise about how to use talk to better support student engagement and success. We make the case for a professional development agenda to upskill educators, and students, to better use academic oracy for equitable participation in undergraduate classrooms. We also propose using the more accessible term, ‘academic talk’, as part of this development to emphasise the intentional use of speaking and listening to engage students in learning across disciplinary contexts.