Advocating for oracy: supporting student success in foundation year study

Abstract

A key purpose of the Foundation Year provision is to prepare students, often from a widening participation background, for their undergraduate study. Research has established that access to academic discourse and disciplinary knowledge is, to a large extent, dependent on students’ academic language and literacy skills, including oracy skills. However, little attention is paid to oracy skills in the higher education literature, and less so in the context of a Foundation Year. In this paper, we explore Foundation Year students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the importance of oracy skills in preparing for undergraduate study. We also investigate Foundation Year students’ confidence in these skills at the start of their university programme. Initial findings suggest that whilst teachers and students report oracy skills are important for undergraduate study, they disagree on which subdomains of skills are the most important. Quantitative data suggests students report confidence in their oracy skills upon entering higher education, however, qualitative data suggest a more nuanced picture, with students reporting a desire for more small group practice. Drawing on these insights, we make suggestions for explicitly teaching oracy skills in Foundation Year. This would not only raise the status of oracy skills as a key part of the Foundation Year curriculum but also emphasise the relationship between widening participation, oracy skills and academic achievement.