Oracy and youth social action

What’s the idea? Young people across the country take part in activities that ‘make a positive difference to others or the environment’ (Angus, 2019); this is youth social action. Opportunities to participate in youth social action are frequently talk-rich. Whether collaborating with others or pitching their ideas, students are developing their oracy skills and relying on pre-existing competencies. Arthur et al. (2015) found that confidence and communication were in the top three ‘virtues’ developed through social action. What does it mean? The connection between oracy and social action is important because of the relationship with economic disadvantage. Students from less affluent backgrounds are less likely to meet expected levels of communication than their more affluent peers (Read, 2016; Moss and Washbrook, 2016), and are less likely to take part in youth social action (Knibbs et al., 2019). High-quality oracy education has been shown to improve access to socia