In this 'Commission Conversation, Chair of the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, Geoff Barton, talks to Julia Snell about expectations for classroom talk, including the problem with blanket expectations for students to speak in standardised forms of English and the importance of dialogic pedagogy, including giving teachers the time and autonomy to develop this in their classrooms.  

Julia Snell is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Leeds. Her research on language variation has focused on the influence of social class, investigating how children from different social backgrounds use the resources of their local dialect, in addition to ‘standard’ English, to construct their identities, negotiate social hierarchies, and manage their relationships with each other and with their teachers. Julia has also done extensive work on classroom discourse and dialogic pedagogy,  seeking to promote the use of 'dialogic' teaching practices that engage active pupil participation in rich and challenging classroom discourse.