Chair of The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, Geoff Barton, speaks to commission member Professor Rob Drummond about challenging accentism and the deficit model of language, his work in The Manchester Voices Project and how the field of sociolinguistics is so closely tied to the work of the commission.

Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he researches, teaches and writes about the relationship between spoken language and identity. He recently led the community-focused Manchester Voices project, exploring the accents, dialects and identities of people in Greater Manchester, and he co-leads The Accentism Project, which strives to challenge and raise awareness of language-based prejudice. Rob does a lot of public-facing academic work, and is the author of 'You’re All Talk: Why We Are What We Speak.

You can learn more about The Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England and its members here