Talking is the key that unlocks all education

‘My parents talked a lot. To each other and to us. Opinions, family jokes, quickfire wit, stories and a lot of questions and most important, how to listen as well as talk.’ Photograph: DGLimages/Alamy

Simon Jenkins says the teaching of oracy “was launched about 10 years ago by progressive educationists” (Another way we are failing an entire generation: we must teach young people to speak, 24 July). There has been enthusiasm for spoken English in schools for much longer than that.

In 1989, the government published the report English for Ages 5 to 16. In it, Brian Cox argued for the greater inclusion of oracy by asserting that “talk is now widely recognised as promoting and embodying a range of skills and competence – both transactional and social – that are central to children’s overall language development”.