Do children in England talk too little?

“RESPECTFULLY, I DISAGREE,” declares a youngster at Torriano Primary School in Camden, in north London, mustering all the gravitas that eight years on Earth can provide. Her class is studying “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” but they are also practising how to take part in a debate, by taking turns to say which character they think gets the worst deal. In a nearby classroom older children learn how to grab an audience’s attention by changing the volume and pace of their speech. In a reception class, cross-legged moppets wax nostalgically about the things they liked best when they were young.