Best lexispodcast Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 78 - John Kelly and the 2025 Words of the Year 52:40

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12d ago52:40

52:40

Welcome to episode 78 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to John Kelly, former head of content at Dictionary.com, previous contributor to Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries, emoji lexicographer for Emojipedia, and school teacher. We discuss: How WOTY decisions were made at Dictionary.com Whether we should celebrate WOTY for getting us talking ab…

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Episode 77 - Lynne Murphy and the 'Americanisation' of young people's English 29:27

1M ago29:27

29:27

Welcome to episode 77 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex about a flurry of recent news stories about children’s adoption of American vocabulary (and even accents). We discuss: What these stories are about and whether we can even tell if this 'Americanisation' is happening The main …

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Episode 76 - Dani Yin & Cheryl Wakslak on gender and exclamation marks in digital communication 1:00:49

1M ago1:00:49

1:00:49

Welcome to episode 76 of Lexis which features Raj & Dan (and guest interviewer & friend of the pod, Amanda Cole) talking about gender and exclamation marks in digital communication with Yidan (Dani) Yin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University and Dr Cheryl Wakslak…

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Episode 75 - Teachers' Accents special 1:21:36

2M ago1:21:36

1:21:36

Welcome back to Lexis. This is episode 75 and it’s a bumper edition. We pick up on a recent survey of teachers by Teacher Tapp about teachers’ accents and run with it… We talk to teacher, Arun Sharma about his experiences, we interview Alex Baratta, Amanda Cole and Rob Drummond and we discuss the survey results in more detail and cover some other s…

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Episode 74 - Laura Smith-Khan and the language of law 44:02

7M ago44:02

44:02

Welcome to Episode 74 of Lexis. Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Laura Smith-Khan, Senior Lecturer - School of Law, University of New England, Australia about… How she got into the linguistics of law Where and how law and language overlap Clarity, accuracy and the power dynamics in legal language Migration, borders, refugees and the law Assessing ‘credibil…

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Episode 73 - York English Language Toolkit preview 2025 27:16

7M ago27:16

27:16

Welcome to Episode 73 of Lexis. Dan talks to Sam Hellmuth, Catherine Laing, Lauren Harrington and Salina Cuddy about the forthcoming York English Language Toolkit event for A Level English Language teachers. You can sign up here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/workshops Previous workshops and case studies are here: https://englishlanguag…

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Episode 72 - Karrin Vasby Anderson on gender, politics and power 54:55

8M ago54:55

54:55

Welcome to Episode 72 of Lexis. Raj and Dan talk to Professor Karrin Vasby Anderson, Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University, USA about: Communication studies - what kinds of communication are studied and how Power and politics Toxic masculinity & Trump Gender and politics The ‘double-bind’ for women in politics The President…

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Episode 71 - Mercedes Durham & Welsh English 35:28

9M ago35:28

35:28

Welcome to Episode 71 of Lexis. Lisa, Dan and guest presenter Amanda Cole talk to Professor Mercedes Durham, from the Centre for Language and Communication, Cardiff University about her work on Welsh English. We talk about: The Leverhulme Trust project "Sociolinguistic Variation in South East Wales: Change and Contact" What makes Welsh English dist…

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Episode 70 - Emma Humphries & prescriptivism 50:18

10M ago50:18

50:18

Welcome to Episode 70 of Lexis. Raj and Dan talk to Dr Emma Humphries, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University Belfast about all things prescriptivism. We talk about: What prescriptivism is and how it can de defined Prescriptivism in French and English and the role of the Academy The Your Wrong proj…

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Episode 69 - Natalie Braber & Alice Paver on accent stereotypes 37:09

10M ago37:09

37:09

Welcome to Episode 69 of Lexis. Dan is joined by guest interviewer Amanda Cole for this episode as we talk to Dr Natalie Braber, Professor in linguistics at Nottingham Trent University and Alice Paver, Research Assistant at the Phonetics Laboratory, University of Cambridge about their new paper, ‘Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: …

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Episode 68 - Tony Thorne on the new words of 2024 & 2025 40:26

11M ago40:26

40:26

Show notes for Episode 68 Here are the show notes for Episode 68, in which Lisa, Jacky, Raj and Dan talk to lexicographer extraordinaire, connoisseur of coinages and expert slangster, Tony Thorne,Language consultant at King’s College London, about the words of 2024, those on his radar for 2025 and what new words tell us (or don’t) about the world w…

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Episode 67 - Joe McVeigh on how to spot a bad linguistics article 52:50

1y ago52:50

52:50

Show notes for Episode 67 Here are the show notes for Episode 67, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Joe McVeigh, Senior Lecturer in Communication at the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, PhD candidate at University of Helsinki and formerly a Linguistics lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland about how to spot (and critique) a bad …

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Episode 66 - Andreea Calude & the language of social media 41:57

1y ago41:57

41:57

Here are the show notes for Episode 66, in which Raj and Dan talk to Dr Andreea Calude, author of The Linguistics of Social Media: an introduction (Routledge, 2024). Andreea is Associate Professor in Linguistics at the University of Waikato, in New Zealand, Associate of the Human Lang Tech Research Centre in Romania, and Lennoy chair in multilingua…

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Episode 65 - Jullietta Stoencheva on everyday extremism 28:12

1y ago28:12

28:12

Here are the show notes for Episode 65, in which Raj and Dan talk to Jullietta Stoencheva, PhD candidate in Media and Communication Studies at Malmo University about: Extremist narratives and how they are constructed Who the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ are in extremist Us vs Them narratives Everyday extremism, plausible deniability and ‘borderline discourse’ P…

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Episode 64 - Katie Mansfield on working-class children & standard English in the classroom 51:31

1y ago51:31

51:31

Show notes for Episode 64 Here are the show notes for Episode 64, in which Raj and Dan talk to Katie Mansfield, PhD Researcher at The University of Sheffield & Lecturer in Education at The University of Gloucestershire about: Her research on working-class children, non-standard English and style shifting at school Combining approaches from linguist…

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Episode 63 - Isobelle Clarke and anti-science discourses 40:58

1y ago40:58

40:58

Show notes for Episode 63 Here are the show notes for Episode 63, in which Raj and Dan talk to Dr Isobelle Clarke, Lecturer in Security and Protection Science in the Dept of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University about: Anti-science discourses The language of climate change denialism The attraction and appeal of anti-science narra…

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Episode 62 - Fiona McPherson and 20 Years of Oxford WOTY 29:20

1y ago29:20

29:20

Show notes for Episode 62 Here are the show notes for Episode 62, in which Raj and Dan talk to Fiona McPherson, senior editor at the Oxford English Dictionary about: 20 years of Oxford Word of the Year Why she can’t reveal any secrets about WOTY2024… Why some words stick around and others don’t What makes a good WOTY candidate Word formation proces…

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Episode 61 - Lucy Jones on Words We Live By: A Guide to LGBTQ+ Language 35:47

1y ago35:47

35:47

Show notes for Episode 61 Here are the show notes for Episode 61, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Lucy Jones, Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham about Words We Live By: A Guide to LGBTQ+ Language, including: Why language labels are so important when discussing sexuality and sexual identity Whether or not such …

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Episode 60 - Stylistics with Peter Stockwell and Jessica Norledge 39:11

1y ago39:11

39:11

Show notes for Episode 60 Here are the show notes for Episode 60, in which Raj and Dan talk to Peter Stockwell, Professor of Literary Linguistics at the University of Nottingham and Jessica Norledge, Assistant Professor in Stylistics at the University of Nottingham about stylistics, including: What stylistics is and what it offers How English langu…

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Episode 59 - York English Language Toolkit 2024 41:31

1+ y ago41:31

41:31

Show notes for Episode 59 Here are the show notes for Episode 59, in which Dan talks to Sam Hellmuth, Professor of Linguistics at the University of York about the 2024 York English Language Toolkit workshop. We also talk to Eytan Zweig and James Tompkinson about their sessions. You can sign up here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/worksho…

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Episode 58 - Vaclav Brezina and the new Frequency Dictionary of British English 30:02

1+ y ago30:02

30:02

Show notes for Episode 58 Here are the show notes for Episode 58, in which Dan talks to Professor of Corpus Linguistics, Dr Vaclav Brezina of Lancaster University about: The new Frequency Dictionary of British English What certain words can tell us about a changing language Using corpora to track change Why we need more than just words to understan…

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Episode 57 - Lang in the News and Johanna Gerwin on MLE 57:08

1+ y ago57:08

57:08

Show notes for Episode 57 Here are the show notes for Episode 57, in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk about some recent Lang in the News, including: Apostrophes and why their disappearance has signalled the end of civilisation Johanna Gerwin’s new paper on how MLE and ‘Jafaican’ have been ‘enregistered’ in the UK press Some articles about MLE A reall…

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Episode 56 - Danielle Turton and dialect study 35:39

1+ y ago35:39

35:39

Here are the show notes for Episode 56, in which Raj and Dan talk to Dr Danielle Turton, Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at Lancaster University and Principal Investigator for a Leverhulme funded project on Lancashire rhoticity. We talk about: Dialect levelling and why it’s a complicated picture Why researching UK dialects is so interesting Wha…

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Episode 55 - Christian Ilbury and online language 38:40

1+ y ago38:40

38:40

Here are the show notes for Episode 55, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Christian Ilbury, Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at The University of Edinburgh about: Being an online linguist Social media and language change - why it’s complicated Why ‘slang’ is an unhelpful word…

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Episode 54 - Florent Moncomble 48:57

1+ y ago48:57

48:57

Here are the show notes for Episode 54, in which Raj and Dan talk to Dr Florent Moncomble, Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics at University of Artois, France about what English and French have in common and all the discourses swirling around French that are also relevant to English, including: The role of L’Académie Française Prescriptivism in …

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Episode 53 - Language Awareness at School with Tim Marr & Steve Collins 39:14

1+ y ago39:14

39:14

Show notes for Episode 53 Here are the show notes for Episode 53, an episode aimed primarily at teachers, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Steve Collins (Head of English at Bishop Luffa School, Chichester) and Tim Marr (Visiting Professor at Icesi University, Cali, Colombia) about the ideas in their book, Language Awareness at School: A Practical Gui…

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Episode 52 - Migration discourses with Charlotte Taylor & Ana Gavalas 1:11:01

2y ago1:11:01

1:11:01

Show notes for Episode 52 Here are the show notes for Episode 52, a migration discourses bumper episode, in which we feature two interviews. First off, Dan and Raj talk to Professor Charlotte Taylor of the University of Sussex about: Why corpus linguistics can refresh the parts other approaches cannot reach Discourses around migration and the metap…

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Episode 51 - Emily M. Bender and 'AI' hype 33:07

2y ago33:07

33:07

Show notes for Episode 51 Here are the show notes for Episode 51, in which Dan and (new Lexis team member) Raj talk to Professor Emily M. Bender of the University of Washington about: Why ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is not really the right term at all How Large Language Models work and why we should be sceptical of many of the claims made for them Th…

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Episode 50 - Jess Aiston and Critical Discourse Analysis 57:38

2y ago57:38

57:38

Show notes for Episode 50 Here are the show notes for Episode 50, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Jessica Aiston of QMUL about: Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Studies Why CDA/CDS are such useful approaches for A Level English Language students Some of the most useful elements of the CDA toolkit and why they’re helpful The work…

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Episode 49 - Ife Thompson and Black British English 53:42

2y ago53:42

53:42

Show notes for Episode 49 Here are the show notes for Episode 49, in which Jacky and Dan talk to lawyer, community activist and author, Ife Thompson, about: Black British English Linguistic justice in schools, courts and the rest of the world Anti-Blackness in discourses about language in the media Drill lyrics and the criminalisation of Black cult…

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Episode 48 - Frazer Heritage on representation of gender in videogames (and more) 49:28

2y ago49:28

49:28

Show notes for Episode 48 Here are the show notes for Episode 48, in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Frazer Heritage of Manchester Metropolitan University about: Representation of gender in video games What’s changed in the representation of gender and sexuality in video games since the 1980s Language methods for analysing representation Analy…

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Episode 47 - Fiona McPherson of the OED and Words of the Year 2023 28:06

2y ago28:06

28:06

Show notes for Episode 47 Here are the show notes for Episode 47, in which Dan talks to Fiona McPherson of the Oxford English Dictionary about: Word of the Year 2023 What makes a good word of the year Previous winners (and losers) What new words can tell us about the world Some of the best articles and updates about #WOTY2023 can be found here: ‘AI…

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Episode 46 - Paul Kerswill & MLE 41:55

2y ago41:55

41:55

Show notes for Episode 46 Here are the show notes for Episode 46, in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk to Paul Kerswill, Emeritus Professor, Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York about what has driven his interests in linguistics, but mostly about Multicultural London English: What it is How it developed How it’s used…

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Episode 45 - Alex Baratta and accentism 42:40

2y ago42:40

42:40

Show notes for Episode 45 Here are the show notes for Episode 45, in which we talk to Dr Alex Baratta, Senior Lecturer in Language, Linguistics & Communication, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester about: Accents, accents… and more accents! Teacher accents and ‘professionalism’ Social connotations and stereotypes of accents -…

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Episode 44 - Kingsley Ugwuanyi + Amanda Cole 1:08:27

2y ago1:08:27

1:08:27

Show notes for Episode 44 Here are the show notes for Episode 44, in which we talk to Dr Kingsley Ugwuanyi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Horizon Europe’s RISE UP Research Project, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at SOAS about: Nigerian English Global Englishes and who ‘owns’ a language Accent attitudes and identity Models and theorie…

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Episode 43 - language & gender special part 2 40:34

2+ y ago40:34

40:34

Show notes for Episode 43 Here are the show notes for Episode 43, the second part of a Language & Gender double episode special, in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan discuss ways to teach Language and Gender at A Level, from the 3 / 4 Ds models, to slightly tweaked and reverse Ds, through to corpus methods, treating gender as part of a wider ‘identity’ app…

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Episode 42 - Deborah Cameron, language & gender special part 1 56:48

2+ y ago56:48

56:48

Here are the show notes for Episode 42, the first part of a Language & Gender double episode special, in which we talk to Deborah Cameron, Professor in Language and Communication at Worcester College, Oxford about: Robin Lakoff 50 years on from Language and Woman’s Place Where language & gender research has headed post-Lakoff Deborah Cameron’s fort…

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Episode 41 - Johanna Gerwin and London English 45:59

2+ y ago45:59

45:59

Show notes for Episode 41 Here are the show notes for Episode 41, in which Dan talks to Dr Johanna Gerwin, a sociolinguist at QMUL and DFG (German Research Foundation) post-doctoral researcher for the London Talks project about London English, including: The London Talks and Real Talk East projects What ‘enregisterment’ means and how language style…

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Episode 40 - York English Language Toolkit 56:35

2+ y ago56:35

56:35

Show notes for Episode 40 Here are the show notes for Episode 40, a bumper edition in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk to four linguists from the University of York about their York English Language Toolkit website and teacher CPD sessions. We talk to: Sam Hellmuth about the Toolkit and some of her favourite sessions in the past 10 years. Tamar Keren…

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Episode 39: Dan Collen on weaponized laughter memes & Heddwen Newton on Lang in the News 1:07:19

2+ y ago1:07:19

1:07:19

Show notes for Episode 39 Here are the show notes for Episode 39, in which Lisa and Dan talk to Dan Collen, an online hate researcher from Canada about his work on the Weaponized Laughter: Memes and Hate in the Canadian Digital Landscape report he has helped produce. We talk about: Memes: what they are and how they work What is classified as hate s…

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Episode 38 - Anna Islentyeva and the representation of masculinity in advertising 48:29

2+ y ago48:29

48:29

Here are the show notes for Episode 38, in which Lisa and Dan talk to Dr Anna Islentyeva of Innsbruck University, Austria about the representation of masculinity in advertising, including: The “Real Men Score” paper she has recently published with her team Stereotypes around gender representation Methodologies and approaches to data Multimodal appr…

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Episode 37 - Heidi Colthup and the language of gaming 52:59

3y ago52:59

52:59

Show notes for Episode 37 Here are the show notes for Episode 37, in which Dan and Jill talk to Dr Heidi Colthup of the University of Kent about the language of gaming, including: Her journey into academia How we define what a game is The language used around and about gaming Narrative and the power of storytelling in games Heidi’s university page:…

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Episode 36 - Claire Hardaker and forensic linguistics 59:20

3y ago59:20

59:20

Here are the show notes for Episode 36, in which Dan and Lisa talk to Dr Claire Hardaker about: Forensic linguistics What language can reveal about us The benefits and problems of technology in forensic linguistics The role of the forensic linguist in an unequal society The future of forensic linguistics Claire’s Lancaster University page: https://…

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Episode 35 - an opinion articles special with Harriet Williamson 59:34

3y ago59:34

59:34

Here are the show notes for Episode 35, an opinion articles special, in which Dan and Jacky talk to Harriet Williamson, the Voices Commissioning Editor at The Independent about: Opinion articles and what makes a good one, including pieces about language issues The job of a commissioning editor Paths into journalism Educating the public about langua…

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Episode 34 - Arran Stibbe and ecolinguistics 46:36

3y ago46:36

46:36

Show notes for Episode 34 Here are the show notes for Episode 34, in which Dan and Jill talk to Arran Stibbe, professor of Ecological Linguistics, and teacher on the BA English course at the University of Gloucestershire (https://www.glos.ac.uk/enl) about: Ecolinguistics - what it is and why we need it The power of storytelling and the environment …

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Episode 33 - Katy Brown and discourse analysis 44:33

3y ago44:33

44:33

Show notes for Episode 33Here are the show notes for Episode 33, in which Dan and Jill talk to Katy Brown from the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at University of Bath about: The mainstreaming of far-right discourses around migration & raceWhat we mean by ‘discourse’ and ‘discourses’ and the power of discourseAnalysing …

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Episode 32 - Kate Barber and the language of misogyny in online communities 43:10

3y ago43:10

43:10

Show notes for Episode 32Here are the show notes for Episode 32, in which Lisa, Dan and Jill talk to Kate Barber from Cardiff University about: Forensic linguisticsResearching discourse in online communities using corporaDiscourse analysis of misogyny in the manosphere and far-right online communitiesChallenging and ‘inoculating’ against these narr…

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Episode 31 - Danny Bate and the joys of etymology 55:30

3y ago55:30

55:30

Show notes for Episode 31 Here are the show notes for Episode 31, in which Lisa, Dan and (*drumroll*) new Lexis team member, Jill Lavender (*end drumroll*) talk to Edinburgh University PhD student and ‘that etymology guy’, Danny Bate about: Etymology (obvs) Connections between English and other languages What words can tell us about language change…

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Episode 30 - Jessica Norledge and the Language of Dystopia 59:47

3y ago59:47

59:47

Show notes for Episode 30 Here are the show notes for Episode 30, in which Jacky, Dan and Lisa talk to Dr Jessica Norledge, Assistant Professor in Stylistics at the University of Nottingham, about: Stylistics - what it is and how we can use it The language of and in dystopia ‘Text worlds’ and cognitive linguistics Her favourite dystopian novels Jes…

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Episode 29 - JPB Gerald 55:44

3+ y ago55:44

55:44

Show notes for Episode 29 Here are the show notes for Episode 29, in which Dan and Lisa talk to Dr JPB Gerald about the tensions around standard language ideology when teaching English as a foreign language, the problems with the English teaching ‘industry’, and the spread of English around the world, along with many other themes featured in his ne…