EngLangBlog

Black Communication & Technology Lab

Episode 82 is coming soon and it's an interview with Rianna Walcott of BCAT www.bcatlab.org about Black Twitter, language, community & identity online and lots more.

EMC CPD Face-to-Face: New Approaches to Anthology Teaching for AL Language & Literature <p>New ideas for teaching anthologies for AL English Lang &amp; Lit.</p>

As part of our ongoing work with the Nottingham Stylistics Toolkit team (aka @jessnorledge.bsky.social & @stockwell.bsky.social), we are running this @engmediacentre.bsky.social course in London in May. It's all about anthology teaching for A Level Lang Lit:
www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/51e5...

EMC CPD Face-to-Face: Language Change and Discourses <p>Exploring contemporary language change: new words, new meanings &amp; new methods. <em>NB: This is a repeat course.</em></p>

We've got this @engmediacentre.bsky.social sky.social course coming up early next term and it should be a good one because it features @christianilbury.bsky.social stianilbury.bsky.social as co-presenter!
www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/cfe8...

Standard English in the National Curriculum The place of Standard English in the secondary English curriculum

And this one is about how we can approach the teaching of (and learning about) 'standard English': www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/i-dont-...

The Future of English Language at KS3 + KS4 What the Curriculum and Assessment review could mean for English Language

In case anyone missed them before the half-term break, here's a couple of blogs I wrote for @engmediacentre.bsky.social about curriculum change for secondary English. This one is about language in general in KS3&4: www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/the-fut...

Every. Flipping. Time.

Accent jibes as people question Flintshire woman's Welshness Accents vary often village to village - but do people often think there is just one Welsh accent?

A slightly different angle to accent prejudice: when you don't sound X 'enough'.
BBC News - 'You don't sound Welsh' - people question my identity because of my accent
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Working-class accents are under-represented in major films, and are even less often heard in leading roles. When they do appear, they carry the weight of representation."

Amanda Seyfried nails bits of the 1700s Manchester accent in The Testament of Ann Lee – a linguist explains how we know The accent has been distracting for some because it sounds different to modern Mancunians.

theconversation.com/amanda-seyfr...
A really good piece here from Danielle Turton on recreation of historical accents and why the choices of accents and features matter, especially when they're 'regional' rather than RP.

Was great to be part of another Lexis episode, this time talking about the language around neurodiversity. We cover topics like the difference between saying "autistic person" and "person with autism," why we no longer say "high-functioning autism" and why all this matters anyway. Check it out!

Reposting this for the Monday morning crowd. New episode of Lexis published yesterday.
bsky.app/profile/lexi...

Here we go! Episode 81 is now up and it's one where we hand over the interviewing to two A Level English Language students, Freya and Miles. They interview @jessaiston.bsky.social about the language of and around neurodiversity. open.spotify.com/episode/6XCX...

The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream? With the rise of influencer Clavicular and ‘looksmaxxers’, sexist language from niche memes has infiltrated official government accounts and NYT headlines

The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream?

We've got a new episode coming very soon and it's a really special one that has been kicked off and then carried out by two A level Eng Lang students. It's all about the language of & about neurodiversity, especially autism, and it features an interview with @jessaiston.bsky.social
Coming soon!

Exactly! Like an unruly volcano.

I don't want to suggest that everything is just fodder for the analysis machine. People's lives, hopes and futures are affected by wars like these but if we want to understand how we're being told about these events and how they're being framed, we have the tools and we can teach them.

Are others case studies in the news values used by UK newspapers to represent whose lives are more valuable than others?

Some are more direct than others.

It seems like a good day to gather front pages and apply some critical discourse analysis. Agency springs to mind...

I’m a linguist with Tourette’s – here’s what I want people to understand after Baftas controversy I often feel that I live in my body alongside another person who wants to continually move and say things.

This can't have been easy to write, but who better to do it than a linguist with Tourette’s? A really excellent piece.
theconversation.com/im-a-linguis...

...or maybe not? One for discussion when we teach Language & Representation perhaps?

One commenter gave his own account of the same video clips that seemed totally at odds with how I saw what had happened and I did wonder how he had got there. Maybe we all see things through different lenses (me as much as anyone else), but there's still a kind of shared reality, isn't there?

It was then kindly shared by @perkinskeighley.bsky.social on LinkedIn and there was a real kickback from what appeared to be US conservatives (and assorted MAGA types) who saw the article as a shamefully biased interpretation of events.

Weaponizing Words: How the Trump Administration Used Language to Distort the Truth in Minnesota Government and media organisations used the power of words to shift moral responsibility for the ICE killings, argues linguist Dan Clayton

It got me thinking about the different ways we perceive, interpret & represent events through language. I wrote this piece for @bylinetimes.bsky.social a couple of weeks ago & talked about the ways in which language can be used to encode different versions of reality: bylinetimes.com/2026/01/29/w...

Here Samuel Bagg talks about how our social identity/ies can shape how we perceive and respond to events (so not that much about language per se at this stage). The discussion of the different responses to the video recordings of the shooting of Renee Good in the clip above is really interesting...

There's always been a dimension to A level Eng Lang study that nods towards psychology, and we used to include Loftus & Palmer in mark schemes about language, thought and representation.

How Identity Literally Changes What You See (with Samuel Bagg) YouTube video by 404 Media

I've been meaning to listen to/watch this @404media.co interview for a week or two; I have now and it's fascinating.
youtu.be/lNKOqp-rZL8?...

emagazine articles on English Language are carefully curated, to be both challenging & accessible to A Level students, cover the exam specification topics, offer fresh ideas & research & introduce them to linguists, research & up-to-date thinking. www.englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-magazine...

How rightwing rhetoric has risen sharply in the UK parliament – an exclusive visual analysis In the past five years, MPs’ attitudes in the House of Commons towards immigration have swung harder to the right than at almost any other time in the last century

A depressing picture of coarsening and dehumanising rhetoric. www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...