In this Episode, Dr Bisson talks to Professor Emma Marsden about a really important change coming to the French, German and Spanish curriculum in England. There is going to be a more defined and constrained list of words that students have to learn and that are allowed to be on the GCSE exams. Is this going to make a difference to the number of students that choose to study languages at secondary schools? We think so! Join us to find out how many words are on the list and how this change came about.

To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU.

Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson

Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk

Links to some of the initiatives mentioned in the podcast

Oasis research summaries: read one-page accessible research summaries

LP Pedagogy resources: access over 1000 language resources, schemes of works and word lists

Multiling Profiler: check that a text meets the language knowledge of your learners

In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Professor Neil Kenny, Professor of French at University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow in All Souls College, and Lead Fellow for Languages for the British Academy. This episode addresses one of the central motivations for the podcast: how to increase the number of language learners in the UK. In his role as Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, Professor Kenny has developed initiatives to encourage language learning and he describes a few of these initiatives, as well as why it is so important to learn a language.

To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU. 

Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson

 Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk

 To follow the British Academy and hear more about their work, they are on Twitter: @BritishAcademy_

 To read more about Professor Kenny's work at the British Academy: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/towards-national-languages-strategy-education-and-skills/

Links to some of the resources in the podcast

The Languages Gateway: the UK's portal for languages

Association for Language Learning: organisation for school resources

University Council of Modern Languages: organisation for higher education language learning

World of Languages and Languages of the World (WOLLOW): resources for encouraging children to learn languages

In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Dr Jiayi Wang, about those "unwritten" rules of language use, which are known as "pragmatics". What's really interesting about pragmatics is that they aren't really reflected in textbooks the way we originally learn a language. Dr Wang discusses research into English learners and their use of language in emails.

To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU.

Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson

Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk

Link to Dr Wang's webpage

Dr Wang's research:

Wang, Jiayi and Halenko, Nicola (2022a). “Mind your language”: L2 English emails during study abroad. In Halenko, Nicola and Wang, Jiayi (eds.) Pragmatics in English Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 29-56.