Monday, 12 March 2012

English

This week you'll be surrounded by native speakers of your mother tongue, and your first language, English.

You may hear subtle difference between those people who speak English as a first language or a second language. Two speakers who converse with English as a second language might not pick up as many.

Listen carefully to the varieties of sound you hear spoken to you and around you. What differences can you hear? Accent? Pronunciation of particular words? The choice of words? Grammar? Do you hear people switch, as they talk, between English and another language?

It's useful for us to have the language so widely spoken, but does that contribute to us being monolingual? Most people in the world are multilingual.

What are your thoughts on English as a global language?

Monday, 5 March 2012

Girl/boy talk

Listen around you this week. Listen to boy-boy talk; girl-boy talk; girl-girl talk.

Listen not for the content, but for the following: interruptions (accepted or declined?); back channel noises (supportive or not?); voice pitch (sounds high or low?).

After listening, would you say that males and females talk in the same ways, or different?