Talking About Voices was originally set up in 2021 by two members of the Manchester Voices team – Dr Holly Dann and Dr Sadie Ryan. It was inspired by Sadie’s personal experience and expertise in podcasting, as creator of the award-winning Accentricity podcast. The resource was initially designed in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, when remote learning was the norm for many people and schools were looking for engaging and meaningful additional teaching material. With occasional help from the rest of the team, Holly and Sadie created the resource, allowing teachers to support their students in creating their own podcasts on language-related subjects. We initially ran Talking About Voices as a competition, with the Manchester Voices team facing the incredibly difficult decision to choose a winner each time! We’ve taken away that competitive aspect now, and the resource is simply there to be used by everyone however they like. But if you’re interested in hearing some of the previous competition entries, they are avalable here. The current version of Taking About Voices has been updated by team member Dr Caitlin Halfacre, and project lead Rob Drummond.
