What to record

For this topic, we want you to think about the town, village or neighbourhood you live in. Here are some questions that you might like to think about and explore in your podcast episode. You don’t have to stick to these, and we’d love to hear you ask some of your own questions too!

• What is your town, village or neighbourhood like? How would you describe it to someone who doesn’t know anything about it at all?
• How do you feel about the place you live in?
• How do people speak in your area?
• Are lots of different languages spoken, or is it mostly English?
• How do people speak English – is there a noticeable local accent?
• Are there words and phrases you use that are very typical of where you live?
• Can you tell if someone is from your area or not from the way they speak?
• How do you feel about the way people speak where you live?
• Do you like the things that make your local accent or dialect distinctive?
• Are you proud of where you come from, and the accent and dialect attached to that place?Do you know what your area was like in the past?
• Did people speak differently in your area in the past?
• Have you always lived in this area, or did you move there? Do you remember moving there, and the differences you noticed compared to the area you lived in before?
• What were your first impressions of the area, and did these change over time?
• Do you change the way you speak when you speak to people outside of your local community? If so, why do you do this?

Recording Ideas

Record your thoughts and responses to some of the questions above.

Take us on a guided tour around your neighbourhood, telling us about it and recording the sounds you hear along the way. What does your neighbourhood sound like? What kind of voices can be heard in your neighbourhood?

Record interviews with other people who live in your neighbourhood, and get their responses to some of the questions above. Can you gather a range of different thoughts and opinions? You could find out more about what your neighbourhood was like in the past by asking people who remember.

For this topic, we want you to think about your age group and how you relate to language.

Sometimes you might hear people say that young people are ruining language, or that young people speak really ‘badly’: but this isn’t true! Each new generation speaks a little bit differently from the generation that came before, and this is how language changes. Linguists think that experimenting with language is an important part of being young. What do you think?

Here are some questions you might like to think about and explore in your podcast episode. You don’t have to stick to these, and we’d love to hear you ask some of your own questions too!

• Do you speak differently from the adults in your life? Are there any words or phrases you use that they don’t understand? Anything they would say that you wouldn’t say?
• How would you describe the way that your generation speak?
• How did the adults in your life speak when they were your age? What kind of ‘slang’ words did they use?
• What do the adults in your life think of the way you speak? What did adults think of their speech when they were young?
• Adults sometimes try to encourage young people to speak differently by e.g. banning certain ‘slang’ words in schools. Do you think this is effective? Is it useful?
• Linguists think that ‘slang’ is an important part of identity, and that experimenting with language is an important part of being young. Do you agree, or do you disagree?
• Do you think that the way you speak is related to who you are?
• Have you noticed people younger than you speaking differently from your age group? In what ways? Can you give any examples of words or phrases they use that you wouldn’t use?
• What do you think the next generation will sound like? How do you think you’ll feel in the future if you notice that a new generation is using words or phrases that you don’t understand? Will you try to change the way they speak, or will you let them experiment with language?
• How do you think you’ll speak when you’re older? The same as you do now or will it change? If you think it’ll change, in what ways?

Ideas for Recording

Record your thoughts and responses to some of the questions in the video on page 2.

Record interviews with other people of your age group, and/or people of other age groups. You might like to interview some of the adults in your life – perhaps your parents, or your teachers. How about interviewing different generations in your family and comparing thee answers – perhaps yourself, your parents and your grandparents? Can you track how language has changed over time in your own family?

Can you gather a range of different thoughts and opinions? You could record a series of ‘vox pops’: these are tiny mini interviews, where you ask just one question (the same question) to lots of different people (perhaps your classmates), and compare how they respond. You could ask one of the questions above, or you could come up with your own.

For this topic, we want you to think about different languages. You could think about the languages you speak at home, or the languages you have learned in school, or the languages you hear around you in school or in your neighbourhood, even if you don’t understand all of them yourself.

Here are some questions that you might like to think about and explore in your podcast episode. You don’t have to stick to these, and we’d love to hear you ask some of your own questions too!

If you speak more than one language…

• When do you use your different languages? Do you use different languages in different situations?
• Do you use different languages with different people?
• Do you ever have to translate from one language to another?
• Are there some things that are difficult to translate?
• Does it feel different speaking your different languages?
• Which language does the voice in your head speak? Which language do you dream in?
• Do you feel proud of being able to speak more than one language? Or do you ever feel shy or embarrassed about speaking one language or another? Why?
• How do other people respond when they hear you speak a language they don’t understand?
• What are the good things about speaking more than one language? Why do you like it? Are there any things that you don’t like about speaking more than one language?

If you don’t speak more than one language…

• When and where do you hear different languages spoken around you? What languages might you hear in the course of a normal day?
• Are there people in your life who speak different languages? What languages do your friends speak, or members of your extended family? What languages are spoken in your neighbourhood?
• Would you like to learn to speak other languages in the future?
• Even if you only speak one language, do you change the way you speak in different situations or with different people? Are there certain words or phrases that you only use in certain situations or with certain people? Do you think this is like being multilingual?

Recording Ideas

Record your thoughts and responses to some of the questions in the video on page 2.

Record short clips of all of the different languages you hear around you in your day-to-day life.

Record interviews with other people about their languages and how they feel about them. You could ask them some of the questions in the video on page 2. Do they feel like you do, or do they feel differently? Can you gather a range of different thoughts and opinions?

For this topic, we want you to think about linguistic discrimination. There’s no way of speaking that’s better, more attractive, or more correct than any other. But linguistic discrimination is still really common, and a lot of us have experienced it in our lives.

Here are some questions that you might like to think about and explore in your podcast episode.  You don’t have to stick to these, and we’d love to hear you ask some of your own questions too!

• Have there been times in your life when you’ve felt like people were putting you down because of the way you speak? Or maybe you’ve seen this happen to other people in your life? How does this make you feel? Or maybe you feel like your accent has put you at an advantage, rather than a disadvantage? If so, why do you think that is?
• Where do you think that linguistic discrimination comes from? Why do so many people believe that some ways of talking are better than others, and that some voices are more worth listening to than others?
• Do you think that having certain accents, or using certain words or phrases, can put people at a disadvantage? What are the sort of things you might be held back or excluded from because of the way you speak?
• How do you think linguistic discrimination relates to other forms of discrimination, like racism, classism, ageism, ableism or sexism? Are these forms of discrimination separate, or part of the same thing?
• What would you say to someone who thinks it’s OK to make fun of the way someone speaks?
• Do you think that linguistic discrimination was worse in the past? Or do you think that it is worse than it used to be? You could speak to the adults in your life about their experiences when they were young, and how they compare to yours today.
• Linguists think that every way of speaking is just as good as every other, and that every kind of voice should be valued. What do you think are some good ways of getting that message to people? How can we fight linguistic discrimination together?

Recording Ideas

Record your thoughts and responses to some of the questions in the video on page 2.

Record interviews with other people about their thoughts and experiences. Do they feel like you do, or do they feel differently?

There are lots of stories online about celebrities and public figures being criticised for the way they speak. You could research and discuss one person in the public eye who has faced discrimination because of their language use.