Education
Protactile Linguistics: Discussing recent research findings
Play videoDiscussion of recent linguistic research on Protactile, a touch-based language used by deafblind people, by researchers Jelica Nuccio and John Lee Clark. The most sociolinguistically relevant section begins at 31:28.
What I Love About My Gullah Geechee Language
Play videoHarvard Gullah-Geechee Professor Sunn m'Cheaux discusses his love for his native language, one of the last creole still spoken in the United States, and teaches you the Gullah words for baby, toddler, and something in between!
Harvard Gullah Teacha
Play videoHarvard Professor Sunn m'Cheaux teaches Gullah, one of the last creole languages spoken in the United States. Here he teaches viewers a few words and discusses some of the similarities between Gullah and other contact varieties in the Americas, likely a result of influence from the same substrate languages.
Teaching Khmer in Surin Province
Play videoUploaded October 22, 2011, which is right around when Project 2 ended and the decline in Northern Khmer usage began. Video shows a classroom of young students practicing the pronunciation of Northern Khmer words (and consonants/vowels?)
Teaching Khmer Surin to my daughter
TikTok by @khmer.esan.thai uploaded 2/1/2025. The mother teaches Khmer Surin (Northern Khmer) words to her daughter, switching between Khmer Surin and Thai. [Published on 02-01-2025]
Banned words in class
A photo of a poster in a classroom listing banned words and phrases. They include "skibidi", "ohio", "rizz", "low taper fade", etc. [Published on 11-20-2024]
Council for German Orthography Enshrines "Idiot's Apostrophe", Move Decried as Another "Normalization of Anglicisms"
This article details some of the immediate reactions to the Council for German Orthography announcing that using an apostrophe to indicate possession will now be considered 'correct' German grammar. Some German grammar purists consider the move to be a result of excessive encroachment of English conventions into the German language, but others point out that this may not actually be the case. [Published on 10-08-2024]
Hot Potato
Play videoSkit of a Russian boy being scolded for his accent during English class. The teacher explains that English is spoken like you have a hot potato in your mouth. The boy proceeds to go home and eat a (VERY) hot potato, resulting in the boy having perfect English pronunciation, in exchange for heavily accented Russian. [Video Length
The constructed languages of JRR Tolkien
Play videoPretty in depth overview of Tolkien's various languages present in LOTR. Their influences, history, reception and legacy.
we're ✨english majors✨
we're ✨english majors✨ #fyp #foryou #trending [Published on 02-13-2024]
sign-language interpreter is accused of signing total gibberish
Play video"Another sign-language interpreter is accused of signing total gibberish. This time it was at the police news conference announcing an arrest in the Tampa serial killings. A woman standing off to the side was supposedly translating every word, but it turns out much of what she was signing was nonsense. The woman, identified as Derlyn Roberts, has a string of arrests for fraud. So how did she come to be "translating" at last week's high-profile police news conference? #InsideEdition"
Language Discrimination in UK Education Policy
A relatively brief article summarizing research on the negative consequences of standard language-focused UK education policies for Black secondary school students. There's some interesting discussion of how the UK government presents discriminatory language policies as "objective" by assuming adherence to standard language as the measure of success.
Yu mas save gud - Bahá'í inspired song in Bislama
Play videoYu mas save gud = You must understand well
Video Description:
"Yu mas save gud is a Bahá'í inspired song in Bislama about the education of children. It is performed by Toulong in Santo, Vanuatu, in 2016."
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"The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people." (Wikipedia)
Hong Kong must overhaul Chinese-language learning to give ethnic minorities a fair chance
This article discusses the changes being made to the Hong Kong education system to give minority students a better chance at scoring well on Chinese language exams in Hong Kong's hyper-competitive educational environment. [Published on 03-21-2023]
New Gaelic School in Edinburgh, Capital of Scotland
Play videoIn this video teachers at a new Gaelic school in Edinburgh and education workers within the Scottish government are interviewed, giving insight into Scottish Gaelic revitalization efforts.
Kids make hamentaschen in Yiddish
Play videoA brief video of Yiddish teacher Ruth Schaechter teaching kids to make hamentaschen (for Purim!) while speaking Yiddish.
Kaurna Language Learning Video for Kids
Play videoA language learning video for kids as part of the movement to revitalize Kaurna in Australia
How Discrimination Nearly Stalled a Dual-Language Program in Boston After years of advocacy, the city’s first Haitian Creole–English school opens in the fall.
An interesting intersection between Standard Language Ideology / monolingualism in American education (which this article argues against) and the validity of Creole languages (Haitian Creole).
On Haitian Creole:
"While the vast majority of Haitians speak Creole exclusively, French remains the chosen language of the nation’s power elite. For more than two centuries, Creole has been attacked as inferior, as a poor dialect of French rather than a language in its own right, and as a limitation for its speakers.
DeGraff said even Haitian intellectuals have contributed to these ideas about Creole, with scholars arguing that the language limits people from thinking abstractly; that people need French to evolve, mentally; and that Creole has no syntax or orthography.
All of these things, DeGraff says, are false. And major universities in the United States have created departments to teach students Haitian Creole, recognizing its international relevance and linguistic value."
Also, the article mentions that teaching language is fundamentally tied to teaching culture. When we devalue native languages, we devalue the culture of the speakers. Dual language programs like this not only help native speakers connect to their culture and their family histories but also help L2 speakers appreciate and respect the culture. [Published on 04-07-2017]
OUSD's Ebonics Controversy
Play videoI was reminded of this newscast by the reading by Wolfram and Eisenhauer. I remember watching this video for a Black studies class I took in high school in our sociology unit. This feels close to me because I grew up in the OUSD/BUSD as a BIPOC student. Though I didn't speak AAVE growing up, I was constantly surrounded by it in my family and friend circles. Toni Cook and Fay Vaughn-Cooke make some excellent points in this broadcast and somehow maintain their composure while having to deal with crazy ass news anchors and interviewers. The term Ebonics is a portmanteau of "ebony" and "phonics", meaning Black speech. I think this raises an interesting question about AAVE's place in the academic sphere--why not? Another question it raises is: Is AAVE a language or a dialect? I don't feel equipped yet with enough linguistic knowledge to comment on this. Unfortunately, the conversations discussing this are cut short in the video.
A Zine Piece Written in Hawaiian Pidgin
Pages 12-13. Written by a native Hawaiian in [Published on 03-01-2022]
John Kennedy Is America’s Folksiest Senator. Some People Who Know Him Say It’s An Act.
Touches on differences in the senators accent pre-running vs. post-running/ while democratic vs. republican. Goes into rebranding, 'quotability', being 'folksy' vs. 'educated', "dialing things up a notch for the cameras as most good politicians do"/public persona. Mentions his speech being flat and having faster cadence, then slowing down, 'giving him a distinct vocal style'. [Published on 10-15-2020]
Queen's English Society
The Queen's English Society, referenced in Harrington's study of Queen Victoria's language change over time, still exists. They are self-described prescriptivists who want to protect the "clarity and elegance" of the English language. [Published on 02-24-2022]
How to learn any language in six months
Play videoThis video told us how to learn a new language in six months. There are five steps to learn a new language. You need to focus on language content that is relevant to you. Then you need to use new language as a tool to communicate with others on the first day. In addition, when you start to understand some message, you will unconsciously acquire the language. Furthermore, you should learn it in happy and relax the situation. In the end, he provides seven actions to help you learn the new language.
How to learn any language in six months
Play videoThis video tells viewers how to learn a new language in six months. There are five steps to learn a new language. You need to focus on language content that is relevant to you. Then you need to use new language as a tool to communicate with others on the first day. Furthermore, your language learning environment should be a happy and relaxing place. In the end, he provides seven actions to help you learn the new language.
The Significance of Linguistic Profiling
Play video"What is Linguistic Profiling and why is it so prominent in our society? Dr. Baugh explores the field and explains dialects, accents, and our linguistic heritages."
New Yiddish Course on Duolingo
This article touches on the challenges of creating the Yiddish course on the popular language-learning app Duolingo, as well as its importance in exposing more people from the U.S. to Yiddish as a full language instead of a punchline or handful of loan-words. [Published on 04-05-2021]
Black American Sign Language (BASL) "slang"
This is Otis demonstrating some BASL terms. [Published on 12-04-2020]
Black American Sign Language Gains New Interest Thanks to TikTok App
This article (and corresponding video) underscore the recent resurgence of Black American Sign Language. One part that stood out to me was Hill's note on code switching, and the historical context that contributed to some Black deaf people's preference of only using BASL in private settings. [Published on 02-25-2021]
Labov: Six People I have learned from
The correct link to Labov's 2009 lecture, Six People I have learned from, for the ACLS. [Published on 10-01-2009]
Sicilian and Italian: What's the difference?
Lingua o dialetto? Although Sicily is politically Italian, the variety spoken there has clear differences from mainstream Italian. From what I can gather, the relationship between Sicilian and Italian seems similar to that of Catalan and Spanish (Castellano), with the difference that it has assimilated more toward mainstream Italian in recent years than Catalan has toward Spanish. [Published on 06-02-2010]
article on something similar to Contrastive Analysis
An article about problems faced by AAE-speaking students and a similar educational strategy to that discussed in the Rickford article; I do think the same concerns voiced about Contrastive Analysis in general, and definitely the older applications of it Rickford criticizes, apply to this form. [Published on 07-16-2014]
The distribution of the most popular words
Play videoNot really related to what we've been studying but there's an interesting pattern in how frequently common words appear seemingly similar amongst many languages. It's a Vsauce video though so.
South Africa's University of Pretoria dropped Afrikaans in favor of English as its official language
South Africa's University of Pretoria dropped Afrikaans in favor of English as its official language. A majority of the classes have been taught in Afrikaans, making it very difficult for students, specifically black students, who do not speak the language, to learn and succeed at the university. As a result, all classes will now be taught in English. The hope is that more students will feel welcomed and supported at one of the nations top Universities.
The Revival of Ancient Babylonian Language
This article discusses how Dr Martin Worthington, a fellow of St John’s College, has created the world’s first film in the ancient Babylonian language with his Babylonian-speaking students dramatising a folk tale from a clay tablet from 701BC. Since 2000, he has been teaching himself to speak Babylonian and is currently creating a campaign to revive it as a spoken language. Babylonian has "extremely regular structures" and is semitic like the languages that replaced it; Hebrew and Arabic.
The monolingual mindset: Felicity Meakins at TEDxSouthBankWomen
Play videoThis is a Tedx talk about how linguistics can better inform teaching practices, using the relationship between multi-lingual indigenous children and monolingual English teachers in Australia as an example. While the solutions proposed are quite simple (such as providing teachers with resources about the at-home languages of these children), it just shows how under-informed these teachers can be about where these children are coming from. The talk also briefly addresses the issue of the monolingual argument "These people need to learn English."
Scholars defend ‘African American English,’ from Ebonics to slang to improper grammar
A review of Walt Wolfram's film "Talking Black in America," In which the author clearly articulates a position against the push of the film. [Published on 02-23-2018]
Sh*t People From Hawaii Say
Play videoPopular Youtuber and Hawaii local, Ryan Higa, exemplifies what Hawaiian Creole (known more commonly in Hawaii as 'pidgin') sounds like. Rosina Lippi-Green briefly discusses Hawaiian creole in her article, "Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in the courts," and Ryan demonstrates what locals sound like (albeit in a slightly dramatized manner) when speaking the language.
The Science behind Vocal Fry
Play videoThis video provides a more practical look at the idea of Vocal Fry, which has recently become such an analyzed concept across the globe. In the video, the youtube channel known as "BrainStuff" attempts to explain what Vocal Fry is and what happens when it is performed.
School of Rock First Day
Play videoThis is a clip from the movie School of Rock when Jack Black who plays Newy Finn has his first day as a substitute teacher. The language that he uses and the way he communicates is very out of role than what a student would expect from a teacher. Teachers are expected to all be in one speech community and Jack Black shows that he is not part of that speech community that most teachers are in.
10 ASL Signs All Police Officers Should Know
Play videoA deaf youtuber shares 10 signs that would be beneficial for police officers to know. Their knowledge of these signs would increase cooperation, breakdown linguistic barriers, and relieve anxiety for both the police officer and the person being detained.
Grief Bacon
Play videoIn this video, it depicts a German named Flula who teaches German colloquialisms. This illustrates the differences between cultures. The German culture has many words that cannot necessarily translate equivocally to English. The Germans combine words that are meaningless when translated directly to English. In this video, Flula talks about Kummerspeck, which directly translates to Grief Bacon, or the weight one gains during a period of grief.
Ideophone.org
This is a blog entirely devoted to ideophones, written by a linguist who has published several articles in the field. If anyone is interested in exploring ideophones, there are lots of cool posts and links to peer reviewed articles as well. (If anyone was inspired by the "Ideophones in Wolof" presentation, this could be a good site to check out!)
How to Sound Cooler in French
Play videoThis is a (humorous) tutorial for people who are learning French and want to sound more like a native speaker. It speaks to the French tendency to rely on sounds (like ouf, bof, etc) to convey subtle meaning in phrases.
Invisible Man - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
Play videothug notes is a youtube series about a well read "thug" how wishes to share the gift of classic literature with his fellow gangster.
Baby Talk
This is an article that talks about how “baby talk” is the best way for infants to acquire language skills. It discusses the argument that talking to infants like that may be condescending; however, studies have shown that it is an excellent way for them to learn their language. It also discusses how babies are ready to learn language in the last trimester when their ears are fully developed. They are already listening to their mother and the sounds around them. The use of repetition and slower speech is helpful with infants in learning language patterns. [Published on 12-06-2016]
Plan Now to Avoid Post - Brexit Languages Crisis
There is a focus right now on the education system of the UK, with areas most at risk being language performance. If a crisis was to emerge in language performance from the UK split areas of official practice; such as trade, could be jeopardized. There are plans as of right now to push and ensure the emphasis on particularly language skills to ensure the enhancement post Brexit. This plan includes residency and a national plan to better primary education to even the post graduate level. With the quality of education slipping in the UK as it is, and a nation wide crisis within the linguistics field, the Brexit could only worsen the matter with children potentially receiving a lacking education. The goal of these reforms and education plan is to ensure a quality education to students at all levels, and hopefully encourage the emergence of language skill teachers and even linguistics majors. [Published on 10-16-2016]
Redefining Race and Ethnicity in the US
Play videoThis video discusses the problem with classification of race in America. People often attach Race to people wrongly when they should really be referring to ethnicity.
Speech Community
Speech community is a form of social linguistic. When two people speak the same language, it doesn’t mean the two are in the same speech community. Knowing local knowledge is a key factor of being in a specific speech community. Individuals are typically associated with many speech communities, such as family community, peer community and professional community. [Published on 09-25-2015]
Berenstain Bears Reconnect Sioux To Native Language
Berenstain Bears cartoons help teach and revive the Lakota language. [Published on 09-26-2006]
Variety of Spanish Accents
Play videoJoanna Rants uses analogies to compare different Spanish accents.
Senate Debate over "Ebonics" in Schools
Play videoThis is a fairly processed montage of the hype mentioned in Labov's article and analyzed in Lippi-Green, Rosina. (2012).
Professional Educator: Grades, Showing Up On Time Are A Form Of White Supremacy
This education consultant takes issue with values that are taught in schools as beneficial for success but which she says are selected to favor white people, including language-related expectations of students. She suggests some unusual methods to "move away from all these aspects of white privilege in education." [Published on 04-16-2016]
Gulf Between Words and Actions @ CU-Boulder
Very interesting article illustrate a situation where simply using the "right words" isn't enough. [Published on 03-10-2016]
Does language shape how we think? Linguistic relativity & linguistic determinism
Play videoThis video explains and simplifies what linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism is.
Students Learn to "Toggle" Between Dialects
This article is about the role code-switching plays in the success of low income students. Students that engage in code-switching tend to achieve more academically than students that do not code-switch.
How to Speak INTERNET
Play videoA group of three British guys basically put together a video "guide" to understanding all of today's internet slang. From "YOLO," to ""FML," they cover a handful of different types of internet slang and explain what they all mean in the non internet world.
The Philippine Language?
Play videoThe Philippine language? This video is a very interesting and extremely helpful. Although there is no such thing as the Philippine language, linguistic experts call it a "invented language." The Philippine's is diverse country made up of many ethnicity's and linguistic groups.
Hooked on Ebonics
The article dives into several important concepts as they relate to the understanding of Ebonics. The author explains that there are rules and variety within Ebonics that demonstrate its value as a variety of English. The author also addresses that Ebonics is not just "a black thing" and that many whites, Hispanics and Asian Americans all engage in AAVE.
Code-switching
Play videoThis video explains some of the main reasons why people engage in code switching. Code switching can be used in many different ways, but the primary function of this practice is to switch between two languages in a single conversation.
Luis Von Ahn- Massive Online Scale
Play videoThis video explains how one company plans to make learning a second language free. By setting a goal of translating the web into every major language for free, these researchers created the website Duolingo. Students are presented with sentences that vary in difficulty depending on their level of understanding. This program has found that students translating material are as proficient as paid translators. This could be a glance into the future of affordable bilingual education.
Why these UK school kids love learning languages
Play videoThis group of students talk about why they feel it is important to learn a different language.These students are amazing in the sense that they seem so grown up and ready to take on the world, and language is one very powerful tool to help them do just that!
What is Language?
Play videoThis video gives an extensive definition of what is language and how it affects each of us individually.
Does Not Speaking Spanish Make You Less Latino? Pero Like Ep.4
Play videoThis article discusses speech communities and how the language you speak does or does not define your culture. In this example, the video is discussing if not speaking Spanish makes you less Latino.
Teacher raps to relate to students
Play videoTeacher uses rap song to teach children. She uses rap and dance movements to relate to the children because she knew that the kids would catch on to what she was teaching if she used methods that would keep the kids wanting to learn.
Grandmas Attempt To Define Modern Slang Words [LABS] | Elite Daily
Play videoGrandmas try to decipher what modern slang words mean. Here you can see how age and culture can determine your language use. I think we can also see how slang plays into language and how misunderstood slang can be.
Rather Be ASL Cover Music Video
Play videoA teacher, Brittany Adams, creates her own version of popular music videos using American Sign Language (ASL) as a way to connect with her students and make learning enjoyable and fun, as well as raise awareness in hopes that others will want to learn ASL as a way to communicate.
How Culture Effects Learning a language
Play videoThis shows how learning a language can be very difficult, but if you know some of the background of the culture and deep meaning of the culture, it can make learning it that much easier and enjoyable.
Little Triggers
An Excerpt from Neil Gaiman's collection of short stories 'Trigger Warning'
Gaiman uses the introduction, to discuss the book's title. He discusses how the phrase is commonly being used to warn people about content that "could upset them and trigger flashbacks or anxiety or terror," He wonders if the phrase could be applied to his own writing which can often be haunting or spooky. He also wonders whether these warnings are appropriate at all. [Published on 10-23-2014]
Tense Present: Democracy, English and the Wars Over Usage
David Foster Wallace reviews 'A Dictionary of Modern American Usage'. In so doing, Wallace explores how language rules are developed and on what authority they are created. Near the end he tells a story about trying to convince students to write in what he calls SWE "Standard Written English" or "Standard White English". [Published on 04-01-2001]
Garrard McClendon on Black English - Ebonics
Play videoGarrad McClendon addresses the dangers of the African American language. Although he believes the African American language is beautiful, he feels strongly that the African Americans in the US need to learn how to code-switch. They need to learn when it is appropriate to talk in slang and when it is necessary to code-switch to "proper" English. Garrad also addresses the issues that teachers need to become more aggressive in correcting children's language at a young age and not be afraid of doing so. The children's future is dependent on being taught proper English and being correct when they don't use it.
effects of english hegemony on education
blog post by john fotheringham discussing his view on english hegemony and education; the globally skewed view that if you don't speak english you're not well educated
Multilingualism on cognitive development
This article talks about how children who are bilingual gain an advantage at problem solving versus a child who is monolingual. [Published on 02-11-2016]
Montreal, a francophone, anglophone and multilingual city
Bilingualism/multilingualism of Montreal; Sociolinguistic Symposium;
Shakespeare: Original pronunciation
Play videoA demonstration and explanation about what Shakespeare would have sounded like with its original pronunciation (Early Modern English). [[Something else that I would like to point out is how its "unexpected" good reception with the modern audience could have to do with their preconceived notions and therefore encouraged them to actually try to understand what was being said (taking it back to our discussion on accents).]]
Study: At 'Rate My Professors,' A Foreign Accent Can Hurt A Teacher's Score
A study done on Rate My Professor shows that students rate teachers with accents lower than those without. [Published on 03-15-2015]
Using the Vernacular to Teach the Standard
Text from a 1998 talk by linguist John Rickford, which presents data on the failure of schools to teach SAE when they ignore AAL, and demonstrates how a knowledge of the grammar of AAL is important for teaching speakers of it. Factors in class. [Published on 03-25-1998]
DYSA African American English (or Ebonics) in the classroom
Play videoA clip from the documentary "Do You Speak American?" profiling the use of contrastive analysis exercises to teach children who speak both SAE and AAE in the LA Unified School District.
Gullah Story Teller Carolyn White
Play videoStorytelling from Gullah speaker Carolyn White, from 2009.
Wells on Estuary English
J.C. Wells' website compiling the (limited) scholarly writings on Estuary English.
NPR: A quick guide to Liberian English
A short piece on lexicon used in Liberian English, with some history on the variety from John Singler. [Published on 11-10-2014]
Which English you speak has nothing to do with how smart you are
A Slate guest post by linguist Anne H. Charity Hudley addressing issues of language discrimination in U.S. schools based on the use of nonstandard varieties and features. She argues in favor of embracing language diversity in the classroom. [Published on 10-14-2014]
Is Learning a Foreign Language Really Worth It?
This is a Freakonomics podcast on the economic worth of learning a foreign language, addressing the "return on investment" of language learning (or, will all of those hours you spent in Spanish class really help you financially in the future?). Of particular interest are sections from 0:58-4:00, which poses the question to be addressed in the podcast, and has a few nice examples of ideologies about language learning and bilingualism from (probably wealthy, upperclass) kids, and 13:10-18:23, which reveals the actual monetary value of language learning. It is important to note that this podcast is mainly from the perspective of a native English speaker learning a foreign language, although native speakers of other languages learning English are mentioned towards the end.
Why this bilingual education ban should have been repealed long ago
Sociolinguist Phillip M. Carter makes the case for repealing Proposition 227 in California, which essentially banned bilingual education in the state in 1998.
Do You Speak American: AAE in Ann Arbor, MI
Play videoA clip from the 2004 documentary Do you Speak American that covers the "Black English case," or "King case," in which the parents of African American English-speaking children won a case brought against Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary in Ann Arbor, MI in the late 1970s.
Teaching Tolerance: Sound Effects
A 2013 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" publication about addressing linguistic diversity in the classroom.
Story of English: Appalachian English
Play videoSegment from the 1986 documentary "The Story of English" on Appalachian English.
Prescription and African American English
Play videoA 2006 Fox News Chicago story about Garrard McClendon and his visits to classrooms with African American students where he highlights their grammatical "mistakes."
Ebonics Cartoon
(Enlarge image)