What would language learning YouTube have been like in 1580? Was Queen Elizabeth I really a polyglot? Who was teaching and learning languages in 1600s London? Early Modern historian John Gallagher and Cate talk about what it was like learning languages in England at a time when English was a marginal language that was not very useful past Dover. Have English tourists always been terrible at learning languages or is that a more recent stereotype? Did young men learn how to order 'two beers' before their Grand Tour? 

There’s regularly talk of ‘correct’ or ‘standard’ language in the media and on Twitter. Some people apparently wear their bad grammar like a badge of honour or refuse to learn the 'correct' way of speaking because, the critics say, it makes them look cooler or ‘down with the kids’. And don’t even ask about glottal stops! In the second part of our discussion, Ian Cushing and I look at what 'standard English' is, and why we should question policies that insist upon it being spoken (in full sentences) at all times. And why does grammar get people heckling each other? Read the blog on www.thelanguagerevolution.co.uk to find the links mentioned.

Let's talk about the G-word: grammar. It’s a bit of a Marmite subject. People seem to love it or hate it, and for some it is a trigger word. There is often a conflation of linguistics with the ‘naming of parts’ and subjects, verbs and objects. Grammar can be a real bone of contention in education too, and even cause ripples in politics. To untangle the issue of grammar teaching in school, I spoke to Dr Ian Cushing from Brunel University in London about where we are now with grammar education, and where we might want to aim for next.

We don't often understand the process of learning to talk until we need speech and language therapy. It’s something parents have little information about. We hear a lot about sleeping, eating, and walking, but talking is a bit of a mystery subject. That is, until it goes wrong. Parents might then seek advice from a speech and language therapist like my podcast guest, Weronika Ozpolat. And if your child has more than one language? It's good to find a speech pathologist who understands how bilingualism works, and how different cultures teach children to speak in different ways. Read the accompanying blog at www.thelanguagerevolution.co.uk.

The term 'EAL' gets more airtime in educational circles these days because our world is becoming more super diverse. This means that our schools have more children who are learning English. But does 'EAL', which is short for 'English as an Additional Language', simply mean a child doesn't speak English yet? Actually, it is much more nuanced and complicated than that. In the second part of my conversation with EAL specialist Eowyn Crisfield, we talk about how parents and schools can work together to support multilingual learners. Read the blog with links here. Keywords: home languages, translanguaging, multilingual learners, teacher training.

There's a wealth of information on the Internet about bilingual education and raising bilingual kids. But for parents or teachers navigating their way through an online search, it often feels overwhelming. Facts can get taken out of context, and statistics from research are quoted as if they are set in stone. However, the science of bilingualism is relatively young and ever-evolving. In Episode 20 I talk to Eowyn Crisfield in detail about what parents need to know in order to steer their family through the rocky waters of bilingual education. This is part one of a two-part series. Part two looks at EAL education in schools, so this episode is a good foundation for teachers too.

Over the last decade, more than ten universities in the UK have closed their modern languages departments, and there is a steep decline in the uptake of languages at GCSE, A Level and at university. Are we too late to reverse this trend? How can we empower teachers to feel confident about teaching languages, and enthuse pupils to love learning languages from an early age? Cate talks to Sascha Stollhans, who teaches German at the University of Lancaster and works closely with schools through their outreach programme and the Linguistics in MFL project, about how linguistics might be the key to the sustainable future of language education, and how we can join up our thinking to save languages at university.

How are trolling, trust and language education linked? What have Shakespeare, Dickens and French classes got to do with GDPR or Trump's tweets? In part two of our discussion, Dr Yin Yin Lu and I talk about the dark side of communicating on social media, whether we can trust current regulation processes (such as GDPR), and how language education is the key to feeling less manipulated and more in control of the way we consume and create our experience of talking to each other online. Read the accompanying blog here.

There's no denying that communication has rapidly changed in the last thirty years, but are we humans keeping up with technology that we are creating? Social media platforms give us many new contexts in which to create and consume communication. How has the way we talk and behave changed since the invention of the internet? Cate talks to Dr Yin Yin Lu, 'doctor of the internet', about rhetoric, talking, and communication in the 21st century. Is it time for a communication revolution?

How can we help our students take the imaginative leap into a new culture and place, and get them excited about learning through the target language? What can we do to create a culturally meaningful, fairer, more purposeful, and less contrived MFL curriculum in the UK? Would these ideas also help students learn the target languages or just make teaching more difficult? In the second part of our conversation, Cate and MflTransform discuss what we could and perhaps should be including in the languages curriculum.

Several of the podcast episodes so far have looked at alternative approaches to teaching language and languages in school, such as creative translation, multilingual poetry, and introducing concepts from the science of linguistics more explicitly from an early age. But why do we need to reform language education? Is it the rationale? The pedagogy? The policies supporting it? In this episode, I’m talking to a Head of Modern Languages in a secondary school, a blogger and activist who is calling for fundamental curriculum reform for language education. He goes by the nom de guerre ‘Transform MFL’ on Twitter. Let's talk revolution! 

Wondering how translation works, or why translation is important? Won't Google Translate and AI just take over from human translation soon anyway? In Episode 14, Cate talks to Dr Charlotte Ryland, director of the Stephen Spender Trust and Queen's College Translation Exchange, about what translation is, and why it just might be the answer to the UK languages 'crisis' in schools. Read the accompanying blog on our website here.

English is a mad pidgin language made up of archaic rules and brand new ones, and constantly changing. Grammar is not fundamental to learning a language: stories and images are fundamental. Kate Clanchy argues that idioms are the most important thing, and that all the unlistable connections, and the ineffable processes of learning language can be captured through the immersive process of sharing and writing poems. Her EAL/ESL pupils have won awards for their poetry, and learned English in the process. How does she do it? Is she multilingual? What about dyslexic children? Listen to find out her secret ingredient.

Is poetry the preserve of the elite, or can anyone, from anywhere, write a poem worth reading? In Episode 12, Cate talks to award-winning poet, teacher, and encourager of creative writing Kate Clanchy. Her students come from diverse and sometimes difficult backgrounds, and now find themselves writing poetry in a school in Oxford, England. Listen to their life stories, their poems, and how writing poetry is helping migrant children find their voices in unexpected ways.

Our voices matter to us, and having a voice is central to our experience as humans. But what if our voice is silenced, or gets taken away, or manipulated by the media? This is the experience of many refugees and migrants. In Episode 11, Cate talks about talking to the founder of Conversations from Calais, Mathilda Della Torre, who is using her graphic design skills to help re-humanise the refugee crisis by giving a voice to migrants in Calais. Some of the content is highly emotive. All of it is true.

In this extended episode, we hear Michael Rosen on education and this thing called 'Literacy'. Is it the same as literature? Is Literacy a good approach for teaching children about languages and how we use them? What tips does Michael have for teachers to encourage children to love words? Is teaching abstract grammar useful? Is there such a thing as 'proper' English? And what does happen to the bear at the end of We're Going on a Bear Hunt?

If children love the sound and feel of words, then why don't we all grow up to be writers and poets? In this episode, Cate talks to poet, writer and children's literature expert Michael Rosen about how we go from playing with language as young children, to becoming confident (or not-so-confident) adults who use language for reading, talking and writing. Why does he think being silly is a good idea sometimes? Doesn't writing or poetry have to be deadly serious? And why is learning through talk so important to both children and adults, not just in arts subjects but in scientific contexts, like hospitals, too?

What's the scariest two-word horror story? English grammar. If linguistics is the Mount Everest of subjects, then grammar contributes to altitude sickness in all but the most experienced climbers. In this episode, Cate talks to linguistics expert Professor David Crystal about why linguistics matters, how we can untangle ourselves from grammatical confusion, and start playing with words again. Children are, after all, natural rap poets and learning grammar is just like driving a car, taking us to exciting new places.

Scouse? Cockney? Received Pronunciation? Do you speak with an accent? Join Cate in discussion with Professor David Crystal and Ben Crystal about English accents past and present. What did a London accent sound like in Shakespeare's day compared to today? Is there a 'standard' accent we should aim for? Find out in Episode 7 of The Language Revolution Podcast.

If Shakespeare were alive today, would he be a public speaking coach helping business leaders and professionals 'talk like TED'? In the sixth episode of The Language Revolution Podcast, Cate talks to actor, writer and producer Ben Crystal about oracy and the art of speaking in public, and whether Shakespeare could be a route into helping foster a love of talking.