Episode 45 - Alex Baratta and accentism

Show notes for Episode 45 Here are the show notes for Episode 45, in which we talk to Dr Alex Baratta, Senior Lecturer in Language, Linguistics & Communication, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester about: Accents, accents… and more accents! Teacher accents and ‘professionalism’ Social connotations and stereotypes of accents - good and bad Why one accent isn’t ‘better’ than another and why exposure to accents might be the way to overcome accentism In our regular Lang in the News segment we talk about how formal greetings and sign-offs might be becoming a thing of the past and why that’s the fault of… well, pretty much everyone that Daily Mail readers don’t like. We also have a quick chat about the European-wide attempts to make language more inclusive, the first round of WOTY2023 and we big up Rob Drummond’s book, You’re All Talk. Alex Baratta’s University of Manchester page:  https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/alex.baratta  Some of the articles, books and research we mentioned:  https://theconversation.com/teachers-with-northern-accents-are-being-told-to-posh-up-heres-why-88425  http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/british_politics/2017/06/putting-an-accent-on-things-the-need-to-clarify-speech-expectations-for-british-teachers/   https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/clarifying-accent-standards-for-british-teachers  Understanding all kinds of English accent can improve empathy and learning – and even be a matter of life and death   Yours Sincerely is dead… The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/13/yours-sincerely-is-dead-so-how-should-you-sign-off-an-email  And in the Mail:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12510471/Is-end-sincerely-Old-phrases-die-decade-language-formal-research-finds.html  Attempts to promote inclusive language in European languages What’s in a word? How less-gendered language is faring across Europe  #WOTY2023  ‘AI’ named most notable word of 2023 by Collins dictionary | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian AI named word of the year by Collins Dictionary - BBC News  Opinion piece about new words https://archive.ph/kv2UQ  Rob Drummond’s new book: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/you-re-all-talk-why-we-are-what-we-speak-rob-drummond/7512151?aid=4868&ean=9781914484285  Contributors Lisa Casey  blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates) Dan Clayton  blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog) Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey  Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey Matthew Butler  Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA  Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys  Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys