Bonus Episode: Learning To Talk, One Year Later
It’s been about a year since I released episode 4, Learning To Talk, where I met seven kids at different stages of their linguistic development, from newborn Harris to four-year-old Ronan. I enjoyed making that episode so much that I decided to go back and revisit the kids one year later, to see how they were getting on.
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Get in touch @accentricitypod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or email accentricity.podcast@gmail.com.
If you like Accentricity and want to find other podcasts like it, have a look at Lyceum Podcasts. It's a new app with curated lists of educational podcasts, grouped around topics. Accentricity is in there with a beautiful collection of language podcasts that I am proud to be part of! Download the app at http://lyceum.fm and find the language collection under 'Words With Friends'. There are loads of other collections too, so you can have your own audio exploration of subjects like history, philosophy and politics while you're at it. Each podcast has a discussion room where you can ask questions and post your thoughts and ideas. I'll be on the Accentricity discussion room to answer questions to the best of my ability!
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If you would like to take the Wug test (or test the tiny people in your life), I’ve done a blog post it which allows you to do the test here. Remember that it’s not a test of intelligence! It tests a kid’s stage of linguistic development, and also their willingness to play along with the weird world of adults.
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In this particular episode, I’m focusing on the stories of kids who are acquiring spoken language, and who are moving towards communicating in the same kind of way as I am now. Of course kids are much more diverse than this. Not everyone learns to talk, and some people develop communication strategies which involve single words or sounds, rather than phrases or sentences. Some people learn to speak using sign languages, and in these cases the story is in some ways similar to this one, and in other ways quite different. This episode is just about one of the many ways of growing up and learning language. I hope to visit some of the other ways in later episodes.
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A million thankyous to all of the new patrons of the podcast: Sinead Callaghan, Mitchell McKee, E Jamieson, Isabel Papadimitriou, Helen Nolan and Wendy Kelleher. All money raised will go towards making a second series of the podcast. If you’d like to support this podcast financially, click here or here. If you have enthusiasm but not cold hard cash, tell a pal about it, or give it a rating and review. These things are just as helpful!
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The contributors:
* Harris, aged 1. Thanks to mum Angie and dad Braxton.
* Mila, aged 2. Thanks to mum Nichola.
* Connie, aged 2 and a bit. Thanks to mum Kat, dad Andrew and gran Sheila.
* Martha, aged 2 and a half. Thanks to mum Jennie and dad Euan.
* Kira, aged 3. Thanks to mum Joanna.
* Emilie, aged 4. Thanks to mum Jenn.
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Thanks to Professor Jennifer Smith of the University of Glasgow for help with the content. Jennifer Smith is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow. At the moment she’s working on two big research projects: One Speaker Two Dialects and The Scots Syntax Atlas. You can find more information about her research and publications here.
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Big big thanks to John McDiarmid for production and editing support. John is a freelance radio producer, documentarian and journalist. You can find his company on Instagram @teltmedia. He recently finished his first feature-length documentary, St Mungo’s Approval.
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Big big thanks too to Seb Philp for the music. He doesn’t have a website, but if you’d like to talk to him, send me a message!