All Talk - Endorsements

"This resource is an invaluable guide for the busy teacher—whether you are baffled by the new spoken language element in GCSE, feel confident about the general idea of spoken language study but unsure of what it entails, or simply want a little refreshment of your teaching strategies, this pack will enliven all that you do."

"English teachers have been waiting a long time for a set of resources such as this…The authors have drawn together an impressively diverse, culturally rich selection of recordings and transcripts with thought-provoking activities for studying language at both GCSE and AS level."

"I would love to use All Talk in the classroom! It's a refreshing, stimulating, flexible and wide-ranging approach to language teaching across the secondary age range."

"This is a welcome and timely resource for all English teachers. It takes young people on an exploration of language that begins by valuing their own."

"All in all, the sheer range of themes is impressive, while the activities that form the core of each unit – supported by video clips, worksheets and teachers' notes on the DVD and accompanying website – will give teachers a varied mixture of discussion-based material, engaging hands-on exercises and mini-research tasks. The emphasis is always on involving students in the language that's around them and helping them develop their own independent judgement and analysis and there's plenty of supporting material offered here for teachers new to spoken language, so it's not an overwhelming jump into the deep end.

It helps that All Talk is great to look at – very polished and contemporary in its styling – but even better, it's free.... so get online and download your own set of resources as quickly as you can."

"This will be an invaluable resource for my PGCE and Teach First students. The range of ideas and key concepts All Talk contains and the rich variety of video resources will be both useful and stimulating. The approach taken will remind them and reassure them about what they already know, and about their appetites for further exploration – both for themselves and with their pupils."

"A carefully crafted language resource which combines pedagogy and academic depth in an engaging way, and will retain its authority for many years to come."

"This is a one-stop resource that both teachers and students will find engaging. The topics and resources look fresh, relevant and stimulating."

"The 15 units are grouped into five broad categories – 'You talk'; 'Offline/online talk'; 'Street talk'; 'School talk' and 'Public Talk' – covering key aspects of Spoken Language identified by the exam boards, and thereby future-proofing the resource. Each section then takes the teacher and student on an investigative journey, steadily building up conceptual understanding and knowledge. For example, 'You Talk' begins by looking at names, family names and those attributed to individuals by their social and peer groups; and then moves towards a greater appreciation of idiolect – or of identity through idiosyncratic and unique speech habits and patterns – through looking at the words and phrases we acquire from popular culture and multi-lingual heritage. The unit rounds off with a look at family talk over time, which not only consolidates the work on idiolect but also touches on the subject of scripted speech in television soaps and sit-coms. It is difficult to see how this unit would fail: the investigative games are of the kind that everyone can access, and are capable of extension and development; the filmed interviews that support the unit are engaging and entertaining; the more theoretical, analytical inserts delivered straight to camera are accessible and enthusing; and the web-based materials provide a weighty stock of materials to enhance the work still further.

In short, All Talk is easily the best starting point for anyone uncertain about how to tackle Spoken Language Study, or indeed, anyone wishing to improve their provision in this area...Heads of Department often receive free resources from publishers and organisations; and very often they do not get the kind of attention they deserve. This seems must be the exception: it is an engaging, informative, usable and entertaining set of materials that will help to advance the methodology of teaching this area for many years to come."

"All Talk is the best, most practical resource for the English classroom that I have seen for a long time. It is a wonderful set of materials to support all the tasks in GCSE English Language but it also provides a huge range of interesting, student-friendly ways to introduce the study of spoken language into any English classroom. The printed materials and suggestions for classroom activities are based on the premise that learning has to be active and fun, and the video content, including some great clips of students excelling in the classroom, is imaginatively conceived and beautifully presented."

"All Talk offers a map of inspiring and entertaining ideas for developing students' confidence and awareness of the principles and pleasures of talk within a rich context of linguistic explorations. This is a rare find on the teacher's bookshelf - a multimodal package of flexible and contemporary resources which manages to be both user-friendly and academically grounded at the same time. It will be an invaluable addition to every English classroom."