All Talk

Explore the different names people use when they talk to you. Who calls you a shortened form of your name? Where or when are you called by your full name? Why do your friends use a particular nickname? What do your different names mean? Are our names important? What do you think of different public debates about names?

What will I learn?

• How to generate data about names using a set of questions and prompts
• About social, cultural and historical variation in the meanings of names
• About different public attitudes in current debates about names

Explore your unique spoken language style. What words and phrases do you use a lot? How much slang do you use in conversation with different people? Have you adopted particular expressions from TV or film? What greetings do you usually use with friends or family? Do you have an accent or a particular way of pronouncing words?

What will I learn?

• How to generate different layers of data about your spoken language style
• How to investigate your data in different ways
• About the ways comedians and impressionists work with individual speech styles

Explore diverse experiences of what it’s like to speak more than one language. Which languages do you speak or understand at least a little? Where and when do you use the languages you know, and who with? Is it important to speak more than one language? How do you make use of the mix of languages you know?

What will I learn?

• Key questions for interviewing people about their languages other than English
• How to make structured notes about people’s experiences
• How to organise interview material and other research to make a podcast

Explore family talk as it has been represented in sitcoms and soaps over time. How realistic are these representations? How has spoken language changed over time? What influence has the mass media had? How have expectations of formality changed? What expectations do we have today about taboo language or jargon? How did English vocabulary expand in the 20th century?

What will I learn?

• About the influence of mass media on 20th century spoken English
• About changing expectations in spoken language
• About vocabulary changes in 20th century spoken English

Explore how online and mobile talk really work. What does it mean to “talk” by tapping into a keyboard, when the people involved can’t see or hear each other, and when there may be quite long time-lags between comments? What else is going on in the places from which the people are communicating? How do people style their online self-image?

What will I learn?

• About the variety of language and context in online and mobile talk
• How to create a video observation transcript for multimodal talk
• How to analyse multimodal talk data

Explore how co-operative conversation works face to face. How much difference does non-verbal communication make? How do deaf people communicate by signing? How do people work together to get the conversation started and keep it going? How do people manage the complexity of chat happening in real-time and with other people right there in front of us?

What will I learn?

• How to make effective use of body language to communicate
• About communication in British Sign Language
• Some key terminology for talking about the features of talk

Explore the fast-changing world of technology and communication. What do you use for online and mobile talk? Email? Facebook? MSN? Txting? How do the devices and interfaces shape the way you use language? How has that changed? What txt spellings do you use now? What txt spellings did you use when you were younger? What attitudes does society have to txt-talk?

What will I learn?

• What “multimodal talk” is
• Some methods for recording and transcribing txt-talk
• Different explanations people have for txt-talk

Explore how local accents and dialects get represented in popular artefacts and public attitudes. What “classic” words and phrases would you choose to represent your area? What makes them iconic? Are they a fair representation of local talk? Are they funny? Are they a stereotype? How do other people see your accent or dialect? How funny or fair is that?

What will I learn?

• Some "classic" Bristolian dialect words and phrases
• How to investigate the dialect of your area
• About the prejudice and discrimination of some public attitudes to accents and dialects

Explore how people use stylised forms of different accents to express themselves creatively in conversation. Do you or people you know turn on an ultra-strong version of your accent for stylistic effect? Do you or people you know do a kind of mock-posh to make a point in conversation? What are the many reasons that people do this?

What will I learn?

• About styling, the idea that we shift our accent styles for conversational effect
• Some ways of representing stylised accents in transcripts
• About the different effects that styling can create in conversation

Explore how you respond to speakers with different accents. How trustworthy does someone from South Wales sound to you? How friendly does someone sound who speaks “posh” Received Pronunciation? What about intelligence, attractiveness or honesty? How do these attitudes shape the way we interact with new people? What difference do these attitudes make to people’s lives?

What will I learn?

• About differences between accents of the United Kingdom
• About your own attitudes and assumptions about speakers of these accents
• About positive and negative public attitudes and assumptions

Explore how talk can get people into and out of trouble in one to one interactions at school. What do students and teachers say to each other that helps communication about difficult situations? What do students and teachers say to each other that blocks the path to a successful conversation? What techniques can we learn to do it better?

What will I learn?

• How to recognize the impact of key words and phrases on the shape of an interaction
• Where and how one to one teacher-student talk can go wrong
• 10 techniques for improving difficult conversations

Explore how group discussions at school can be made more productive. Are you the person who always talks over the top of other people? Or the person who says nothing but complains afterwards that no-one listened to you? How do we need to talk and listen in group discussions that get the job done in a way we can all feel satisfied with?

What will I learn?

• About the different ways group discussions can take a turn for the worst
• What good group discussion looks and sounds like
• 13 techniques for improving how you operate in group discussions

Explore how talk can be used to motivate people to achieve their best in sports and fitness activities, and how it can be used badly to dishearten and demotivate people. How do coaches give feedback, ask questions, issue instructions? What tone of voice do they use, and what body language? What gestures help or hinder in a coaching session?

What will I learn?

• What effective and ineffective coaching talk looks and sounds like
• How to develop a detailed analysis of video data in a series of passes
• About the kinds of questions that are useful in analyzing coaching talk

Talk up a storm with spoken word poetry, slam-style. What have you got to say about the world that you live in? How would you express this on the stage not the page? What can you do with voice, pace and timing? How will you create an interaction with your audience? What words and phrases will have a powerful impact?

What will I learn?

• Ways of getting started with spoken word poetry
• Techniques spoken word performers use to create impact
• How to take part in a poetry slam

Explore how people communicate when they are at work. In what ways do people in different jobs need to be able to communicate effectively? What kinds of conversations do they have? What do they need to get done by talk? What complex repertoires of talk do skilful employees use in their interactions with each other and with customers?

What will I learn?

• The variety of ways in which people in different jobs need to be able to communicate effectively
• How to make observations about an individual’s work-talk repertoire
• How to use evidence to support evaluations of talk