If you know me and my work then you know that I talk a lot about identity, and especially how your accent is a big part of your identity: your accent tells the story of your life. But if you do want to change your accent, or improve your pronunciation, how do you do it? Recently I had the pleasure of talking to someone with expert answers to that q…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this bonus episode we talk about the state of modern linguistics, including the effects of the replication crisis, scientific fraud, Anglocentrism, and how the underappreciated work of Charles Sanders Peirce might offer a universal t…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we discuss embodied cognition and the uncontroversial fact that the brain is an organ of the body, which then leads to the very controversial conclusion that our brain is no more important than our skin, and that imagini…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we discuss the content of Dan’s book Dark Matter of the Mind, which lays out Dan’s theory of culture. The book contains bold statements as ‘brains do not learn’ and ‘science is NOT pure rational thought’, but after this …

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about the cognitive revolution, and whether the revolution really exists at all. We discuss the beginnings and the state of the art of the study of cognition and show why it’s important to celebrate all discoveri…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about endangered languages. I ask why languages are important, what is lost when a language disappears, the cultural and economic factors behind language loss, and the truth about the best way to stop languages f…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about the big questions in language acquisition. Is there a Language Acquisition Device? Is language learned or innate? How does child learning differ from adult learning? Should syntax be the basis for language …

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about the fundamental role of metaphor in language, from its involvement in the creation and evolution of language to its role in the modern understanding of language through the work of Lakoff and Johnson, and t…

People are passionate about language, especially language change, and words matter. And nobody knows this better Peter Sokolowski, who is an editor at the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of the most famous and most trusted dictionaries in the world. Peter has spent his life immersed in words and their meanings, and all the complications that come a…

In this podcast you will learn how Pygmalion and the Wizard of Oz can teach you the secret to fluency in English that has been causing controversy for more than 50 years.

It’s an unfortunate fact that many people don’t know the truth about how language works outside of their grammar books, in the real world, but recently I spoke to someone who is trying to change that. Shana Poplack and her sociolinguistics laboratory at the University of Ottawa are known as the mythbusters, because they destroy damaging myths about…

There are few people in the world who know as much about where words come from as Mark Forsyth. His first book, The Etymologicon, was a journey through the origins of many common words and their connections, and he has since written various other books about words, language, and writing. In this interview Mark tells fascinating and entertaining sto…

It’s an unfortunate fact that most of linguistic theory is based on a few major European languages, especially English, which actually damages our understanding of how the thousands of languages in the world might work. But there is one man who has spent his career trying to correct the balance. Robert Van Valin is one of the developers of Role and…

In this podcast you will learn the connection between Pixar, red triangles, information, thought, and fluency. Enjoy!

In this podcast I talk about the positive and negative effects of the weight of expectation, and how living the in past or the future might be stopping you from getting fluency in English.

In this episode you'll learn why touching wood, throwing salt, and car accidents can help you to see the truth about learning a language.

In this episode you'll learn why culture connects London taxi drivers, donuts, smiling Japanese people, and Australian shop assistants.

In this episode you'll learn the hard lessons of my army father-in-law, who failed to learn a language after 14 years of 'immersion'.

In this episode you will learn about the differences and similarities between humans and animals, and why you shouldn't take everything you know about language learning for granted.

In this episode I talk about what mathematics really means, why Mathematicians asked schools to stop teaching calculus, and the parallels between maths and language. In this episode you might be surprised to learn that the secret to fluency is to slow down.

Recently I had the pleasure of talking to Remi van Trijp, head of the Language Research Unit and the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Paris, and one of the main developers of Fluid Construction Grammar. His team is trying to answer some of the most profound questions in linguistics by combining techniques from computational linguistics, artifi…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about how language began, including language evolution vs language change, how animal and human communication are similar and different, and the evidence for why language is probably millions of years old, not th…

Recently I had the pleasure of talking to Ted Gibson from his eponymous TedLab at MIT which researches why human languages are the way they are, how people learn and process language, and the relationship between language and culture. In this interview we talk about his work with numbers, colours, word order, and information theory across various l…

Are you stupid and lazy? Do you want to speak English perfectly? Then this podcast is for you! We are going to take a journey through the light and dark of the human mind to discover why you are so bad at English and the secret to speaking perfect English.

There is no doubt that this is the best time in history to learn a language, especially English. We are surrounded by content in English, English language learning apps, English teachers, English courses, information. But one very important question remains: what do we do with all this information? HOW do we study? HOW do we learn a language. One m…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about the theory and the practice of field linguistics, including how to survive in the field, what to take, and what to bring back.

Students ask me all the time if they should learn British English or American English, and in this video you'll discover the real differences between UK and US English and how it's not about language rules, it's about culture. You will discover how they are different and if you should study British or American English.…

When you think about improving your writing in English, especially business writing, you probably think about studying lots of rules, and memorising specific phrases, and complicated vocabulary. But recently I spoke to Ellen Jovin who’s been writing professionally and teaching professionals how to write for more than 20 years, and in this interview…

It’s a sad fact that the English that millions of people learn in classrooms all over the world, often doesn’t match the reality of English outside the classroom. One person who knows the reality of English as a global language is Heather Hansen. She teaches professionals from the world’s biggest companies how to communicate in English all over the…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about linguistic relativity: the idea that the language we speak can change the way we think.Av Canguro English

In the world of language there are few people as experienced, or as respected, as Patsy Lightbown, Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University in Canada. She has been working in the field of language teaching and language learning for more than 40 years as a researcher, writer, editor, and consultant and she literally wrote the book on …

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about culture: we discuss exactly what it is, how it exists on a macro and micro level, how it affects our language and our cognition, and how without it, we would die.…

Do you want to really succeed at learning English in 2020? It doesn't matter if this is the first or the tenth time you have tried to get fluency in English, these 9 simple steps will help you to succeed at your English learning goals.Av Canguro English

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about the Piraha language, and what it tells us about the intersection of language and culture. We also talk about the practice of the science of linguistics, animal vs human communication, universal translation,…

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture.My name is Christian Saunders and I am an English teacher, and throughout this series I will be in discussion with Dan Everett: linguist, anthropologist, philosopher, and author.In this episode you will meet Dan, and we will talk about t…

In the world of English language teaching there are few people as controversial and divisive as Geoff Jordan. He is not afraid of promoting what he calls a radical approach to the problems in the ELT industry, how to fix them, and how to improve student learning outcomes in the classroom. And that’s why I had to talk to him, and in this interview w…

Today's daily digest answers a question I get asked every day: How can I get fluent in English? To answer this question we have to travel back in time to 1931, learn about chimpanzees and Klingons, and what that tells us about the secret to fluency in English.Av Canguro English

Recently I had the pleasure of talking to Angelica Galante from McGill University in Canada. Originally from Brazil, Angelica’s work focuses on social justice, inclusive education, and critical sociolinguistics. In this interview we talk about plurilingualism, language and culture, and how teachers and students can take advantage of their existing …

Today's daily digest is a rant about why you might be part of the problem, and not the solution to good language learning (and teaching).Av Canguro English

In this podcast I talk to Pete from Aussie English about how to improve your English IMMEDIATELY, without learning anything new. We also talk about our personal experiences learning languages, and the history and evolution of swearing. CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.Av Canguro English

Today's daily digest explains why you are afraid of speaking English, and having conversations, and how you can overcome your fear and use your English in public confidently. I use evidence from clinical psychology and computer science to show you what really works, and why clowns are great role models.…

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to cognitive neuroscientist Ev Fedorenko. She is head of EvLab, her own language lab at MIT, and their mission is to discover how minds and brains create language.In this interview we speak about the language architecture of the brain, adult language learning, and the difference between thought and language. …

Today's daily digest shows why having a low level of English, and a foreign accent, and only knowing a few key concepts, are all advantages when you first start learning a language. I hope you feel super motivated to get out there are USE your English after this!Av Canguro English

Today's daily digest shows what Hindustani music, cave drawings, and Japanese psychology can teach us about linguistic universals, learning a language from zero, and what it means to be human.Av Canguro English

Today's daily digest talks about gendered languages, sexism, culture, and some common myths and misconceptions about the effect that language has on the way we think.Av Canguro English

In the world of linguistics, there are very few people with a resume as impressive as Adele Goldberg. She has had a major influence on the way we understand and study language. In this very special interview we talk about vocabulary learning, input vs output, and her language acquisition research.Av Canguro English

Today's daily digest shows how your brain is only interested in content, not language, and why it's so important to have something to say. It also shows how your culture can affect the way you think, and why you need to learn culture to get fluent in English.Av Canguro English

Today's daily digest is a philosophical journey into the meaning of language, what it means to be human, how we could understand and speak alien languages, how we can talk to animals, and what all of that tells us about how to get fluent in English.Av Canguro English

I always talk about how important patience is when you’re learning a language, because it’s really hard, and it takes a really long time, and recently I spoke to someone who knows that better than anyone: cognitive scientist Josh Hartshorne. In this interview we talk about the critical period, language acquisition, and the importance of immersion…

In the world of English language learning and teaching there is an obsession with the native speaker. Recently I spoke to someone who explains exactly why that has to end: Marek Kiczkowiak from TEFL Equity Advocates. This class is essential viewing for anyone learning English, but especially non-native English teachers.…