In this episode I interview David Bauckham, photographer, blogger and photojournalist about his interest in English Amateur Football.

In non-league circles, David is the celebrated author of a number of books, including the infamous 'Dugouts' and 'Love Not Money', in which I feature as a volunteer for Matlock Town Football Club.

David charts the history of the game and explains the split between the amateur and professional football clubs, and the formation of separate football associations, even going back to the different rules which existed in the early days of the game. We talk about the world's first football club, Sheffield FC formed in 1857 and look at the different codes or rules under which different clubs played at the time.

We then bring the discussion right up to date to consider the place of amateur football in the modern era and consider the relationship between non-league and amateur football.

The podcast will be of interest to football historians and lovers of football as we take an affectionate look back at the English Game.

For more information on David Bauckham's work, see his excellent photojournalism site at https://dbauckham.exposure.co/?fbclid=IwAR2WpRTfkflxZQluiB71sF1bb8cSOADDv4AyR7CWNGetNli7ZUpSoMmq6To

Follow David Bauckham's Twitter Account https://twitter.com/CentreCirclePub and my own football Twitter account https://twitter.com/tannoyboy

For more information about this podcast series, or to make any comments or to ask any questions relating to English Language learning, please contact me at [email protected] or visit my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scott-lawton/ or my company page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/john-scott-lawton-consulting/?viewAsMember=true

Finally, please take a look at my website where I post additional content to support this podcast series: https://johnscottlawtonsenglishyouknow.wordpress.com/

In this episode I interview Richard Hayhow of the Open Theatre Company about his work in Non-verbal Physical Theatre with Music.

We explore the work of actors with learning disabilities and the importance of inclusion at all stages of the artistic process. We talk about how engagement in this work is transformational, both for the actors, as well as those participating in it in support roles or as audience members.

Richard and I examine the values of the work, discussing why the work matters and the gains to be had from recognising the actors as actors with talents and things to communicate, rather than focussing on their disabilities.

We take a look back at our work together in promoting the art form, where I was a member of the Trustee Board of the Open Theatre Company and Richard was one of its first Directors. We then look forward to what the future holds and the growing reputation of the Company which is keen to develop its international presence and to collaborate with others.

Richard has been Director of Open Theatre for 30 years. Open Theatre aims to place the creativity of young people with learning disabilities at the centre of the cultural life of Birmingham and Coventry. As part of this aim, Richard set up The Shysters, a company of actors with learning disabilities, in partnership with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 1997. Through the development of a unique nonverbal physical theatre practice, the company gained a national reputation for the ground-breaking quality of its performance work ‘on the borderlines of theatre, dance and mime’.

For the past fifteen years Richard has been forging long-term creative collaborations with special schools in the West Midlands region, to examine and maximise the impact the nonverbal physical theatre practice can have on children’s learning and development and on young people’s transition into adult life. Open Theatre currently has a team of 12 practitioners working all year round in 18 special schools.

In 2018, Open Theatre became an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation with ambitious plans to support the emergence of a significant number of professional artists with learning disabilities over the next four years through appropriate training provision and landmark production work. Open Theatre have just co-produced The Twisted Tale of Hansel and Gretel in partnership with Birmingham Hippodrome and MBD, featuring an integrated cast of actors with and without learning disabilities.

Contact Richard Hayhow by email: [email protected]

For more information on the Open Theatre Company, visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/OpenTheatreCompany or their website at: https://www.opentheatre.co.uk/ 

For more information about this podcast series, or to make any comments or to ask any questions relating to English Language learning, please contact me at [email protected] or visit my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scott-lawton/ or my company page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/john-scott-lawton-consulting/?viewAsMember=true 

Finally, please take a look at my website where I post additional content to support this podcast series: https://johnscottlawtonsenglishyouknow.wordpress.com/

In this episode I again interview Laura Broatch to gain her perspectives on her home country, New Zealand, or to give it its Māori name, Aotearoa. Laura talks about the climate and geography of the two main islands, as well as some of the other countries who were formerly (and formally) part of the then colonial entity, but which are now independent nations again. We discuss the increasingly impressive performance of the country's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and I ask Laura whether the politician is as popular at home as she appears to be abroad. Laura also discusses the country's most famous export, sheep and we explore the myth of whether or not there are more sheep than people on the islands. On a more serious note, we discuss racism in the country and ask whether things are changing for the better for Māori and Pacific Island communities. For more information about this podcast series, or to make any comments or to ask any questions relating to English Language learning, please contact me at [email protected] or visit my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scott-lawton/ or my company page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/john-scott-lawton-consulting/?viewAsMember=true Finally, please take a look at my website where I post additional content to support this podcast series: https://johnscottlawtonsenglishyouknow.wordpress.com/

In this episode I interview Laura Broatch, a New Zealand national, currently living in Taiwan where she teaches English. Laura describes her work in a Cram School - which students attend after their regular school, often in the evenings or at weekends, learning English intensively - a process known as 'cramming' - hence the title, Cram School.

Laura qualified as an English as a Foreign Language Teacher in New Zealand before heading off to Taiwan. Here she has explored the island extensively, tasting the food and everything that the country's rich culture has to offer. Laura initially qualified with a Masters in Social Science from the University of Waikato, where she majored in Anthropology.

It is this interest in people and anthropological study which makes it appealing for Laura to travel the world from her home in New Zealand. The ability to speak and teach in English is a real asset for her on her travels, especially as a woman travelling alone. Laura has already travelled to 25 countries with more to come!

For more information about this podcast series, or to make any comments or to ask any questions relating to English Language learning, please contact me at [email protected] or visit my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scott-lawton/ or my company page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/john-scott-lawton-consulting/?viewAsMember=true 

Finally, please take a look at my website where I post additional content to support this podcast series: https://johnscottlawtonsenglishyouknow.wordpress.com/

In this episode, I interview David Banes, an experienced disability accessibility consultant, who has worked for many years in research and development and as a practitioner providing technology support to disabled people. 

I start with a discussion around the language used to talk about the notions of disability and impairment. Many people are unsure whether to use such terms as 'people with disabilities'; 'disabled people'; 'handicapped' and so on and we address this issue directly, pointing out that self-identification and identity are most important. We consider the political context in which language is used and how it changes over time, a topic of interest to socio-linguists and students alike. We then go on to consider the history of technological developments which have at first assisted and now provided inclusive access to communication technologies. 

We talk further about the importance of inclusive design so that emerging technologies take disabled people's needs into consideration as products are being conceived, so that they can use them accessibly and easily. This is commercially a far cheaper way of developing usable products for everyone, rather trying to retro-fit them after they have been released because some people have trouble using them. Although largely a visual medium not best suited to a podcast, David Banes also talks about his work with symbol systems which are providing communication access to millions of people around the world and how these should be developed in the cultural and linguistic communities in which they are to be used. We consider the role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in supporting the communication needs of everyone, as well as wearable technologies, inclusive design for the future and the Internet of Things. 

David Banes is Director of David Banes Access and Inclusion Services and co-founder of Global symbols, having previously led assistive technology services in Europe and the Middle East. He now works across the globe including projects in Africa and South Asia to support access infrastructure from policy to practice.

He has a special interest in emerging technologies and the impact upon people with a disability, including the use of AI to augment communication, emerging technologies and mobility and the use of innovation to build resilient AT and AAC services during the pandemic.

David writes regularly on the tools and techniques and recent publications include emerging technologies and the impact on universal design for learning, economic return on investment in AT, and the potential impact of frugal innovation on provision of assistive products.

He can be contacted via a range of social media including:

Or via his websites

www.davebanesaccess.org

www.globalsymbols.com

For more information on this podcast series or to discuss any of the matters raised in this particular episode, please contact me directly at [email protected] 

In this episode I explore the surprisingly complex and even controversial aspect of phrasal verbs in English. These are described differently according to which grammar text book you choose to read; but for reference, I have used the definition used by Michael Swan in his 'Practical English Usage' (Fourth Edition, p. 12), 2020, Oxford University Press see www.oup.com/elt

I'm in conversation with John Taylor, a first language speaker and avid (that's very keen) reader, as we discuss just three verbs which easily generate over 50 phrasal verbs - 'to get on', 'to look' and 'to go'. We use them in the context of sport; literature, especially John's favourite of the detective genre; and business, where we consider the use of the simple verb 'to go' and how it is used flexibly and creatively to generate many phrasal verbs used in accountancy, law, commerce and finance.

Speakers of English as a Foreign Language will value the opportunity to hear these phrasal verbs used in context, which is the key to understanding them and therefore to using them properly and appropriately.

For further support in developing your spoken and written English Language skills, please contact me at [email protected] or via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scott-lawton/ where recommendations regarding my work are available.

Please take the opportunity to listen to previous podcasts where I explore different aspects of the English Language. I value any comments you might like to make on the topics covered.

In this episode, I catch up with Sandra Hamrouni, who I first met several decades ago when we both went to Kenya, Africa, to teach English as volunteers for Voluntary Service Overseas, then a UK charity which is now more international in its structure.

Sandra and I talk about the training we underwent and the experiences of living in a country we had never visited before. We consider the impact that our teaching had on the children and adults who were learning English as a second, third or even fourth language.

We talk about the purpose, politics and impact of such voluntary work and ask ourselves, 'Who benefits most; the volunteers or the people they teach?'

Sandra then goes on to describe her working career which took her to many different countries including Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, Tunisia, Syria, Oman, Bahrain, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Cyprus, Algeria and the United Kingdom.

The podcast will be of interest to intermediate and advanced students of English and to English Language Teachers, who might identify with some of the issues we discuss.

To find out more about Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) International please visit their website at: https://www.vsointernational.org/

To contact me about this podcast series, or to suggest future topics for discussion relating to the English Language, please contact me directly by email at: [email protected] or visit my website at: https://johnscottlawtonsenglishyouknow.wordpress.com/

In this episode, I interview Miriam Barnaby, A Slovak poet writing in English. Miriam is back by popular demand as she featured in my most popular podcast to date.

We discuss whether some of her poems are sensual in nature, or sexual. Who decides? Is it the writer; or the listener or reader?

Is it right that poems can be open to interpretation, without ever really knowing the intention of the author?

Miriam reads five of her poems which are all linked here - all available on her LinkedIn profile:

1. 'Vanam' - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vanam-miriam-barnaby/

2. 'Mirman' - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mirman-miriam-barnaby/

3. 'Shaba' - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/shaba-miriam-barnaby/

4. 'MM' - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mm-miriam-barnaby/

5. 'Music' - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/music-miriam-barnaby

Comments can be made about each poem on the relevant article page on Miriam's LinkedIn profile using the links above. All opinions are appreciated.

Further comments on the podcast series can be made directly to me at [email protected]

To suggest further topics for discussion on my next series of 10 podcasts, again, please contact me directly by email. Thank you.

In this episode, I take a quirky look at the esoteric activity of football fans visiting different non-league football grounds to watch several live games in a single day.

Known as Groundhopping, this is the football equivalent of the pub crawl. Listen to two old fellas chatting about what is involved in setting up a Groundhop, who benefits and what international hosts think of their English (and other international) visitors.

A few years ago I took part in what I believe is still a world record 10 football games in the same League (the Central Midlands League in the East Midlands of England) - spread over a weekend. Officially it was 5 games on the Saturday and 4 on the Sunday, with a bonus fixture thrown in on the preceding Friday night.

I speak with Laurence Reade, one of the organisers of the UK based Groundhops, who has also been involved in supporting the Swedish Groundhops for 14 years, until Coronavirus took its toll.

Laurence is a writer, Blogger, photographer and, of course, Groundhop organiser. See https://laurencereade.com for more information about Laurence and his football travels.

You can find more information on Groundhops and what they entail by visiting: https://groundhopuk.wordpress.com or by following Chris Berezai of GroundhopUK https://twitter.com/GroundhopUK

Equally, you can follow my own fanatical football fetish by following me on Twitter https://twitter.com/tannoyboy as I approach a total of 500 different grounds visited - although it's taken me over 50 years to get to that figure.

For comments on the podcast and to suggest future topics for discussion in English please email me at [email protected]