Much Language Such Talk

In this episode, we talk with the two members of staff at the Edinburgh Bilingualism Matters (BM) office, Dr. Katarzyna (Kat) Przybycien and Christy Brewster. Before joining BM, both Kat and Christy were navigating life, family, and work has bilinguals across many countries and continents! Christy Brewster is the Bilingualism Matters Centre's Administrator, based at the University of Edinburgh. She is responsible for event organisation, communications and general administration. She has an MA (Hons) in History from the University of Glasgow, and a CELTA Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) qualification. She taught English in Argentina for three years and is part of an English and Spanish speaking bilingual family. Dr. Katarzyna Przybycien is the Bilingualism Matters Centre's Research and Outreach Coordinator, based at the University of Edinburgh. With experience in science communication, community work and a PhD on best practices in knowledge exchange, she is responsible for liaisons and finding links and opportunities between disciplines and people. Kat is raising a multilingual family including Polish, Spanish, German, English and Gaelic. 

Go to our website to read the transcript! 

MLST is brought to you by volunteers at Bilingualism Matters Edinburgh. The views of our guests don’t always reflect our own, as we hope to provide an accessible platform for the findings of current research and the perspectives of experts. For more resources like definitions of linguistic terms, episode transcripts, and information about the team, go to our website at www.mlstpodcast.com.

Recorded on: 10/07/2020 

Music: Arc of the Sun by The 126ersssssss

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Helen Koulidobrova who is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics in the Department of English and Director of the Bilingualism and English Language Learning Research Lab at Central Connecticut State University. Helen's research focuses on sign languages and how people acquire them, more specifically how those who already know a sign language learn a second one (and maybe they speak a language too!) and why some sign languages let you drop subjects and objects when signing.

We talk about learning sign languages, the differences between sign languages from country to country (even region to region!), and the importance of sign languages. We also discuss how Helen uses her research to directly address issues in current policy such as helping make knowledge about sign language easier to access, ensuring hearing parents of deaf children can learn the local sign language to communicate with their children, the need to include those who sign in the conversations about new policy, among many others.

Go to our website to read the transcript!

MLST is brought to you by volunteers at Bilingualism Matters Edinburgh. The views of our guests don’t always reflect our own, as we hope to provide an accessible platform for the findings of current research and the perspectives of experts. For more resources like definitions of linguistic terms, episode transcripts, and information about the team, go to our website at www.mlstpodcast.com.

Recorded on: 2/25/2020

Music: Arc of the Sun by The 126ersssssss

In our first-ever episode, we interview Prof. Antonella Sorace. Antonella Sorace is Professor of Developmental Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. She is a world-leading authority and has published widely in the field of bilingualism across the lifespan, where she brings together methods from linguistics, experimental psychology, and cognitive science. She is also committed to bringing research to people in different sectors of society. She is the founding director of the research and information centre Bilingualism Matters, which currently has 27 branches in three different continents.

We discuss the idea behind Bilingualism Matters, the necessity for research and science communication, her own experiences and questions about bilingualism in general.

Go to our website to read the transcript!

MLST is brought to you by volunteers at Bilingualism Matters Edinburgh. The views of our guests don’t always reflect our own, as we hope to provide an accessible platform for the findings of current research and the perspectives of experts. For more resources like definitions of linguistic terms, episode transcripts, and information about the team, go to our website at www.mlstpodcast.com. 

Recorded on: 3/3/2020.

Music: Arc of the Sun by The 126ers

Welcome to the Much Language Such Talk podcast! We love languages and know everyone has a connection to the language or languages(!) they speak. Here we're going to talk about the benefits of learning new languages and what it means for you, your brain, and the world! 

If you want to follow along with a transcription you can do so on our website!

Music: Arc of the Sun by The 126ers