Bringing Research into the Classroom: New Resources for Teaching A-Level English Language

We're really excited to announce that we will be holding a half-term event to introduce our new A-Level English Language Resources! If you're a keen reader and are interested in making the most of our resources, click here to register. 

The workshop is designed to share the latest research as well as new teaching resources in the area of English Language (Sociolinguistics, Variation, and Language Change) with A-Level and other English Language teachers. The short talks will present recent research relevant to the national curriculum, helping teachers get a feel for where scholarship stands currently. The talks will also showcase a new free set of teaching resources -- English Language Teaching Resources -- with hands-on demonstrations. These resources package cutting-edge research into classroom-friendly content. This includes real audio clips, transcripts, background guidance for teaching, simple summaries of new research on hot topics, and guided student projects.

Date: Tuesday 19th February
Time: 2-5:30pm
Location: Queen Mary University of London (Mile End, East London)
Room: Graduate Centre (GC) 101

Provisional schedule and titles (subject to minor changes)


2:00 pm — 'Current trends in sociolinguistics, and new materials for A-Level English Language teaching' (Prof Devyani Sharma)

2:30 pm — 'Good or bad grammar? A practical approach to looking at changing attitudes' (Dr Carmen Ebner)

3:00 pm — 'Language use in social media' (Christian Ilbury, PhD student)

3:30pm — tea/coffee break

4:00 pm — 'Why don't we all speak Standard English?' (Prof Jenny Cheshire)

4:30 pm — Talk by Dan Clayton (AQA A-level senior examiner, co-author of the Nelson Thornes AQA A English Language AS textbook)

5:00 pm — Discussion and wrap-up

The discussion will reflect on the talks but also explore ways in which the new resources can support teachers, and identify areas of particular need. We hope to be able to follow up later with some of you on what has worked well or for any suggestions. Feedback via email or via the website is very welcome too!