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Episode 83 - Sarah Hopkyns and English in the Gulf
Saturday, March 14, 2026 • Duration 42:26
Welcome to episode 83 of Lexis, another student-led episode, which this time features Oli, an A Level student at the Dubai British School interviewing Dr Sarah Hopkyns, with some help from Dan. Sarah is a Lecturer in TESOL and International Education at the University of St Andrews, Lecturer (Teaching) in Intercultural Communication at the Institute of Education, UCL and Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
We talk about:
What we mean by ‘The Gulf’ and the Gulf nations
What makes them interesting from a linguistic point of view
The types of English spoken in the Gulf and whether we can talk about ‘Gulf English’
The role of Arabic in the region
Translanguaging, multilingualism and reconceptualising how we think about doing language in the world
Translingual practice as a real world manifestation of how people use language resources to communicate
Attitudes to English use and English as a threat to local language and identity
Welcome to episode 82 of Lexis, in which Raj, Dan and (guest interviewer and friend of the pod) Amanda Cole talk to Dr Rianna Walcott, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, and Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab. We discuss her 2023 PhD, A Tweet at the Table - Black British Identity Expression on Social Media. We talk about:
Black community, identity and self-expression on social media
Black Twitter
Sociolinguistic work on Black British English and MLE
Language online and offline
Black feminist thought and its influences on this project and more
Episode 81 - Jessica Aiston & Eltham Hill School students on the language of neurodiversity
Sunday, March 1, 2026 • Duration 40:22
Welcome to episode 81 of Lexis, a special student takeover edition which features Freya and Miles from Eltham Hill School in South London in conversation with Dr Jessica Aiston, postdoctoral research assistant in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London (and who previously appeared on episode 50 talking about critical discourse studies). The episode is all about the language of, and around, neurodiversity, including:
Why this episode exists and why Freya and Miles wanted to record it
What we mean by ‘neurodiversity’ and other helpful definitions
The neurodiversity paradigm
Terms, labels and the history behind these
The pros and cons of certain labels
The importance of autistic people having agency in the terms being used
Semantic reclamation and euphemism cycles
Person-first and identity-first terms
The importance of autistic people centering themselves and being centered in linguistic research
Using the lens of CCritical Discourse Analysis for exploring discourse around autism and neurodiversity
Jess’s current work on the Autism in Affinity Spaces project
Jess has supplied the following references based on the topics raised in the show:
Kenny, L., Hattersley, C., Molins, B., Buckley, C., Povey, C., & Pellicano, E. (2016). Which terms should be used to describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism, 20(4), 442-462. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315588200
Botha, M., & Cage, E. (2022). "Autism research is in crisis": A mixed method study of researcher's constructions of autistic people and autism research. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1050897
Botha, M., Hanlon, J., & Williams, G. L. (2023). Does language matter? Identity-first versus person-first language use in autism research: A response to Vivanti. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 870-878.
Episode 80 - Matthew Hunt on voice pitch
Thursday, February 12, 2026 • Duration 46:26
Welcome to episode 80 of Lexis in which Dan and guest interviewer Ben talk to Dr Matthew Hunt, Lecturer of Sociolinguistics, University of Southampton about voice pitch, including:
What it is and how we measure it
What it ‘means’, including its ‘social meaning potential’
The judgements that we make about pitch and why these matter
Gendered perceptions of pitch
His work on domestic violence cases and the role of pitch in perceptions of ‘victimhood’
Gender and football commentaries
Advice to A Level students on exploring pitch and its role
⚠️Content warning⚠️
We discuss domestic violence and abuse in broad terms in part of this episode.
Journal of Sociolinguistics paper on the effect of pitch variation on perceptions of domestic abuse victims: https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12723
The second paper, ‘Gender Penalty? Linguistic Discrimination and Perceptions of Female Football Commentators’ is with Gender & Language and currently in press. We will update the link once it is published.
Episode 79 - Charlotte Entwistle on language & personality disorders
Friday, February 6, 2026 • Duration 46:05
⚠️Content warning⚠️
We discuss mental health, self-harm and suicide as part of this episode.
Welcome to episode 79 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Dr Charlotte Entwistle, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in Psychology, University of Liverpool. We discuss:
Her path from A levels to research
How language analysis can be used in psychology
What language reveals about our minds and how they work
The linguistic patterns associated with different personality traits
Language and mental health
Why we need to be cautious about making connections between language and personality
Episode 78 - John Kelly and the 2025 Words of the Year
Saturday, December 13, 2025 • Duration 52:40
Welcome to episode 78 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to John Kelly, former head of content at Dictionary.com, previous contributor to Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries, emoji lexicographer for Emojipedia, and school teacher. We discuss:
Episode 77 - Lynne Murphy and the 'Americanisation' of young people's English
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 • Duration 29:27
Welcome to episode 77 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex about a flurry of recent news stories about children’s adoption of American vocabulary (and even accents). We discuss:
What these stories are about and whether we can even tell if this 'Americanisation' is happening
The main themes in them and their precursors in previous panics about ‘Americanisation’
The discourses within and behind these stories
What motivates them and how to approach them critically
How British English is also making its way into American English
‘Trash-talking children are sounding like Americans, say teachers
Garbage, candy and apartment are Americanisms that are growing more popular among younger pupils’
Kristina Murkett’s op-ed for The Telegraph,
‘The Americanisation of British English reveals this dark thing about our society
Episode 76 - Dani Yin & Cheryl Wakslak on gender and exclamation marks in digital communication
Thursday, November 20, 2025 • Duration 01:00:49
Welcome to episode 76 of Lexis which features Raj & Dan (and guest interviewer & friend of the pod, Amanda Cole) talking about gender and exclamation marks in digital communication with Yidan (Dani) Yin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University and Dr Cheryl Wakslak, Associate Professor of Management and Organization at USC Marshall.
Welcome back to Lexis. This is episode 75 and it’s a bumper edition. We pick up on a recent survey of teachers by Teacher Tapp about teachers’ accents and run with it…
We talk to teacher, Arun Sharma about his experiences, we interview Alex Baratta, Amanda Cole and Rob Drummond and we discuss the survey results in more detail and cover some other stories about accents in the news.
Episode 74 - Laura Smith-Khan and the language of law
Thursday, June 12, 2025 • Duration 44:02
Welcome to Episode 74 of Lexis. Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Laura Smith-Khan, Senior Lecturer - School of Law, University of New England, Australia about…
How she got into the linguistics of law
Where and how law and language overlap
Clarity, accuracy and the power dynamics in legal language
Migration, borders, refugees and the law
Assessing ‘credibility’ and some of the processes of refugee law
Critically assessing media discourses around migration
Cage, E., Crompton, C. J., Dantas, S., Strachan, K., Birch, R., Robinson, M., Morgan-Appel, S., MacKenzie-Nash, C., Gallagher, A., & Botha, M. (2024). What are the autism research priorities of autistic adults in Scotland? Autism, 28(9), 2179-2190. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231222656
Botha, M., Chapman, R., Giwa Onaiwu, M., Kapp, S. K., Stannard Ashley, A., & Walker, N. (2024). The neurodiversity concept was developed collectively: An overdue correction on the origins of neurodiversity theory. Autism, 28(6), 1591-1594. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241237871
Jess’s paper on the importance of inclusive linguistics research: Aiston, J., Koteyko, N., & van Driel, M. (2025). Discourse-based approaches to autistic focussed interests: Understanding shared focus, mutual accommodation, and multimodal expression, Applied Linguistics https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf006
And then in our Lang in the News segment, Lisa, Jacky and Dan discuss more media tales of the woes of inclusive language and discuss some of these stories:
‘Man the phones’ is offensive, insurers told
Trade body accused of ‘pandering to woke dogma’ after issuing language guide advising against use of everyday terms
