Inaugural lecture - Professor Christian Jones: What is spoken language and how on earth do we teach it?

Professor Christian Jones delivers his inaugural lecture exploring how spoken language is described and the challenges of teaching it to English learners.

In his inaugural lecture, Professor Christian Jones, Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of English, examines how spoken language can be described in terms of its forms and functions. He draws on research using native speaker conversation data and speaking test data to consider what we say and why we say things in particular ways. The lecture then explores the challenges of teaching spoken language to learners of English as a second language. Light refreshments will be served afterwards.