Podcast Recommendation

History of English Podcast

Recently, I read a recommendation of this podcast. As a linguist, I am always interested in the orgins of languages and this podcast lives up to all my expectations and more. Presented by Kevin Stroud, the episodes explore the historical events that shaped the modern language, as well as the history of English words and grammar. Don't be alarmed that there are over 100 episodes of this podcast, I have reached episode 7, and was hooked by episode 2.

Classical Greek Resources Online

The JACT Greek Summer School takes place every summer at Bryanston School, Dorset, but like many other schools, it was cancelled this year. This summer school has placed many useful resources online. These include videos and downloads, and are categorised as follows: beginners, advanced level, or the Greek World. These resources can be viewed here.

Ancient Greek

Getting to grips with the Greek Alphabet

As an Open University student in the 1990s taking their Classical Greek language module, at first I found the alphabet difficult to grasp. Always a book junkie, I took the opportunity to buy some extra textbooks.  I read the first pages of each of these, hoping for a magic solution to the brain fog I had over the alphabet. There is no magic solution but Peter Jones’ Learn Ancient Greek was the closest I could find. The chapters had originally formed a newspaper column and Jones takes the student through the alphabet in an informal and friendly manner. He begins with the letters that are familiar to the student and moves on through the less familiar ones. Since this strategy worked well for me, I borrowed this approach for my own students.

Read on here.