inner voice

  • Foreign Affairs,  Learner tales

    Accepting the sweet song of a foreign language

    This new Learner Tale begins with the imagined voice of a character in a photo by Robert Doisneau and wanders into the experience of a migrant learning a foreign language in the wild, far from a language classroom. How do we learn to accept the arrival of the foreign language without giving up the identity drawn from our mother tongue? A testimony based on true events from my own learning of French on moving to France.

  • The Subjective Classroom

    Why hearing your own voice is like looking at a selfie

    If you don't like the sound of your own voice on a recording, that's because it's not the voice you hear when you speak. This article invites you to think of it as an audio-selfie : you can spend as long as you like wondering who is in a photo you've just taken of yourself which doesn't look right, it's definitely you. Time to take a listen in the mirror for a closer look at your voice.

  • Orality and Storytelling

    Slowly Bringing The Map To Life

    This could be the start of a scrapbook made of moments in transit. When I return to a place I've not been for some time, a narrative gets triggered by an inner voice. Sometimes it is simply a string of words spun out of the sights, sounds, smells, textures hiding unseen around me. I write down these scraps as best I can. Some get reshaped and these can be shared.

  • Orality and Storytelling,  The Subjective Classroom

    Teacher’s voice – friend or foe?

    Teaching involves speaking in public. Beginning teachers often become aware of the sound of their voice for the first time in their lives in the classroom. But when we say "voice", which voice are we talking about? We all have several. In fact, we have a different voice for everyone we talk to. This post uses the example of preparing to tell a story in class, as a way of becoming more confident with your voice.