MED Magazine - Issue 40 - July 2006

MED Web Watch
by Mairi MacDonald

Collect Britain – English accents and dialects
www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects

English accents and dialects is part of a much bigger site called Collect Britain, an online taster of some of the collections held by the British Library. The site contains over 30 hours of recordings of English accents and dialects from some 600 locations across England and Wales.

The sound recordings were made in the 1950s as part of the Survey of English Dialects, carried out by Leeds University. The speakers were almost always from rural areas so while badger baiting, ploughing and poaching aren't usual topics for the classroom these recordings provide an interesting break from standard textbook fare. For more detailed background information see the curator's introduction.

There are 681 extracts each about 2-5 minutes long. Transcripts aren't provided but each sound file is accompanied by a short introductory text along with notes on lexis, phonology and grammar. The site uses SAMPA (a transcription method that uses ordinary computer fonts) rather than IPA but there is a detailed glossary to help you.

The site can be searched by using the advanced search page. Click on object type and select recorded speech from the dropdown menu. Type in Yorkshire into the keyword box (scroll down a little for this) and this will return all the dialect recordings for Yorkshire. The personalisation facility is especially useful for teachers – by registering you can save your choice of recordings to a folder so your class can access them later without having to trawl the entire collection.

You need to have Windows Media player to access the recordings and the sound files are streamed, in other words you can't download them and need to be online to hear them.

Some of these recordings would quail even a native speaker but students should be OK as long as are aware that they are only listening for gist and that it is not essential to understand every word. As well as raising awareness of the range of accents within the UK, it provides valuable listening practice – students have to rely heavily on context and glean the background notes for clues. It's a useful tool for showing students that they can get something from even the most difficult texts by listening several times and thinking carefully about the context.

So whether you're after some advanced listening practice, a break from textbook RP or wish to set a challenge for those advanced students who think they know everything, English accents and dialects is an excellent source of free authentic listening material.

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current and archived content
up-to-dateness/topicality
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overall score	19 out of 25