How British Conversation is Changing: Resonance, Engagement, and Social Class!
Tuesday 30th September 2025, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (London Time)
This short course explores how British people’s everyday conversations are shifting — and why it matters! Drawing on findings from the British National Corpora (1994 vs. 2014) and my recent study British Conversation is Changing (Applied Linguistics, 2024), we will look at how people re-use and acknowledge each other’s words, a process called resonance. Resonance is a powerful marker of verbal engagement: when it’s present, speakers treat one another’s talk as meaningful; when it’s absent, conversations can feel flat or disconnected.
We will discuss how resonance has increased among middle- and upper-class speakers, especially in professions tied to education, politics, and corporate life, while it has remained stable among working-class speakers. This reflects broader societal changes linked to ideologies of inclusivity, equality, and engagement in the workplace.
The course combines accessible explanations with real conversational examples, showing how shifts in interaction style can reveal changing social values. Participants will gain tools to analyze everyday dialogue, reflect on their own conversational habits, and understand how language change is not only about new words, but about how we connect with one another.
🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available
Dr Vittorio Tantucci
Vittorio Tantucci is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Lancaster University and world-leading scholar in the field of Pragmatics, the study of verbal behaviour in context. His research focuses on cross-cultural and cognitive approaches to dialogue, with particular emphasis on intersubjectivity, resonance, (im)politeness, and reciprocity. He specializes in corpus-based methods and computational approaches to large datasets of real conversations to reveal how interaction changes across time, social groups, and languages.
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Tuesday 5th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 12th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 19th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 26th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 2nd June 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 9th June 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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Voice pedagogy has advanced significantly in the last decades in relation to knowledge of the vocal apparatus (anatomy and mechanics), acoustics, and performance psychology (to name just a few subfields) – this is a wonderful thing! Nonetheless, musicianship and the foundations of music theory are still relevant to the teaching and coaching of singers and this course aims to empower voice teachers and coaches with skills to support the fundamental musicianship development of their students.
Tuesday 12th May 2026
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
Prosody in conversation – crucial for effective communication?
Beatrice Szczepek Reed
In this course, we will take an introductory look at what prosody is and consider its functions in natural everyday dialogue. Prosody refers to the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. It's the musicality of language that helps convey meaning, emotion, and emphasis in conversation!
Thursday 14th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Feldenkrais Method® - its application in speech and song!
Marina Gilman
The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve physical and mental functioning, including singing and speaking. Since we are not always aware of the source of tension or discoordination, it is difficult to make the necessary adjustments to ensure optimal use of the voice!