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The University of Babel

Michael Rosen investigates how the English spoken by foreign students equips them for British university life: Stories, analysis and a day in the life of Birmingham University.

Generations of students have left lecture halls wondering whether they understood what they just heard. Now, a growing proportion of these learners don't consider English their first language. In the first episode in a new series, Michael Rosen visits Birmingham University to investigate how well the English spoken by foreign students equips them for British university life. And to see how lecturers are adapting to their multilingual audience. And there's feature on Special English, the slowed down, limited vocabulary version of the language developed more than half a century ago as a radio experiment, and which the Voice of America network still uses in its programmes.

Producer: Chris Ledgard.

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 25 Mar 2013 23:00

Broadcasts

  • Tue 19 Mar 2013 16:00
  • Mon 25 Mar 2013 23:00

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