It's time for my annual rant to ECRs to highlight that YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BASE YOURSELF AT AN 'ELITE' UNIVERSITY TO SUCCESSFULLY GET A POSTDOC, be it BA or Leverhulme. I speak as someone who was awarded a Leverhulme initially at Edge Hill, and transferred it half way through to Staffordshire for...

Young people are keen to learn languages. Maybe not all of them academic study of the language. Just learning a language.

So brilliant to meet all the young people at Leeds University Open Day today who want to study a language as part of their degree. A reminder that people love studying and talking about languages! And the only language I was asked about that we don't currently offer is Romanian.

Changed my mind about my title. Now: "A cold spot analysis of German and other languages in the East Midlands and rest of England". Wanted it to reflect the fact that the content is tailored to the event.

I'll present at Nottingham Uni on Language degrees in England: A cold spot analysis by language Part of a roundtable on Language education in the East Midlands and beyond: Cold spots, challenges, opportunities and School-HE collaboration An important event given lang degree closures in the region

At 10:40 am today I am giving an online talk on "Sustainable design and inclusive assessment in institutional-wide languages provision" as part of a forum on "Innovations in Inclusive Language Pedagogies". Looks like you can still register if interested: research.kent.ac.uk/languages-te...

Can clever people on the internet tell me why Spanish "armonía/melodía" and English "harmony/melody" have the stress so far apart? I want to say "arMOnia/meLOdia", I guess because of English "harMOnious/meLOdious". I don't mean "because there's an accent on the í" I mean in terms of etymology.

I enjoyed reading this thread. Unfortunately I'll probably forget the mnemonic "rhythm helps you to hear music" but I hope I never forget "dia-run run help exploding ass" 😂😂😂

At #BAAP2026 with Mian Feng presenting her PhD project on "L2 listeners' perception of vowels in an unfamiliar accent: Lexical decision and transcription of West Yorkshire English". Co-authored with Gisela Tomé Lourido and pictured with Leendert Plug (co-supervisors).

This is super interesting

Few lower tariff unis offer languages, excluding people from under-represented backgrounds who can't travel far to uni. The Uni of Essex is a shining star, offering French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish. This is under threat! Read and sign 👇 docs.google.com/document/d/1...

We have a few places left at our free Primary Languages Conference on 26 March - do join us to find out answers to some important questions! #MFLBluesky Sign up at shorturl.at/HBQ6b

Nice thread. Didn't go where I was expecting 😊

This is excellent. Love the distinction about different types of stuck - "productive discomfort" and "unproductive stuckness" - and the different approaches they need.

This made me laugh 😂

This is brilliant. Entertaining and educational.

So proud of my two brilliant colleagues 🧡

Good thread about French.

Ongoing post available in interpreting and translation studies! They're a really lovely team in a great school!

This whole thread is brilliant - full of useful tips.

And what about their writing skills? (I know this is a typo but it still made me laugh).

When autistics feel empathy, it generally doesn’t “look” like neurotypical empathy. Don’t expect autistics to “look” empathic. "Presuming autistics are competent to understand and feel deeply offers neurodignity, a great gift." www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-... #autism #neurodiversity

Have you seen this @andrewgrantham.co.uk? (And anyone else.) It made me laugh so hard I cried.

Getting ready to present this poster at AULC 😊

Interesting question and super interesting replies.

Sunny and icy walk has made this November feel much more manageable 😊

Great piece - understands policy context and asks the right questions about what that means for the university and the city.

These look fab 😊

We all know the difficulty the HE sector is in. But let’s work together to come up with solutions. The nuclear option damages our students & the reputation of our institutions. @ucflangs.bsky.social & @artsandhums.bsky.social are supporting colleagues www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a good thread 👇

Spread the word - new MA in Classics and Ancient History at Leeds now recruiting for September 2026 entry!

Leeds looking lovely yesterday 😊

Don't miss this #LeedsCityofLanguages webinar with the amazing Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori, teacher, author and multilingual speaker, on #multilingualism.

Come and work with us! We have two grade 8 teaching and research lectureships in Psychology at University of Leeds. Its a great department, in a great University, in one of the best cities in the UK. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... Closing date 9th November, get in touch if you have any questions!

We’re advertising two lectureship positions. Come join us. It’s a great place to work. Deadline is 9th November jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Great thread 🧡

Good thread. "autism and seizures are different; autism and developmental delays are different; autism and attention challenges are different."

This is worth reading.

Always thought that the name Rebecca meant "a knot". This seemed fair enough: persistent, stubborn, perhaps. But I looked up name meanings for our daughter and her friend earlier and for Rebecca it said "to tie/bind", representing "strong bonds, connection, and enduring strength". Today's tiny joy 😊

Lovely day 😍

This is brilliant

Interesting article giving perspective of Chinese students in the UK www.timeshighereducation.com/news/easy-ea...

I love this thread 😊

Interesting article

Things I needed to learn as an autistic kid: - how to rest & recover from overstimulation - how to connect with other kids in ways that were meaningful to me - how to self advocate, and how to know when advocacy could help & what to do when it couldn't - how to notice my mind being anxious

Haopy Autistic Pride Day! A study came out a couple weeks ago by an autistic researcher and 2 allistic researchers where they interviewed autistic people about their social experiences, centred their words and beliefs & thoughtfully analyzed them. share.google/oimkmUR28t3g...

This is a really good point. Up until the age of 8 or 9 I could take my daughter to the park annd she would always find someone to play with. Age 10 there's rarely anyone. The boys aren't there either, as far as I can see.

Always a favourite, as people go and look for elephants! Go outside, and name the biggest and smallest creature you can find - in any language :)

#ADHD IS NOT becoming more common "Lead researcher Dr Alex Martin said it was likely to be a case of under-diagnosis of the condition in the first place." That is what we ourselves keep saying. There are a lot of adults around the world struggling, not being recognised as ADHDers. #ADHDAcceptance

The different Japanese names for sweet potato in this thread are interesting.