BARRY King, geography co-ordinator at Collingwood School in Wallington, Surrey, is creating a bank of dialect voices for his key stage 2 geography project. With the aid of Years 5 and 6, Mr King hopes to build up a map to follow specific speech variants and help children develop a more realistic understanding of how others live and speak than that offered by television soap operas.
Available recordings are of adult voices. Barry King believes t will be valuable for pupils to hear other children talking in different dialects. The bank could be used for comparative studies and in citizenship, as well as helping children develop their sense of local and national variety.
Teachers interested in recording conversations or trading tapes with a school in the South-east can contact Barry King at Collingwood School, Springfield Road, Wallington Surrey SM6 OBD. Tel: 020 8647 4607.
