Following the heated debate on pernicious versus beneficial effects of slang, a fascinating new book The Life of Slang, by Julie Coleman Professor of English Language at the University of Leicester, offers a timely insight into its ever presence throughout the history of the language. As well as unpicking the surprising antiquity of some contemporary slang, she also clarifies the role it plays in social differentiation between the users and society at large. This use of slang to establish discrete group identities, goes a long way to explaining the anger it manages to provoke among those self-appointed defenders of the integrity of English. Slang is decisive in its nature uniting one group to the exclusion of another, but its pretty clear that after centuries of recorded use it has yet to undermine or destroy English.

A timely reminder of the ability of language to stir up extremes of opinion has come in the unwelcome torrent of predominantly racist comment provoked by this video of Professor Mary Zeigler's students at Georgia State University. Their view that African American dialects should be respected as a distinct and valid version of English, has been denounced as everything from academic fraud to wilful ignorance and a desecration of the English language. Most of the comments draw upon a an ill defined notion of 'correctness' and the belief that the Ebonics agenda is essentially an assault on white society through a subversion of the language. The dilemma faced in moderating these comments is where to draw the line between rejecting racial abuse and allowing intemperate opposition in the name of open debate. Language is an incredibly sophisticated means of communication, but all too often it becomes just another tool of aggression.

The Beyond Babel You Tube Channel has just been relaunched. The new and improved Channel now includes a wide selection of clips from the series as well a examples of the Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Spanish versions of the series taken from the DVD. Some of the new material appears on this sites Media section.

In response to the many e-mails requesting information and related material to Beyond Babel, I have decided activate the blogging element of this website and to offer occasional posts here.
Since this site was launched back in January 2009, The British Council has adopted Beyond Babel as a teaching tool for India and China. Initially distributed to to participants of China-India ELT event in May 2009, six thousand DVD copies of the series are being distributed in Council offices throughout India and China. This follows in the continued adoption of Beyond Babel as a teaching resource in Universities around the world.