TEFLology Episode 44: Ruth Wajnryb, Basic English, and Bidialectism

(TELFology Podcast)

So, I ended my review of the TEFLology podcast by noting that the podcast was still ongoing, and promising to give mini reviews to any future episodes.

Almost no sooner had I hit "post" then a new episode popped up. (LINK here)

I actually don't have a lot of intelligent things to say about this (most of what they were talking about was outside my areas of expertise).  But having committed myself to these mini-reviews, I'll try to just say what I can.

* I've never heard of Ruth Wajnryb before, but I did recognize the book "Classroom Observation Tasks."  In fact I think we might even have a copy in my school library.

* The discussion on Basic English (W) was interesting.  I  didn't know anything about it, but they gave a lot of interesting historical background.
As they were discussing it, I thought to myself.  "Oh man, this sounds so much like Newspeak from 1984--the reduced vocabulary and lack of all irregular forms sounded just like Newspeak. 
Particularly the quote from Charles Ogden that was mentioned on the podcast "What the World needs most is about 1,000 more dead languages – and one more alive" reminded me of Newspeak's obsession with killing off words.
When the TEFLologists gave the historical background on Basic English, that it was popular during the 1930s and 40s (Orwell's lifetime) I began to wonder if it might have influenced Newspeak.  My suspicion was proved right when, at the end of the segment, the TEFLologists revealed that Orwell had been a supporter of Basic English, but later turned against it, and that, yes, Newspeak is based off of Basic English.

* Oh, and H.G. Wells was mentioned in this episode as well.

* Interesting conversation about Bidialectism as well.
Totaling up all the years I've lived abroad, I have now spent about 13 years in expatriate land, where I have had Aussies, Brits and Kiwis as my friends, co-workers and classmates.  So I've been exposed to the different varieties of English somewhat myself.
I've got to say, however, the similarities in these dialects vastly outweighs the differences.  I could probably count on one hand the number of times I had any serious communication problems because of any difference between British and American English.