reading detective stories from the 1950s

Reading classic crime stories from 75 years ago might be a way into enjoying a really good read.

THE QUEEN OF CRIME:

Even in the 1950's, Agatha Christie was considered rather old-fashioned, partly because of her use of archaic language - which by today would be even more 'out-of-date'. 

In fact, Agatha Christie's use of words is interesting, but such is the influence and popularity even today of her writing, that we can say Agatha Christie shaped how the world sees Britain.

However, if you need something in a simplified, more 'modern' version, Agatha Christie has been cut down for language students in many 'easy readers' now available.

FILM NOIR AND RAYMOND CHANDLER:

One of the most influential genres of cinema is film noir. And many of these movies from the 1940s and 50s were based on detective stories of the time, including those by Raymond Chandler, many of which were on the radio as a show called The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.

But we have to ask how hard a read would Raymond Chandler be for non-native english speakers? - and movies, radio adaptations and audio books definitely help.

It also helps to actually appreciate the richness of the writing style of Raymond Chandler language, in that "the master of hard-boiled detective fiction, is renowned for his distinctive literary style that reshaped the genre". 

And the fact that he was educated in England before moving back to the States, means that Chandler’s slang is carefully crafted. And as an 'outsider' in Los Angeles, he challenged the way these stories were traditionally written: "My theory was that the readers just thought they cared about nothing but the action; that really, although they didn’t know it, the thing they cared about, and that I cared about, was the creation of emotion through dialogue and description."

DIGGING DEEP AND READING FOR PLEASURE

Ultimately, it's a matter of going for what you enjoy - which can be seem as not the usually expected "extensive reading"- but instead the "narrow reading" approach, where we stick to what we know and just go deeper - according to Prof Krashen and his second language learning theories.

Because we know that reading really is the best way to improve (your own and a second) language and that "children who read for pleasure are better at english".

This is the case when learning any language - whether it's the classic French detective story by Georges Simenon made into the film Maigret tend un piège (Eng Sub 1958) with Jean Gabin or something by the Swiss German writer Friedrich Glauser whose name is given to the German-speaking world's prestigious crime fiction award, the Friedrich-Glauser-Preis.

So, curl up with a good detective story! Enjoy!

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what is neurodiversity?

There are plenty of 'tests for dyslexia' online - some rather simplistic:

Do I Have Dyslexia? - International Dyslexia Association

Others a little more nuanced:

Dyslexic Test | Free Online Am I Dyslexic Quiz

The first link above comes from a charity/non-profit: International Dyslexia Association - …until everyone can read!

The second comes from a company providing "neurodiversity consulting, recruitment and employment support to employers and individuals with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and autism": Exceptional Individuals | Neurodiverse Recruitment & Employee Support

In the UK the 'debate about diagnosing dyslexia' and other conditions such as ADHD and autism has become highly politicised: Farage sparks furious backlash after claiming children with special educational needs are ‘over diagnosed’ | The Independent and Setting the Record Straight: Why Nigel Farage’s Claims on Children’s Mental Health and SEND Are Deeply Misleading - Codebreakers

Perhaps we need to step back and consider what is 'neurodiversity':

Why there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ brainHaving been diagnosed with ADHD at 38, Howard Timberlake went on a personal quest to discover whether any of us has a “typical” mind.

According to one survey from 2016, around 62 million people across the globe were thought to have an autism spectrum disorder (including Asperger's syndrome), and 63 million had ADHD (though there can be crossover as some with autism can have ADHD and vice versa). That’s not to mention many other conditions – such as dyslexia, Tourette’s and Williams Syndrome (which involves a hypersocial personality) – that are also be due to differences in the brain’s anatomy.

People involved in the diagnosis and discussion of these conditions often use the term “neurodiverse” to describe the differences, and “neurotypical” to describe everyone else. But these terms have a long history and their meaning is constantly evolving.

The word neurodiverse was first coined in 1998 by an Australian sociologist, Judy Singer, who used it in her honours thesis. Shortly afterwards, it was picked up by a US journalist writing in a 1998 edition of The Atlantic, and the term began to evolve from there. As Singer explains to me, her original aim was to draw attention to a wide variety of conditions. “It was a time of incredible sharing and exploration,” she says. “I was just so overwhelmed with all these senses that people had that we didn't even know about – people who couldn’t recognise faces, people with extraordinary synaesthesia. There are so many things in the mind that we never imagined.

“I just thought, this is incredible diversity. With our stupid educational systems, we're trying to lock people into this narrow channel, instead of exploring what this diversity can bring us. We needed a movement, like the feminist movement, and that's where it came from.”

The term has since been employed for many purposes – as a word for empowerment, a means for celebrating qualities some neurological conditions can bring, and as a term of identity. But Singer had never intended for it to be used to describe a particular condition. Instead, she meant to for it to be used in a more general sense, to describe the variety of all brains.

“You cannot have neurodiverse as an adjective to describe anything else except the whole world,” she says. She draws a parallel with “biodiversity”, which is not used for a particular type of plant or animal but the overall variety of every living creature. “It’s the property of the whole biosphere.”

...

Diagnoses are essential to ensure that people get the support they need - but there is a risk of "over-medicalising" traits and behaviours (Credit: Emmanuel Lafont)

Why there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ brain - BBC Future

Here's a discussion and a video:

Why You’re Probably Not Neurodivergent | Revisiting Neurodiversity — Stephanie Bethany | Autistic Adult

And we do have to be careful about the language we use:

Aren't We All on the Neurodiversity Spectrum? - NeuroBridge

Finally, are 'creative' people 'neurodiverse'?

Research Shows Neurodivergent Individuals Excel Creatively | Psychology Today United Kingdom

Creativity, Creative Arts, and Neurodivergence Conference | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Although, again, we have to be careful with words!

Elon Musk: how being autistic may make him think differently

Is Elon Musk Autistic? Exploring His Traits | Connect n Care

Bill Gates: Trump, Musk and how my neurodiversity made me

From ‘Aspie supremacy’ to vaccines: The toxic autism politics of Trump’s second administration | The Independent.

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native speakerism and bad hiring practices

We mustn't forget that English is a European language (where it is used as a second language everywhere; and have you heard the average Norwegian youngster speak the language?)

And we mustn't forget that English is an African language (where it is not only a second language, but also the first and official language across half the continent!)

It might be a question of how people sound - as there are lots of different African english accents. But we have to ask if the English speak English the best!

Certainly a lot of teachers around the world feel insecure about their accent - but there are so many ways today to empower educators to feel confident and prepared to teach pronunciation.

This then throws up the question: What is a native speaker teacher of english?

Which leads us to the notion of native speakerism (see Native speakerism: hiding behind privilege - E L Gazette) - or the "native speaker fallacy", which suggests that the ideal teacher of English is a native speaking teacher (see: NNEST - Wikipedia)

The latest E L Gazette looks at the latest story:

Language professionals challenge “native” requirement in hiring

After months of collaboration, educators Vincent Richard, Ana Jovic, Meri Maroutian and Dr Natalia Wright have published an open letter to the Council of Europe addressing what they describe as “the misuse” of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in the hiring practices of many educational institutions and employers globally.

An excerpt reads: “The CEFR was designed as a structured scale to assess communicative competence, not identity. Proficiency is achieved through study, exposure, and practice—not through birthplace or upbringing. Conflating “native” with advanced CEFR levels misrepresents how language skills develop and devalues the effort required to reach high levels of proficiency. It creates confusion for both job applicants and students.”

Speaking exclusively to EL Gazette, Vincent Richard said: “This letter has already drawn a lot of attention, especially on LinkedIn. Some prominent academics, teachers and teacher trainers, for example, have already signed it. This is very satisfactory. But for it to really have an impact and encourage the Council of Europe to respond, the campaign must continue. We want as many people as possible to sign it, of course, and we will be especially pleased and grateful if the big actors which we have invited to sign the letter, take the plunge as well. One of the reasons why native speakerism and bad hiring practices carry on is the law of silence. This must cease. There are people and institutions which could take a clear stance at last and make a real change. So here lies an opportunity!”

Language professionals challenge “native” requirement in hiring - E L Gazette

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mad, bad or sad?

In the popular press, the idea is generally to 'lock them up' - but as the Daily Mail notes, it's not so straightforward:

Tough justice? What we need is effective justice... and that doesn't mean locking up thousands of sad, mad people to watch TV in overcrowded jails

The aim is not simply to lock ’em up in their cells for up to 23 hours a day – even if, to quote our ‘tough’ Justice Secretary, they’re sitting there ‘watching the Sunday match on Sky Sports’. No, the aim is to protect the public by preventing re-offending which, with a re-offending rate of 65 per cent, it is clearly not doing very well. It is said there are three types in prison; the sad, the mad and the bad. Of these, only the really bad – at most 15 per cent of the prison population – need to be there because they present a risk to the public, and their offending must be challenged.

Lord Ramsbotham: Effective justice needn't mean locking up thousands of people to watch TV in jail | Daily Mail Online

Or, as the philosopher said:

"I was rather interested in my fellow prisoners who seemed to me in no way morally inferior to the rest of the population, though they were on the whole slightly below the usual level of intelligence – as was shown by their having been caught."

Who was Bertrand Russell?. From unhappy boy to philosopher of… | by Daily Philosophy | Daily Philosophy | Medium

Or, as the Injustice Project would have it: 

If one spends any time around prisons, it does not take long before you hear inmates classified as either mad, bad or sad. It is a simplistic characterisation, and it carries pejorative undertones, but there is some sense in its development. Of these three ‘types’, two of them, the ‘mad’ and the ‘sad’ are worthy of considerable compassion rather that derision. The third type, the ‘bad’ are often marked by an innate desire to harm without remorse and most people find these inmates more difficult to view with any compassion, though they too are worthy of compassion.

The Mad, the Bad and The Sad: They All Deserve Some Compassion - The Injustice Project

This is part of the bigger question of how we view people generally - how we categorise and judge them.

Here's the viewpoint of a psychologist:

I first got my head into this stuff by reading a book by Australian academic Deirdre Greig: “Neither Mad nor Bad. The Competing Discourses of Psychiatry, Law and Politics.” She wrote about the interface between law and psychiatry precisely to acknowledge that the ‘mad / bad’ dichotomy was unsatisfactory to explain it...

So why does this debate exist in developed societies in the 21st century? Well, it is at least partly because the current constructs of medicine do not fully account for the human experience of mental illness or mental wellbeing – it’s known to be about more than medicine. You only need look at the tension surrounding the re-drafting of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual to see this. And it is partly because the law has sought to define legal constructs that account for these primarily medical, not psychological definitions – and we know the law hasn’t done this in the context of what we know about 21st century experience of mental illness. You only have to look at how laws have only comparatively recently considered ‘personality disorder’ as a ground to detain someone under mental health law.

Our ‘insanity’ laws were written in the first half of the 19th century. Just think what science has taught us about medicine and mental health since then? Just think what we have learned about the role of psychology and sociology in the development of mental health problems; think what we know about our politics and society and how we respond to mental ill-health … can it be the our laws are right and remain current? But then attempts to reform them are extremely difficult as the previous Government found during the first decade of this century.

More to the point of the title of this piece, we hear “mad versus bad” as if they are opposites of some kind. in fact they are two inherently unrelated constructs from two different paradigms: medicine and law. So this misunderstanding leads to us rarely seeing any debate about criminal suspects who are mentally ill that acknowledges that someone could be both mad and bad. Even if someone was suffering from a mental health problem at the point where they committed an offence, that illness or disorder does not necessarily excuse them from criminal liability – but it might.

Mad, Bad or Sad – Mental Health Cop

Here's another psychologist:

Personality disorders are a contentious issue in psychiatry. How many are there and how reliable is their diagnosis? Are we just medicalising bad behaviour and social inadequacy. How should medical and criminal justice sectors divide responsibility? This is part of Professor Wilson's series of lectures.

Mad, bad or sad?

With a very good overview in his talk here:

Mad, bad or sad? The Psychology of Personality Disorders - Professor Glenn D Wilson - YouTube

Finally, how much of this lazy categorisation is due to the professionals?

Jay Doubleyou: a critique of psychology

Jay Doubleyou: how normal behavoiur becomes a mental disorder

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the art of listening

If we want to learn a language, we need to learn to listen better.

There are specific techniques - such as 'shadowning' - that need us to listen first before we start listening: Jay Doubleyou: how to get the shadowing technique right

There are specific approaches - including Krashen's input or acquisition hypothesis - that need us to do lots and lots of listening: Jay Doubleyou: "focus more so on input & absorbing the language"

And if we are to learn anything and to feel a sense of progress, well, we need to listen, as Kolb tells us with his approach: Jay Doubleyou: kolb and experiential learning

What will help is if we learn to listen in different ways - as there are very different things out there to listen to: Jay Doubleyou: ways of listening

Radio 4's Word of Mouth takes us into how we can do this better:

Michael Rosen talks to sociolinguist Dr Haru Yamada about how we listen in different ways across different cultures and social groups. It's the side of conversation that is not about talking, but which is equally - if not more - important to how we communicate. Haru is the author of 'Kiku: The Japonese Art of Good Listening', and she believes that listening is something we can all learn to do better in order to build stronger relationships with each other, and with the world around us.

Word of Mouth - The Art of Listening - BBC Sounds

Here's a book review or two: Kiku by Haru Yamada | Waterstones

And here's a video review: Kiku by Haru Yamada | Waterstones

Enjoy the listening!

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how to "delight in the seemingly arbitrary and confusing nature of phrasal verbs"

It is generally agreed among students and teachers alike that 'phrasal verbs' are a mean thing.

Ultimately, it's about chunks - or, as the name says, phrases. And not translating word for word!!!

Jay Doubleyou: what to do with prepositions

It doesn't have to be a matter of lists. We can make the teaching and learning of them much more fun.

Jay Doubleyou: funky phrasals with the bbc

And BBC Radio 4's programme looking at words has done just that [from 32 minutes in]:

"Our Eartoon (a cartoon for the ear) this week delights in the seemingly arbitrary and confusing nature of phrasal Verbs. This is the latest episode in our series by Stagedoor Johnny 'Richard Poynton' in which he offers an origin myth for the English Language."

The Verb - Boo Hewerdine, Fiona Benson, Alison Binney, Yvonne Lyon, Eartoon - BBC Sounds

Here's more fun:

How to Teach Phrasal Verbs to ESL Learners

ESL phrasal verbs: interactive games and activities for effective learning

To Be Verb Charades

Fun with Phrasal Verbs

10 short warm-ups to revise vocabulary | That is Evil!

Phrasal verbs – our top tips and favourite classroom activities – Collins

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why children are better at acquiring languages

Linguist Peter Trudgill has been writing for the New European for the last decade - and his pieces are always a wonderful insight into how language works.

Here's his recent piece on why children are better at acquiring languages. [And you can access three articles a month from TNE]

Why learning language is child’s play

Children have an innate ability to learn foreign accents that is lost as they grow up... but is it always an advantage?

Peter Trudgill 28 May 2025

The distinguished Swedish linguistic scientist Prof Östen Dahl once wrote that, when it comes to language-learning, “human children have an advantage compared to adult members of their own species”.

The point is that human beings are genetically programmed to learn perfectly any language they are sufficiently exposed to in early childhood, while it is an extraordinary adult who is capable of doing the same thing.

This is particularly obviously true when it comes to pronunciation. Virtually everybody who starts learning a language after the age of eight or so ends up with a non-native accent. But there are advantages to this. It can be helpful if you are a foreigner to sound like one.

A young woman I knew who had been born in England to Polish refugee parents, and had grown up in Britain bilingual in English and Polish, reported that she experienced severe difficulties when she first moved to Poland to take up a job there. Polish people in Warsaw could tell from her accent that Polish was her mother tongue, so they therefore quite rapidly came to the conclusion she was crazy or stupid because she did not know how to do all the many Polish things which any adult Pole would know how to do.

During the act of speaking, our pronunciation depends on millimetre-accurate movements of our tongue and lips, and millisecond-accurate synchronisations of these with the movements of our vocal cords. We learn how to do this as very small infants by mimicking precisely the speech sounds of those around us.

Since these acts of speaking involve producing individual speech sounds thousands of times a day, these movements eventually become deeply automatic and hardwired in the infant, and they are therefore extremely hard to override later on, thus leading to foreign accents in adolescent and adult learners. There is lots of individual variation here, but most people lose the innate ability they had as infants between the ages of, say, eight and 14.

There are rare exceptions: the late Robert Maxwell – millionaire, media proprietor, MP, crook – who was born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch – sounded remarkably like an Englishman when he spoke, even though he grew up in eastern Europe speaking Yiddish as his mother tongue, and started learning English only at the age of 17 (see TNE 233). But for the vast majority of us, this degree of achievement is impossible.

This raises an interesting question: is there any point in a non-native learner trying to sound like a native speaker, given that they are never going to succeed? I would say that the more you try to acquire a native-like accent, the nearer you will get to that goal – which will generally make it easier for native speakers to understand you. But of course it may not necessarily make you more intelligible to non-native speakers: a Greek friend of mine claims that he always enjoys visiting Italy because he can so readily understand the English spoken by Italians – and, equally, they can understand him easily, too.

It is also of course the case that native speakers tend to speak more rapidly than non-natives – they have normally, after all, had a lot more practice! – and speed can also cause comprehension difficulties for listeners.  

Why learning language is child’s play - The New World

There has indeed been a lot of thought and interest given to this:

Do Children Soak Up Language Like Sponges? - The New York Times [again, there is access to the article, when you create a free account]

And this is how to do it with kids:

How can young children best learn languages? | British Council

Kids Should NOT Learn Languages in School (here's why) - YouTube

Finally, this is perhaps how to do it with adult:

Can You Learn a Language Like a Kid? - YouTube

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