Episode 13: What if we taught language through poetry?

English is a mad pidgin language made up of archaic rules and brand new ones, and constantly changing. Grammar is not fundamental to learning a language: stories and images are fundamental. Kate Clanchy argues that idioms are the most important thing, and that all the unlistable connections, and the ineffable processes of learning language can be captured through the immersive process of sharing and writing poems. Her EAL/ESL pupils have won awards for their poetry, and learned English in the process. How does she do it? Is she multilingual? What about dyslexic children? Listen to find out her secret ingredient.