emagazine Conference for A Level Language, 2026, London (London, Autumn 2026)
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Date - 24 Nov 2026 (UK)
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Availability -
Places available
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Price - £25 per student
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Location - Friends House, London
Programme and Speakers
10.20am
Take seats and introduction to the conference
10.30-11.00
Robert Topinka: Sorting through the Slop: Digital Rhetoric in the Age of Doomscrolling
Our digital feeds are swamped with AI slop, brainrot, and influencers promising to reveal ‘the truth about’ everything from healthy diets to conspiracy theories. Drawing on the tradition of classical rhetoric, this talk explores what makes digital content persuasive, and how platforms hook our attention. The infinite scroll makes it feel like each swipe brings something new, but thinking rhetorically can help bring stable patterns of persuasion into view.
11.05-11.35
Jessica Aiston: Critical discourse analysis
What can language tell us about the society we live in? Why might linguists also be interested in issues of power and discrimination? In this talk, Jessica Aiston will provide an overview of ‘critical discourse analysis’ (or CDA) and what the approach can offer A-Level English Language students. After introducing Fairclough’s 3-dimensional model of CDA, Jessica will then demonstrate how this approach can help investigate contemporary media discourse about neurodiversity.
11.35-12.00: Break
12.00-12.30: Matthew Hunt: What The Traitors can teach us about language and authenticity
Using examples from The Traitors, this talk explores how language shapes our impressions of other people. We will examine fake accents, style-shifting and dialect variation, before focusing on an interesting feature of Scottish English that emerged under pressure, and what it reveals about language, identity and authenticity.
12.35-13.15
Rob Drummond: Language myths and public linguistics
People often have strong opinions about language, but how much of what we believe is actually true? Myths and misconceptions about language are repeated so often that they can start to sound like facts. Fortunately, linguists study how language actually works, using evidence to challenge these assumptions and develop an understanding of the language we use every day. But that knowledge shouldn't stay in universities and classrooms. This talk explores the role of the public linguist in bringing linguistic knowledge into the public conversation.
13.15-14.15: Lunch
14.15-14.45
Panel discussion – participants tbc
What do people get wrong about English? Combatting myths and misunderstandings.
14.50-15.20
Sophie Holmes-Elliott: Sounds and stories: gendered language in development, a real-time study
We know that men and women often talk differently: research has shown that men tend to talk more about things, women more about people, and women typically use higher rates of standard forms. But when do these differences actually appear, and what do they look like as they're developing? This talk follows the same speakers from age 9 to 15, tracking two features of language: subtle sound differences, and storytelling, or narrative production, to catch gendered language in the act of emerging. More broadly, we’ll consider why these patterns develop in the first place.
15.20-15.30
Conference ends
Getting to the Conference
Train
- The closest train stations are Euston, London St Pancras and Kings Cross.
Tube (underground)
- Tube stations within a 5 to 15-minute walk include: Euston, Euston Square, Kings Cross, Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street. The closest tubes are Euston and Euston Square.
Bus
- Numbers 10, 18, 30, 73, 205 and 390 pass the door whilst 59, 68, 91, 168, and 253 stop nearby.
Travelling by Minibus or Car?
- Friends House is within a meter parking zone. Charges must be paid Monday to Friday 08:30 -18:30. Please note that Friends House is within the congestion charge zone. For details of how to pay here.
Coaches
- Coaches may stop outside Friends House to drop students off.
Parking
- There is no on-site parking available at Friends House. The local roads have metered parking bays and fall within TfL charging zones. TFL driving information is available on the TFL website. There are three disabled blue badge parking bays located in Endsleigh Gardens.Information about Camden Council parking is available on the Council's website.
Risk Assessment
We are unable to provide a risk assessment for your students, but are very happy to answer any questions you might have about the venue which would help you in completing your own risk assessment.
Arrangements on the Day
Registration
Registration will open at 9.30am and we ask you to be in your seats for 10am so we can begin promptly at 10.20am.
Entrance is via the Euston Road entrance to Friends House.
Teachers Accompanying Students
We expect all students to be accompanied by a teacher. There should be a minimum of 1 teacher per 20 students.
We request that teachers meet their students in advance, register as a group and sit with their groups of students. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that their own students maintain acceptable standards of behaviour in the auditorium and in the Friends House building.
Lunch and Refreshments
The cafe at Friends House is open from 8am.
You and your students will be responsible for providing your own lunches. There are sandwich shops in the area immediately behind Friends House and plenty of food outlets across the road at Euston Station.
There are spaces outside for students to eat their packed lunch but no indoor spaces.
Risk Assessment
We are unable to provide a risk assessment for your students, but are very happy to answer any questions you might have about the venue which would help you in completing your own risk assessment.
Dan Clayton
Dan Clayton is an education consultant at the EMC and specialises in English Language work at A Level and language education across the secondary curriculum. He has been a teacher of A Level English for over 20 years, senior examiner and moderator for different awarding bodies and is author/editor of many books for A Level English Language, including ones for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press & Routledge, as well as publications for the EMC and NATE. Dan has worked closely with many universities to help develop links between A level and HE, worked as a research fellow at UCL and runs the EngLangBlog site and @EngLangBlog Bluesky account, as well as being part of the Lexis Podcast team. He has also taught Media and Film Studies and is Associate Editor of emagazine and MediaMagazine.
Dr Jessica Aiston
Jessica Aiston is a postdoctoral research assistant in the School of Arts at Queen Mary University of London. Her research interests include critical discourse analysis, digitally mediated communication, as well as language, gender, and neurodiversity.
Professor Rob Drummond
Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Met University. His research explores the relationship between spoken language and identity, with a focus on language variation and accent prejudice. He does a lot of public-facing and media work, and his mainstream book: You’re All Talk: Why we are what we speak is available in paperback.
Robert Topinka
Rob Topinka is Reader in Digital Media and Rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London. He researches reactionary digital politics. His writing has appeared in the Guardian and he has provided expert commentary for the BBC, the New York Times, Channel 4, and other media outlets.
Sophie Holmes-Elliott
Sophie Holmes-Elliott is a Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at Queen Mary University of London. She studies how children shape language change, tracking how young speakers' speech shifts over time alongside wider trends in their communities. Her work also explores the relationship between language and gender, most recently through a real-time study following the same speakers from childhood into adolescence, to see how gendered patterns of speech emerge as they grow up.
Matthew Hunt
Dr Matthew Hunt is Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of Southampton.
ON SALE 10AM WEDNESDAY 7TH OCTOBER. SEE BOOKING DETAILS FOR HOW TO BOOK.
Prices
- The fee is £25 per student, with one free teacher place as follows: 1-9 students = 1 free teacher place; 10-19 students = 2 free teacher places and so on.
- You will be automatically allocated the correct number of teacher places and will need to provide details for each teacher attending. (You can change the teachers attending, if necessary, when you tell us final numbers on xxxx.)
- For additional teachers, or teachers attending without students, for their own interest or CPD, the charge is £50 each.
Booking the conference – important information
- Before booking, please see our updated cancellation policy.
- We are unable to take provisional bookings or reserve places. Conference places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
- To book this conference you must be signed into a UK Educator Admin (purchasing) or UK Trust/Academy – Head Office (purchasing). Trust/MAT head offices: please see 'Special information for Trusts' below.
- Bookings can only be made online. It is no longer possible to pay in full for conference places by debit or credit card via the website at the time of booking.
- Overseas schools and individuals interested in attending the conference, please email us.
How to book
- Sign in to a UK Educator Admin (purchasing) or UK Trust/Academy – Head Office (purchasing) account.
- Add the number of student places you need. Free teacher places will be allocated automatically. There is a limit of 60 places per organisation.
- Confirm you have read and agree to the updated terms & conditions.
- Add the names and contact details of the teachers attending – if you don't know these details yet, just copy/paste the details of the lead teacher.
- Checkout within 24 minutes. Otherwise the booking will expire and you will have to begin the process again.
- Click submit and then Go to basket.
- 'Places exceeded' message? Reasons for this message are:
- You are trying to order more than 60 places (including free teacher places)
- Due to the number of places in other customers’ baskets, there are currently insufficient places available to fulfil this order. Try again later.
- Checkout.
- Once you have booked your place, you will see a screen indicating your order has been successful. Please make a note of your order number.
- The person making the booking and all the teachers attending will also receive an automatic acknowledgement of your booking.
- A non-refundable deposit invoice of 20% of the booking value will be emailed to you within 24 hours of booking. It must be paid by debit or credit card within 7 days of receipt. Failure to pay this invoice will result in the cancellation of the booking.
- Please do not make final travel arrangements until you have paid your deposit invoice.
Special information For Trusts
- Are you a Trust finance officer looking to book conference places for more than one of your schools?
- Please note: the limit of 60 places per organisation applies to the organisation booking the places.
- If you require more than 60 places in total, you will need to do one of the following.
Option 1 (recommended)
Finance officers or heads of English register a UK Educator Admin (purchasing) account to the school and place the order. At billing they will have the option to enter the name and email address of the finance officer at the Trust. The address on the invoice will be that of the school.
Option 2
Finance officers at the Trust head office register separate UK Educator Admin (purchasing) accounts to each school requiring places. They place each order when logged into the individual school account. A different email will be required for each registration.
Deposit
- A 20% non-refundable deposit will be applied to all places booked. If you cancel a place you will lose the 20% deposit paid. You will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards the final invoice.
- You will receive a non-refundable deposit invoice of 20% of the booking value, to be paid by credit card within 7 days of receipt. The payment can ONLY be paid via the Stripe link sent with the deposit invoice, not by making a payment directly via our website. Failure to pay this invoice will result in the cancellation of the booking.
- The balance invoice will be sent on 8th November, after the deadline for confirming final numbers. Places booked after the final numbers' date will be liable for 100% of the cost of places booked.
Cancellations and Amendments
- The 20% deposit on places booked is non-refundable. Please note: you will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards the final invoice.
- You can make amendments to your booking until the final numbers deadline – 5pm on Thursday 5th November. You will lose the 20% deposit paid on places cancelled by this deadline.
- You will be invoiced for the balance of the total fee (80%) on confirmed places. Please note: you will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards this final invoice.
- After this date you will be charged 100% of the ticket price, regardless of the numbers of students you bring to the conference.
- Places booked after the final numbers' date will be liable for 100% of the cost of places booked.
- We will email on 3rd November to remind you to confirm your final numbers.
- The balance invoice will be sent on 8th November, after the deadline for confirming final numbers. It will come from [email protected] Further correspondence related to payment will come from [email protected]
Please note: We will be unable to make refunds in the case of weather, transport difficulties or circumstances beyond our control. Should EMC need to cancel the conference, for reasons other than a red weather warning (see below), a full refund will be on offer. (However, personal arrangements including travel, accommodation or hospitality relating to the conference which have been arranged by you or your institution are at your own risk and not refundable by us.)
Waiting list
- We are no longer operating a waiting list for student conferences.
- If places become available, we will re-open the bookings on the website. We will publicise this via social media and our general mailing list.
Red weather warning
- In the event of a red weather warning, we will follow official advice about travel and cancel the event if it is deemed inadvisable to go ahead. In such circumstances, we will be unable to offer a refund.