global English
-
Posted by Michael Rundell on October 07, 2010
It’s generally accepted that “chunking” – the tendency of words to form combinations which are both recurrent and non-random – is an important feature of language. But in some of the recent discussion of this topic, doubts have been raised as to how far these combinations are worth teaching. Some argue that learning large numbers [...]
Read the full article
-
Posted by Michael Rundell on October 04, 2010
If you watch any episode of the British soap EastEnders, you can guarantee that someone will come out with the line “What’s that supposed to mean?”. The EastEnders scriptwriting team employ this expression so frequently that I suspect they have a button on their laptops that generates it at a single keystroke. There is no [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Sharon Creese on September 29, 2010
What is the future of the English language, I wonder? As arguably the pre-eminent linguistic force on the globe, where does it go from here? David Crystal and Stephen Fry discussed the future of English in a recent BBC Radio 4 programme, whilst language experts have been meeting to discuss the fate of the world’s [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Michael Rundell on August 09, 2010
Adam Kilgarriff’s recent blog sparked a lot of comments – not only on our site but elsewhere too. This comes as no surprise: the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is an issue that tends to generate controversy. In this sense, it reminds me of what some Brits now call ‘elf and safety’. [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Laine Redpath Cole on August 03, 2010
I confess, I don’t really know where to start with this one; it’s a big country, lots of different languages and a very rich, unique kind of English … so I have spent the last few days reading blogs by Indian bloggers who I have found on Twitter or on this India Blogs list and [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Adam Kilgarriff on August 02, 2010
When I was thirteen, I went to a chess championship in Southend-on-Sea. It was grey and windswept, and I was a little lonely and homesick, and as far as I remember I lost all my games. I remember just one spark of colour in this otherwise cheerless scene: my partner in one game, delighted with [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Kati Sule on July 30, 2010
This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change, and language education too. Do contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Sharon Creese on July 28, 2010
It seems there’s a new, and somewhat disturbing, wiki on the block – wikileaks. Apparently a whistle-blowing website where sensitive material can be posted online in such a way as it to be untraceable, wikileaks has come to the nation’s interest amidst news of leaked details about the US military campaign in Afghanistan. (I say [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Kati Sule on July 23, 2010
This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change, and language education too. Do contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Denise Du Vernay on July 22, 2010
American English month continues with a guest post by Denise Du Vernay. Denise has been teaching composition, literature, humanities, speech, and courses on The Simpsons for over ten years. She is co-author of The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield (www.simpsonology.com). Denise lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. __________ On [...]
Read the full article
