This post contains a 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, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include, or just add a comment to the post, with the link(s) you’d like to share.
Global English
Gormless
The OED defines “gormless” as “wanting sense, or discernment,” and dates it to 18th-century Lancashire dialect.
Language teaching and resources
IATEFL in Brum
For the past few days the 50th IATEFL conference has been taking place in my adopted home city. If you couldn’t make it in person you can catch some of the highlights here.
Words, books and language
8 Languages With Different Names for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Houses
The Hogwarts houses in the Harry Potter series stay pretty much the same in most translations of the books. But some languages go a different way.
Czech Republic poised to change name to ‘Czechia’
The country will retain its full name but Czechia will become the official short geographic name, as “France” is to “The French Republic”.
Radio
House names
Why do some houses have names while others have numbers? Find out in the episode of the BBC’s regular language programme Word of Mouth.
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