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.
Language change and slang
“Bae” Watch: The Ascent of a New Pet Name
Never mind boo: it’s time to get ready for bae, the latest monosyllabic pet name starting with B.
Global English
Old Scottish Sayings and Scottish Slang Words
To mark the Scottish refererendum, here are some Scottish sayings and words (but mostly dialect rather than slang).
Language teaching and resources
Language Testing and Second Language Acquisition Research: Worlds Apart
Maybe I was just being naive, but as a language learner, teacher, curriculum developer and researcher, I always thought Language Testing and Second Language Acquisition were closely linked fields.
European Day of Languages
Next Friday, 26th September, is European Day of Languages, which celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe and the importance of language learning worldwide. Here are some useful resources from Macmillan English to use with your students.
Books, science, dictionaries, words and language
How Stephen King Teaches Writing
The acclaimed writer shares his views on grammar and explains why discovering great literature is like losing one’s virginity.
Fingerprint Words
The verbal tics that make up who we are—and how they spread to others.
Writer Creates “Color Thesaurus” To Help You Correctly Name Any Color Imaginable
Or… twenty shades of pink. And black. And white…
Graphic
The literary map of London is just beautiful
More than 250 novels were mined to create this literary map of London. How many can you recognize?
Cartoon
In a comma?
A punctuation-based pun by Scott Hilburn (via Steve Mantle).
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If you’re planning to make use of the “Adults: Europe Trivia Quiz”, it might be a good idea to turn ‘Ferweh’ into ‘Fernweh’ (fern = far (away), weh = pain) before handing it to your students. Lovely word, though, isn’t it?
Thanks Kay. It is indeed a lovely word – very poetic.