Language and words in the news – 3rd May, 2013

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

Teaching in English creates problems for Danish universities
Danish universities are increasingly teaching in English in order to remain attractive to international researchers and students, but the development presents challenges for the teachers and students for whom English is a second language.

Our blog posts about:

• the ways in which different countries deal with the dominance of English
• the situation in Denmark

Language change and slang

English For Teenagers Infographic
Have you ever wondered how teenagers around the world use English? Kaplan decided to look at slang words used by teenagers and how English learners use text speak.

You’re Literally Up in Arms About ‘Literally’? Seriously?
The OED’s definition of “good” literally is, “Used to indicate that the following word or phrase must be taken in its literal sense”; that sense will be almost always be clear no matter how many times Joe Biden or Chris Traeger uses the word the other way. I searched Google News for “literally,” and 19 of the most recent 20 uses were literal and completely unambiguous …

Our post on the same topic: This will literally have you in stitches

Books, science, dictionaries, words and languages

Google search proves to be new word in stock market prediction
Mr Preis warned that the findings might not hold for future stock market movements. Revealing the predictive value of search data could change people’s behaviour, neutralising the effect shown by the analysis.

Trolls, memes and spam: author offers guide to web words
“One thing that is different about today, though, is the permanence offered by technology: the way in which billions and billions of digital words are not only preserved, but can remain searchable and accessible. Those keeping records – and wishing to study the histories of new words – have never had it so good, or indeed so overwhelming.”

The Oxford English Dictionary and its chief word detective
Oxford English Dictionary Chief Editor John Simpson is to retire after 37 years at the famous reference work. Here he writes of a life hunting for the evidence behind the birth of words.

Audio

BBC ‘Word of Mouth’: Accents Will Happen (28:00)
… Michael Rosen talks to those who love or loathe their accent; those who have managed to retain their accent and those who have changed the way they speak concluding with voice and dialect coach Charmian Hoare who works with actors and Vicky Carpenter who trains – well anyone and claims she can make you ‘accent-less’ …

New awards highlight bad grammar (8:51)
A new awards ceremony aims to highlight examples of bad grammar. Today’s programme’s Sarah Montague discusses ‘good’ grammar with Editor of The Idler magazine Tom Hodgkinson and Michael McCarthy, emeritus professor of applied linguistics at the University of Nottingham.

Video

Words, words, words (10 talks)
A selection of 10 TED Talks, from between 2002 and 2012, about (the power of) language.

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