Blog Archives

Digital writing: a challenge for teaching?

Digital writing: a challenge for teaching?

Acquiring written language is a complex process that spans an entire school year. And the omnipresence of digital tools requires rethinking how we learn, as screens require a different way of processing information. From notebooks to computers or smartphones, the logic is no longer the same. Here are some ideas for reflection. “Writing is not […] … learn more→

Trump’s English language order upends America’s long multilingual history

Trump’s English language order upends America’s long multilingual history

Across its nearly 250-year history, the United States has never had an official language. On March 1, U.S. President Donald Trump changed that when he signed an executive order designating English as the country’s sole official language. The order marks a fundamental rupture from the American goverment’s long-standing approach to languages. “From the founding of our […] … learn more→

Most ‘words of the year’ don’t actually tell us about the state of the world – here’s what I’d pick instead

Most ‘words of the year’ don’t actually tell us about the state of the world – here’s what I’d pick instead

It seems to come earlier every year: publishers and dictionaries choosing their “word of the year”. Initially intended to sum up a meaningful trend or feeling that represents the past year, the exercise is now becoming a competition to identify and highlight fashionable slang. Collins went with brat, the Charli XCX album phenomenon as applied to […] … learn more→

Polarization, brain rot and brat – the 2024 words of the year point to the power, perils and ephemeral nature of digital life

Polarization, brain rot and brat – the 2024 words of the year point to the power, perils and ephemeral nature of digital life

Ever since the American Dialect Society selected a Word of the Year at its conference in 1990, over half a dozen English dictionaries have anointed an annual word or phrase that’s meant to encapsulate the zeitgeist of the prior year. In 2003, the publisher of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary began bestowing a crown. On Dec. 9, 2024, it selected […] … learn more→

Before teaching how to read, we should teach how to speak.

Before teaching how to read, we should teach how to speak.

Do you know what you spend 75% of your time doing? Communicating orally . Specifically, we spend 30% of our time talking and 45% of our time listening. Spoken communication is so intrinsic to being human that it seems natural and instinctive to us, something we don’t need to specifically learn. But that’s a mistake. When we […] … learn more→

Could we ever decipher an alien language? Uncovering how AI communicates may be the key

Could we ever decipher an alien language? Uncovering how AI communicates may be the key

In the 2016 science fiction movie Arrival, a linguist is faced with the daunting task of deciphering an alien language consisting of palindromic phrases, which read the same backwards as they do forwards, written with circular symbols. As she discovers various clues, different nations around the world interpret the messages differently – with some assuming […] … learn more→

Beyond vocabulary and grammar: learning biology or history in English

Beyond vocabulary and grammar: learning biology or history in English

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a teaching model that uses an additional language (often a foreign language) as a tool in the learning of other subjects, such as Biology or History. Through this methodology, students learn both the content of the subject and the language in which it is taught . This method is used differently […] … learn more→