Do you use words or phrases from other languages in informal get-togethers with friends or when sending text messages? In what language do you discuss a movie you’ve seen in the original English version with someone else? Has a second or foreign language teacher told you that you can’t use your first language in class? […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
What is pedagogical translingualism and how does it promote language learning?
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
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
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.
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
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
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→
Learning a language? Four ways to smash through the dreaded ‘intermediate plateau’
How can I improve my English? This was a question frequently posed by my students in South Korea. My initial advice was straightforward – dedicate time and effort. However, both my students and I found this advice unsatisfying and overly simplistic. As a fellow language learner who had reached only an intermediate level of Korean […] … learn more→
How to create accessible materials for learning foreign languages?
In the global and interconnected world in which we live, the importance of learning foreign languages is fully assumed, as it can help us improve our academic and professional career , enrich our personal lives and even have benefits for our brain . However, it is not so widespread to ensure access to these learnings for all citizens, regardless of their […] … learn more→
“The other side of words”: Frugality
For almost twenty years, digital technology has often been described as one of the levers of the ecological transition. It allows, among other things, the establishment of carpooling platforms, teleworking, the optimization of the energy consumption of buildings or the monitoring of forest fires, etc. But digital uses also come with a certain number of […] … learn more→
