English (ESL) Weblog

Site Overview 2012

Here's a comparison of some of the sections of the site over the last year. As always, thanks to everyone who has contributed so much.

Site Overview- 2011

Here's a comparison of some of the sections of the site now with 2007, the last time this sort of overview was done. As always, thanks to everyone who has contributed so much.

The linguistic genius of babies [Video]

At TEDxRainier, Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.

English Mania

The world has a common language to solve its common problems. So says Jay Walker in the following video. Here he explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn the world's second langauage, English.

ESL World Cup links

Here are some links to ESL sites and lesson plans, etc, related to the World Cup.

English, a Crazy Language Indeed!

For my first blog post this year I thought I'd provide you with a couple of light-hearted and entertaining looks at the English language. The first shows you just how confusing the language can sometimes be, whilst the second demonstrates why some suggest that English spelling should be reformed.

Getting Back to Normal

Things have been quiet in some areas of the site of late and we haven't added many new items.  Sadly, work has been squatting on our lives and eating into time normally spent updating the site.

Noam Chomsky Talks About Universal Grammar [Video]

In this video, Noam Chomsky talks about language at Google as part of the Authors@Google series.

In this question and answer session he discusses a number of topics, but the first is about universal grammar in which he provides an in-depth description of how his ideas on universal grammar have evolved over time.

Another interesting question he answers at the end of the session relates to the effect of email, instant messaging and the like on syntax and grammar (TXT Speak). Hear Chomsky's views on whether this is just a natural part of the evolution of language and how it's affecting our minds.

Teachermate -Handheld Console for Educational Games

An Illinois, non-profit organisation called Innovations for Learning has released a handheld cosole, like a Game Boy or Nintendo DS designed for education and targeted at kindergarten and elementary students. Despite its simplicity and lack of software, this device has a lot of potential for English language education.

Drilling - Judicious Use of Brute Force in the ESL Classroom

Another training article. Something my trainees weren't doing very well -drilling. Not very exciting, but someone might find it useful.