English Language FAQ

In linguistics very long words sometimes describe straightforward ideas. Listen to this short description of two key words: descriptivist and prescriptivist. listen to ‘What do linguists mean by descriptivist and prescriptivist?’ on Audioboo Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics & Grammar The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (Oxford Paperback Reference) Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies E.S.L - English As A Second Language

Before You Read  Which language has the most a) native or first language speakers? b) second language speakers? The English Language from ESL Reading Listening: English - the easy language?

According to new research, the English language has doubled in size over the last century . It continues to grow ' by 8,500 words a year' and now stands at 1,022,000 words .'  And the speed of this growth is accelerating :  The language has grown by more than 70 per cent since 1950 .... The previous half century it only grew by 10 per cent ...     source Are all these new words in the dictionary ? English does not have an equivalent version of the Académie française. The only official recognition comes with an entry in the  Oxford English Dictionary  (OED). Interestingly much of this new vocabulary has not been formally recognised. Nearly half of the new words are not included in any dictionary and are dubbed lexical "dark matter". They are either slang or invented jargon.       Why does the OED restrict the words it includes? Because there are so many words in English! The OED is already more than three times bigger than the equivalent dicti

The definition of metanarrative is earnestly debated in faculty lounges and hipster coffee-bars. Here is one attempt: a narrative  about  narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet unrealised) master idea.    J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds.,  The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism  (1995) p. 186 What does this mean in comprehensible English?  I can make no sense of 'narratives of historic meaning' but the meta here seems to be defined as 'wider' or 'overarching'.  So for a Marxist the story of the Russian Revolution forms part of the wider metanarrative of the (supposed) history of class struggle. Terms like  metanarrative  have emerged from the influence of post-modernism on leading universities in the West.  Matt Labash  is one of many to question whether this influence has been entirely beneficial. What is a meme? What does m

Thanks to Ms Langley's Year 11 English class for this Wordle The prefix meta - as in metalanguage, metanarrative etc - is very difficult to pin down. In broad terms meta means 'about itself' - so metalanguage is the language of language. For example a language teacher might use metalanguage like  lexicon or  past perfect in a lesson plan. This is reasonably comprehensible, though some might argue that a less fancy-pants alternative would be technical-terms or even jargon. It could also be argued that unlike other words with the meta prefix (see metatnarrative)  metalanguage has at least the advantage of precision e.g. teachers should avoid using complex metalanguage in the classroom. And it can be useful for teaching identifying the concepts that underpin language learning. What is a meme? What is a metanarrative? Mrs Langley's English Class Wiki

Anyone attending an afternoon showing of a family film will observe that the big screen is not the only one glowing in the cinema. Now it appears that an increasing number of US theatres are running up the white flag to those desperate for their phone fix: An American theatre is the latest to offer so-called 'Tweet seats' where audience members are encouraged to post comments about the performance on the social messaging site.   The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has formalised a growing trend in theatre audiences to use their phones from within auditoria by giving obsessive tweeters a section of their own.   Its management have roped off a special balcony-level section of the theatre 'that will not be disruptive to other patrons.... Read more :