Learning a language in a classroom is best for early teenagers.
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The classroom setting is better for early teenagers, while self-guided language learning is better for adults.
Children at school in Mali, which is among the countries that’s prioritised mother tongue education.
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Over the years, our understanding of how language and learning are linked has shifted and changed. There is ample evidence about the value of mother-tongue-based multilingual education.
Children around the world are susceptible to stereotypes.
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For young children, how we speak is often more important than what we say. Even ‘positive’ generalizations can lead children to adopt negative stereotypes.
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There are a range of linguistic strategies to build rapport with customers, but using their name is always the fall-back – with detrimental results.
The Polari bible.
Joe Richardson
While few people use the language today, many cherish its history.
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The best way to sell someone a service or product is by speaking their language.
Studies show swearing might be big and clever after all.
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Swearing has often been associated with a lack of intelligence, but studies show that it could be a cleverer use of language than we thought.
Lambros Kazan
Language is not fixed and meaning is what people make it.
What is it that gives us a voice?
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We humans are capable of vocalising many different words in a range of languages. But what is it that gives us a remakable and variable voice?
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Tolkien and Zamenhof are two of imaginary languages’ most successful proponents – yet their aims were very different.
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The nativity offers an enticing opportunity to discover how words and interpretations have shaped the story and our understanding of it.
Are contemporary insults as witty as the scorn of the past?
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Scorn has a long and humorous history. But a new book on the subject, featuring quotes from Kanye West, Christopher Hitchens and of course, Donald Trump, rather lacks contemporary wit.
So much to say, but who’s paying attention?
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We seem prepared to share our opinions on almost any subject today thanks to social media and other mass communication. But who is really listening?
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Most healthcare information is written at a level more advanced than the reader’s ability.
Struggling to understand? Most know the feeling.
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For subjects mired in jargon and technical words, what role does language play in breaking down obstacles to communication and understanding.
Exposing babies to multiple languages can help them detect differences in musical sounds from an early age.
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For bilingual children, the constant switching between languages is like a frequent exercise for the ears and the brain.
How many colors in your language’s rainbow?
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New research investigates how people sequentially add new color terms to languages over time – and the results hold surprises about assumptions linguists have made for 40 years.
Imagine, if you will…
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Why is figurative language more powerful – and what feelings exactly does it stir in an audience?
The Australian National Dictionary is charting our rapidly evolving language.
Australian National Dictionary
Our communications revolution is changing the way we write and speak, and ‘Slanglish’ has never had it so good.
A few of those sayings that most people tend to get wrong.