The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a surge in the usage of certain words and word collocations. The language of the Coronavirus outbreak includes phrases such as the ‘fight against’ Covid, the ‘spread’ of the virus, the ‘outbreak’ of Coronavirus and the ‘response to’ the virus. We’ve heard about the ‘pandemic’, the ‘crisis’, the ‘lockdown’, ‘panic buying’ at the supermarkets and the lack of ‘PPE’ in hospitals. Continue reading
The first pop-up language museum opens its doors this week in an attempt to spark greater enthusiasm for foreign language study. Pop-Up World of Languages is a project of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, spearheaded by Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett from Cambridge University and other linguists from Nottingham, Edinburgh and Belfast. Professor Ayres-Bennet hopes the language museum will help to ignite the interest of young learners and highlight the importance of learning foreign languages in schools. Continue reading
The FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 is in full swing! The competition runs from 7th June until 7th July and the games will be played in nine venues across France with 24 teams competing for the chance to lift the trophy. Join us for an exploration of the competition, the venues and the teams as we create all the ingredients for a Women’s World Cup France 2019 EFL lesson! Continue reading
The Yorkshire Historical Dictionary has recently been published online by the University of York. The dictionary collects together more than 4,000 Yorkshire terms and is the life-long work of historian Dr George Redmonds, who died aged 82 in August 2018. The Yorkshire dialect dictionary is a fascinating insight into not only the changing vocabulary but also the culture, history and people of the region. Continue reading
Animal rights charity PETA has suggested that many current English idioms carry negative associations with animal abuse and that we should change their wording to reflect awareness of animal rights. The altered animal idioms would retain the original meaning, while shedding the abusive imagery. As vegetarianism and veganism become more popular and awareness of animal rights grows, should our language change to keep up with society’s shifting attitudes? And is this a positive progression – or political correctness gone mad?
Communication is essential in daily life, yet when we travel, communication becomes more difficult due to language barriers. When tourists travel to a new country, there is a high chance of miscommunication between the newcomers and the locals. By using hand signals and some basic tourist vocabulary, there will usually be a reasonable understanding on both sides. However, when trying to understand more complex information, translations become necessary. This is especially true in the travel and tourism industry, where good translation can aid authentic communication and create a positive customer experience. Continue reading
The language of denial is complex and varied. English has many words that express a similar sentiment. The verbs ‘to deny’, ‘to decline’, ‘to reject’ and ‘to refuse’ have similar meanings but often distinct uses. You can deny an allegation, decline an invitation, refuse a chair, reject a lover, object to a statement and refute a claim. Read on to learn about these words of denial and their common collocations. Plus, we explore the confusing language used in the current Ford vs Kavanaugh case, the ambiguity of legal terms and how language can manipulate or mislead the listener.
Get ready to trumpet! World Elephant Day falls on August 12th every year and to coincide with this special event, we’ve been examining the fascinating language of elephants. Read on for an exploration of elephant language, how to read the signs of elephant body language and vocalisations and how far these intelligent animals can understand human language. Continue reading
The word ‘spelunking’ has been in the news a lot recently due to the extraordinary rescue of the Thai boys and their football coach who were trapped in a flooded cave. While the boys and their coach are now safely back home, the interesting word ‘spelunking’ has stayed in the minds of many language learners, so we have decided to bring this strange word under the language microscope for our latest blog post. Grab your headlamp and read on to explore the meanings and differences between the words spelunking, potholing, caving and speleology. Continue reading
It’s World Emoji Day on 17th July! Although smiley faces are common features of text messages and Twitter exchanges, over a third of adults believe that emojis are ruining the English language. New research suggests that emojis could be responsible for the deterioration of English and presumably of other languages, as people turn to pictures instead of words. But is the English language really in decline – and are emojis to blame? Continue reading