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Some words whose meanings have changed without controversy

Given the amount of change that some of our dearest and commonest words have gone through, there is absolutely no reason to say that a new meaning is wrong simply because it is not the original. And if you do insist on saying that it is, you should kn…

[ More ] January 29th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

Show some evidence!

If you think language mavens are bad, try etiquette mavens.

[ More ] January 26th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |
 

I come to praise potential ambiguity, not to bury it

Summary: Pick your battles against ambiguity. Where ambiguity is truly detrimental, put forth the effort to clarify, to root out plausible ambiguities and remove them. Where ambiguity is tolerable, it can be better to leave it in to keep from exhaust…

[ More ] January 22nd, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

Ten Things I Think I Know (Part 1)

I think I might annoy some people with this blogpost, so to get myself psyched up for it – I’ve imagined that I’m being interviewed by the BBC’s arch-interrogator, Jeremy Paxman.

Jeremy Paxman interviews Michael Howard. “Did you t…

[ More ] January 18th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

Coming soon – ten things (I think) I know about teaching…

If there was a support group called CBWA (Course Book Writers Anonymous), I would stand up and introduce myself as follows:
“My name is Ken Wilson and I’m a course book writer. I’m a native speaker, I was a full-time English teacher for about t…

[ More ] January 12th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

In a moment, for a moment

Summary: Momentarily can mean either “for a moment” or “in a moment”. Both meanings are over 140 years old, and both date back to before the word momentarily was common. Allowing for both meanings doesn’t introduce …

[ More ] January 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

Questioning, one of those project management skills that needs to be well honed.

I was facilitating a workshop with a project team and realised that something was wrong!
Symptom: the 5 people in the project team were talking differently about the project
Analysis: I gave each person a piece of flip chart paper and asked them to wri…

[ More ] January 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Professional, Project Management |

Pronouncing 2010

Does it matter how you pronounce 2010?

[ More ] January 4th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

How was it for you? A look back at the Noughties – Part 1

My stand-out memories of the early Noughties …
2000 – My first trip to China
As the Noughties dawned, I was in the middle of a stream of author visits, which had reached a peak about two years before and was showing no sign of slowing down….

[ More ] January 3rd, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |

What’s wrong with “hopefully”?

There’s no need to fear hopefully. Sentential adverbs are a part of life, and so are words with shifted meanings.

[ More ] January 2nd, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Education, Language, Learning English |