The Bible...in Jamaican patois

Can you read this? It's the Bible translated into Jamaican patois (Luke 1 verses 26-28). Read about its development here (link to BBC News Magazine page).

New words, or 'buzzwords' of 2011?

Neologisms and collocations ahoy! Read Charlie Brooker's article in The Guardian where he writes about the 'buzzwords' of 2011. It makes a for nice little revision reading for AS English Language students (morphology, semantics, lexis...need I say more?)

A festive article about language change

Sandi Toksvig has written an interesting article in The Telegraph about linguistics and language change - and throws in a little festive cheer as well. Read it here.

How to...study a novel (prose fiction)

English Literature students may find the following resource helpful for exam revision when studying prose texts. The Open University has designed a very accessible online course (it's free!) called 'Approaching Prose Fiction' and is useful for understanding the demands of AO2 - structure, form and language. I would advise you to pay particular attention to the following topics:

2.3 Narrative perspective

2.4 Setting

2.5 Characterisation

2.6 Genre

2.7 Style and language

 

A nice little (English-related) stocking filler...

Season's greetings! It's not long now until the end of term, but if you're stuck for a present for a student who studies A2 English Language (or AS if you're forward-thinkers), you might want to consider buying David Crystal's new book, The Story of English in 100 Words. Described as "an eye-opening tour of the English Language through the ages from Britain's leading linguistic expert", the book aims to explore the history of the English Language in an accessible manner. This topic is particularly useful for A2 students currently studying unit 3, 'Language Diversity'.

The Daily Mail has recently written a review of Crystal's new offering, and you can read this here.


The Story of English in 100 Words is available now in all good bookshops priced £12.99.

emagazine A level English Language Conference 2012

Attention all AS and A2 English Language students! Emagazine (English and Media Centre) have just released the date for their next conference for students of English. It takes place on 6th March 2012 and as always, will be packed full of relevant and interesting seminars related to English Language. Speakers include Professor David Crystal, who will be discussing Pragmatics, and Dr Marcello Giovanelli who will be looking at 'Texts, Modes and Meanings'.

For further details, incuding the programme of events, please follow this link.
Please let your teacher know if you would be interested in attending.

In other (related news), the December issue of emagazine will be in the library - and available online - very soon.

Whose font is it, anyway?

When I decided to set up this blog, I agonised over which fonts to use for the headings, blog posts etc. No, I really did. But why? Does the type of font you use say something about you as a person - does it affect how you gauge a business' credentials? How did different fonts come into use? I am fascinated about these aspects of language. If you are too, it may be worthwhile listening to the BBC Radio 4 programme, Book of the Week, which explores the history of the font and the people responsible for them via Simon Garfield's new book Just My Type. 


You can listen to this programme - and others in the series - via BBC i-Player (follow the link above).