language policy
A comment on English-only
Tweet Max Markham, a recent Stanford graduate with some impressive international experience, even at his young age, has written an article which appeared on the blog policymic and presents some of the compelling arguments against having English-only legislation passed in the U.S., whether on the state or national level. It was written five months ago, and […]
Linguapax Award
Tweet Do you know there is an “International Mother Language Day?” It’s today, February 21st. It is sponsored by Linguapax, a non-governmental organization supporting linguistic diversity, in the belief that “…essential vehicles of identity and cultural expression are inseparable from the goals peace and intercultural understanding.” The Linguapax Award for 2012 is being given to: […]
Text messages and language change
Tweet Imagine what a Shakespearean era mom would think of the way we speak today. Moms from a couple of hundred years before that would have been appalled at the way Shakespeare spoke. Language is always changing, sometimes slowly, but always inexorably. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that researchers in Canada and Belgium are studying text […]
Censoring teachers’ speech
Tweet The Web of Language, Dennis Baron’s excellent blog, reports: “The Arizona State Senate is considering a proposal to fire teachers who swear. SB 1467 bans their use of any words that would violate FCC regulations against obscenity, indecency, and profanity on broadcast radio and television. A teacher would be suspended without pay after the first offence, […]
Language cartoons
Tweet Here is a link with a series of cartoons about language. Any one of them would go well on a teacher’s door……. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/clpp/images/cartoons/cartoons.html
The Web of Language blog
Tweet U. of Illinois professor Dennis Baron publishes an occasional blog called The Web of Language (http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage) which is well worth following. His latest posting (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/clpp/images/cartoons/cartoons.html) contains cartoons about various language policy issues, including one in Hungarian, and one which points out that the first publication of the Declaration of Independence was in German. He […]