Monthly Archives: September 2022

1. The novelist Hilary Mantel died last week. The London Review of Books have for the time being removed the paywall from the articles she wrote for them over the years https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/hilary-mantel This one, Royal Bodies, in which she refers … Continue reading →

1. There’s an Uzbek focus to many of the articles in the most recent issue of HLT (Humanising Language Teaching) https://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug22/ Try Principles of Teaching Karakalpak Students English Speech Etiquette by Zoya Sarsenbaeva and Zernegul Uteshova, which seems to me … Continue reading →

1. This year’s Einar Haugen Lecture at Oslo University will be given by Marianne Gullberg from Lund University and is entitled More than just hand-waving: Gestures and meaning in multilingual language use. More info and Zoom link here https://www.hf.uio.no/multiling/english/news-and-events/events/guest-lectures-seminars/einar-haugen-lecture/2022/Einar%20Haugen%20Lecture%202022%20marianne-gullberg.html “Multilingual … Continue reading →

1. The Council of Europe formally adopted a Recommendation earlier this year on the importance of plurilingual and intercultural education for democratic culture https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=0900001680a563ca This coming Friday, 23rd September, in a webinar for the ECML, David Little will be analysing … Continue reading →

1. A good ‘long read’ from The Guardian by Aida Edemariam, initially inspiring but ultimately depressing, ‘Parents are frightened for themselves and for their children’: an inspirational school in impossible times https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/06/parents-are-frightened-inspirational-primary-school-impossible-times “Children will do anything for a sticker” – … Continue reading →

1. Two pieces of the many written about Queen Elizabeth II since her death last Thursday: one you might not have been expecting, from Jeanette Winterson, ‘She has been the one and only stable female in my life’ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/11/jeanette-winterson-on-mourning-the-queen and … Continue reading →

1. Two from the ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz: a poll, Why learn a language?, which asks for your top three reasons for doing sohttps://edl.ecml.at/Activities/Poll/tabid/3229/Default.aspx and a (fun but quite challenging!) game based on pictures with language … Continue reading →

1. Two short, different introductions by David Bellos of Princeton University to his book, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: an animation from Penguin Books https://youtu.be/GyTYbHMdvE0 and a talking head one from Big Think https://bigthink.com/videos/linguistic-diversity-is-language-2/ Bellos has made a … Continue reading →

1. Here’s two ways of saying the same thing about How Living Abroad Helps You Develop a Clearer Sense of Self: one a Harvard Business Review article https://hbr.org/2018/05/how-living-abroad-helps-you-develop-a-clearer-sense-of-self and the other a favourite Philip Larkin poem of mine that many … Continue reading →