For people who love languages, or would but were discouraged.

The following question was sent in to our Writing Correction section at The Linguist. The text has not yet been corrected but the meaning is clear. I have posted the two answers I provided to this learner. I welcome any comments. Dear tutor, 1. I ...

Modern technology may finally bring about a democratic revolution in education. I was reading a discussion on ESL the other day on another website. Some teachers were talking about all the "interesting" things they had their students do. One teach...

Improve Your English Skills by Writing, (Part 4) from The Linguist Library. A podcast of this content will follow in a few days. Organizing Your Ideas Most of you will not write a book, but you may have to write letters, emails or reports. Many of...

There is no question that learning to speak another language well takes a lot of work. It mostly takes a lot of listening and reading. It is a lonely road. The opportunities to speak the language are the exciting parts. They are the battles where ...

Last night I attended a dinner where the President of the Canadian subsidiary of a major Japanese trading company made a speech. To say that the speech was not a success would be kind.I know that it is unlikely that many Canadians could do any bet...

The issue of credentials in language teaching and language skills is one that I find a bit of a conundrum. Just as a high TOEFL score is not a reliable indication of what a person can do in English, a TESOL degree does not equate to a good teacher...

When I see people who feel they have to learn a language, for work or for a test, somehow they have trouble. They run into a wall. They stagnate. They just seem unable to achieve the kind of fluency they need. When I see people who enjoy the langu...

The following is a little long but interesting. It is an exchange from antimoon. Mitch said Thanks for your summary on Kato Lomb and the link with more information about her. From the article, it looks as if she did not refer to grammar books, or ...

At a recent panel discussion on local Mandarin TV I made the point (once again) that language is key to work place success for immigrants. Lawrence Wang, immigrant lawyer felt that this was an unrealistic expectation. He felt that the mainstream e...