Daily Archives: May 16, 2013

Buzzwords

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Update 2024

In the meantime, Kerry Maxwell has moved to onestopenglish. The link below leads to her Buzzwords  book which only goes to 2012. I still believe the concept of buzzwords to be a great point for discussion. Buzzwords can be replaced by Words of the Year (see regular posts at the beginnings of years).

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(old version)

One of my favorite webpages, and one I can strongly recommend to teachers and students of English alike is www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword, and here especially Kerry Maxwells collection of ‘BUZZWORDS’.

Buzzwords are newly formed or created terms that reflect upon different kinds of social phenomena or new fads and are great for discussion. Additionally, from a language perspective, they offer insight into word formation processes. On the webpage is a whole list of new words and an archive going back several years.

Every once in a while I choose some I find interesting and believe (or hope) will trigger intensive discussions. And so far I have not been disappointed.  Continue reading →

Grammar as Fact or Grammar as Choice

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The above distinction was originally made by Richard A. Close in ‘A Teacher’s Grammar’ (1992). He had already formulated his ideas 30 years before, but published a revised version in the early 90ies. I believe the distinction to be quite valuable, even if not always clear-cut.

Grammar as fact concerns such aspects of the language that are non-negotiable if I want to be able to communicate with the majority of speakers of the language. Facts of grammar describe the essential regularities or rules of a language that define it and organize its meaning. Continue reading →