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The wit instinct: the role of humour in the origin of language
What do we really think about humour? A bit of silly word‑play, a welcome distraction, a linguistic oddity that entertains but doesn’t do much heavy lifting? What if its role is far more consequential—woven into the very origins of grammar, cognition & human evolution itself? A new paper by Ljiljana Progovac (Wayne State University), published…
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The rise of the synthetic interlocutor
Teachers have long relied on information gaps, mingles & role-plays to get learners talking. These activities create movement, unpredictability & the kind of communicative pressure that gap-fills can’t. Role-play in particular has become a classroom staple: Ladousse popularised the term in ELT in the 1980s (with a book which was to be found on the…
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Is ‘English’ plural?
For decades, Global Englishes (GE) have sat in an awkward corner of ELT: widely acknowledged, quietly tolerated, yet often treated as second-class compared with “proper” British or American norms. Despite millions of competent users shaping English daily, classroom models have tended to privilege a narrow slice of the language. In fact, estimates suggest that roughly…
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Lighten Up, Teach Better
The study To explore SALs, the authors used reflective duoethnography -a collaborative method where two educators examine their own lived experiences through dialogue, written reflections & audio notes. Each acts as both researcher & participant, comparing perspectives to reveal deeper insights into classroom life. It’s a way of studying teaching from the inside, with cultural…
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Getting Fuzzy With It: How Uncertainty Shapes Our Language
Teachers handle plenty of unpredictability, but I’m going to go out on a limb here & claim that very few of us have had to clear the classroom due to a nuclear incident. If we ever did, how might it colour the language we use? A new Scientific Reports study by Abdulrahman Almandeel, Congjun Rao,…
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Messy Problems, Cleaner Learning
When planning a lesson, teachers constantly face a dilemma in terms of how it should be structured & what shape it should take. Should they go more of a deductive route, or try something that’s more of a guided discovery approach. Both are valid, but in reality they still put the teacher in control –…
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