Language

Time is running out for the kids in Melanie Gathers' English 3 class. The Dr. Phillips High students grew up speaking Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, Portuguese and Arabic. And they have only one year left to demonstrate mastery on tests given entirely...

I saw a remark the other day that the folks at Language Log are given to peeving about peevers, and it occurred to me afresh how much misunderstanding remains among evidently educated people about what linguists are up to when they expose bogus...

Being called to a congressional hearing can be an intimidating experience for national leaders, business executives and even elected officials. But Gorman Crossing Elementary School fifth-grader Tobi Arewa is getting used to it. "At first when I am...

Arlington Heights School District 25 is expected to offer elementary school students a weekly foreign language class for parents willing to pay to get more language instruction for their kids. Details of the new fee-based program, which is planned to...

When I got my reviewer's copy of Bill Walsh's new book, Yes I Could Care Less: How to Be a Language Snob Without Being a Jerk (St. Martin's Griffin, 256 pages, $14.99), the book fell open to this passage: "You're free to talk back to your usage guides....

Michigan's high school graduation requirements could soon change. According to Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District superintendent Rick Diebold, when he counted at the end of last week, there had been nine bills introduced to modify the...

There's that John Cage quote people trot out when you call a piece of art boring — “In Zen they say: If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one...

Archie Thompson, the oldest living member of California's Yurok tribe and the last known active speaker raised in the tribal language, has died. He was 93. Thompson died March 26 at a Crescent City, Calif., hospital after an apparent stroke, according...

Ayako Shiga knows how difficult it can be to learn a foreign language. When she was growing up in Tokyo, she failed her first semester of English in middle school. During a break that semester, she went to visit her father in Australia and couldn’...

The Business and Professional Women of Maryland's annual conference is May 17 and 18 at the Holiday Inn Laurel-West, 15101 Sweitzer Lane. The theme of the conference is "The Power of YOU - Equality, Advocacy, Development!" Several conference events...

Ayako Shiga, the Japanese language teacher at Boonsboro High School, was named Washington County Public Schools’ 2013-14 Teacher of the Year on Wednesday night. “I truly feel honored to accept this award on behalf of all the teachers —...