AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER: baby talk. (MOVIE SOUND) The movie Babies is now showing in theaters in the United States. It's a documentary that follows four infants through their first year. Two of the famili...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Pronouns and why they're harder for your brain to understand than you might think. Pronouns are words like he, she, it, we, you, they and lots more. RS: They act as shortcuts so w...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Helping young people learn to talk, and think, about science. RS: Catherine Snow is an education professor at Harvard University and also works with a group called the Strategic E...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: Another voice from the recent Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention in Boston. Patricia Kelvin has a doctorate in the teaching of writing. She was an award-winning editorial wri...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: we meet a newly trained English language teacher from Los Angeles. Curt Burich [BYUR-ick] was at the recent Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention in Boston to interview for jobs...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: we meet two English teachers from Haiti. But first, an update on how schools are trying to reopen following the earthquake in January. VOA's Jeff Swicord was there as some students returned to classes...
AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: a psychologist says well-being is related to having less small talk and more substantive conversations. RS: Matthias Mehl of the University of Arizona led a study in which 79 under...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: English teacher Nina Weinstein explains some common idioms in American English. She likes teaching idioms in categories to help her students remember them. NINA WEINSTEIN: Often w...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: The Olympic flame may be out in Vancouver, but we're just getting fired up over terms related to fire. RS: We lit on the idea after our friend and fellow master of words Grant Bar...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: With Valentine's Day coming up this Sunday, we have a subject to set the mood. It's an interview we did a few years ago with the author of The Joy of Text. RS: Kristina Grish base...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We continue our conversation with Rutgers University English professor Jack Lynch. RS: His latest book is The Lexicographer's Dilemma. In it he challenges the idea of treating dic...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Our guest is English professor Jack Lynch, author of the new book The Lexicographer's Dilemma. RS: Why did you write this book? JACK LYNCH: Well, because I have a number of guides...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We're back with Ben Zimmer from the American Dialect Society. RS: We talked last week about the society's choice for 2009's Word of the Year -- the Twitter-inspired Tweet -- and W...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some words to help us remember 2009. RS: The American Dialect Society, a small scholarly group, just chose its Word of the Year as well as a Word of the Decade. Wordsmith Ben Zimm...
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker suggests five resolutions for people who want to improve their English in the New Year. LIDA BAKER: My first resolution that I would recommend people ma...