By Elizabeth Redden. A University of Kansas professor says he was suspended from teaching a course after he told a student to “learn English,” the Lawrence Journal-World reported. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Diagramming sentences
Mark Liberman, Language Log, April 14, 2013
The problem with sentences like "Man arrested with fake CIA badge" is that it suggests the fake CIA badge was used to make the arrest. Obviously there's a problem of ambiguity here, which is corrected with proper grammar. But how do we represent, and subsequently teach, the correct grammar? For decades, the Reed-Kellogg system has been used in schools; it diagrams the same basic sentence elements that might be found in, say, phrase structure rules. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 7 'Bad Language' Habits in Learning
The language we use in education has a large influence on how we view learning, and much of it comes from an industrial perspective, says Donald Clark. His view on assessment, for instance - "Language of assessment is the language of fear and failure. We sit exams and tests. We pass or fail. It's a red pen culture, where failure is failure, not an opportunity to try again, overcome and succeed. It's the finality of failure - no second chances that make it all so depressing." This is definitely the wrong perspective for someone starting a new job or a business. More...