In case you wonder why some posts are password protected, and others appear only to disappear again after a couple of days: Don’t worry! Our blog is currently ‘work-in-progress’. The MA students are busy writing their posts, providing each other feedback, waiting for comments from the test readers (pupils from...
You might have already experienced some awkward or funny misunderstandings when speaking English or another foreign language with native speakers. Misunderstandings or pragmatic failure in a foreign language between members of different cultural backgrounds and languages are very frequent. They occur when people greet each other, when they apologize...
You are an explorer and you have a curious mind. You might have seen many different places in this world. But there is this one really special place, you just have to go back to almost every day: your classroom. A lot of the things you know, you got from...
A brief overview of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) using the example of the third debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the Presidential Election 2016 at the University of Nevada, 19th October. Do you ever wonder what it takes to become the President of the United States? Apparently not much...
At some point when I, Yurana, was 17 years old I was sitting in a police station, giving my statement about an attack I had witnessed to a police officer. While I was telling my story the officer kept interrupting me, asking more and more questions. Then he would write...
Does language really matter? Definitely, yes! Especially in the area of Forensic Linguistics (FL), language is the key element. But what is Forensic Linguistics and what is its purpose? Is it only about language and the law or is it connected to other fields of practice?...
Have you ever wondered whether you will really be able to communicate fluently in English after school? Do you think your English teacher is doing a good job? Have you been abroad and were you able to communicate well in English? Do you sometimes have the feeling that English lessons...
#Followme, OMG!, plz retweet!, Tnx, XO. Do you use these language terms chatting online as well? Social networking has become an essential part of our everyday communication. There are many different social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Snapchat. In our blog, we would like to focus on Instagram communication. Instagram,...
…how to cook your favourite meal, what the name of your best friend is, or what bus you have to take to get home. In our everyday lives, we take memory and language for granted. Our everyday communication has become highly automatised and also routinised. We can think about our...
A life without speech? When I was a teenager I heard the story of a close friend of mine, whose uncle had lost the ability to speak after he had a stroke. Uncle Peter used to be a very funny and talkative guy until the day the stroke occurred. From...
