词汇大师-- Meeting Some People

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: epic eponyms. RS: An eponym, as dictionaries tell us, is a real or mythical person for whom something is or is believed to be named. For example, George Washington is the eponym o

词汇大师-- What Is the Story of Your Life

Welcome to WORDMASTER. I'm Adam Phillips, sitting in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. See if you can identify what these three sentences have in common: Found true love. Married someone else. Young, skinny: ridiculed. Old, skinny: envied. And one

词汇大师-- How to Reduce an Accent?

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we answer a listener in the Philippines named Arnel Camba. ARNEL CAMBA: I am an online English teacher and I just want to know what are the different techniques or different strat

词汇大师-- Trying to Get a Grip on Gestures?

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: the language of non-verbal communication. Two writers, Melissa Wagner and Nancy Armstrong, have put together a book of one hundred eight gestures and their various, and sometimes

词汇大师-- Looking Between the Covers for a Lesson

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: getting the most out of textbooks for English learners. Maria Spelleri, who teaches English for academic purposes, goes so far as to talk about getting intimate with a textbook. M

词汇大师-- Between Hello and Goodbye

MUSIC: Hanging on the Telephone/Blondie AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some tips on telephone etiquette. RS: One person you don't want to leave hanging on the phone is Nancy Friedman. She's been traveling the c

词汇大师-- An Earl and a Whirl

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more from our interview with Philip Dodd, author of the new book The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordin

词汇大师-- Five New Year's Resolutions

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

词汇大师-- Words of 2007

ADAM PHILLIPS: Welcome to Wordmaster. I'm Adam Phillips sitting in for Avi Arditti and Roseanne Skirble. Today we look at some of the interesting English words that popped up in 2007. My guest today is author, editor and public radio host Grant Barre

词汇大师-- A Fast Way to Make Yourself

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: More advice about giving oral presentations. Last week English teacher Nina Weinstein talked about ways to get mentally prepared. The most important part of any speech is you, Nin

词汇大师-- Take a Deep Breath

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: English teacher Nina Weinstein joins us from Los Angeles for an oral presentation about oral presentations. NINA WEINSTEIN: You know, some people will tell you, well, don't be ner

词汇大师-- Talking Dictionaries on Web

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we answer some questions from listeners. RS: Asad in Bangladesh and Emmanuel in Ghana ask somewhat related questions. Asad would like advice about a dictionary or a Web site to co

词汇大师-- Meet a Labor Lawyer

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is Tom Dalzell, senior editor of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English -- and, now, the Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconven

词汇大师-- Annotation and Other Tips

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we talk more with English teacher Maria Spelleri about how to get the most out of college textbooks for English language learners. RS: Should the student be looking up every word

词汇大师-- Handling Sensitive Topics in the Classroom

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: how should a teacher handle controversial topics in the classroom? Rutgers University professor Barbara Lee gets asked that question all the time, as she recently did through an o

词汇大师-- When It Comes to Gesturing

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more of our discussion of gesture language. RS: We don't mean formal sign language taught to deaf people, but the way we use our hands either with spoken language or in place of i

词汇大师-- Where Spoken Languages Divide

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: word order and the mind. A new study suggests that people naturally gesture in the order of subject-object-verb, regardless of the rules of their spoken language. Susan Goldin-Mea

词汇大师-- To Master Rhythms of English

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: expanding on reductions. When speakers compress a phrase like going to into gonna, or what do you into whaddaya, that's a reduction. We mentioned their importance when we talked l

词汇大师-- Talking in Rhythm

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is linguist Herb Stahlke to talk about rhythm in English speech. HERB STAHLKE: Learners of English really have to master the rhythms of English early, and the teaching has to be aimed at rhyt

词汇大师-- Think People Always Know

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: what do you call it when someone says one thing but means the opposite, trying to be funny or biting? RS: Are you being sarcastic? AA: Yes -- well, actually, no. I wasn't being sa