词汇大师-- How a Child's Ability

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: age and the economics of learning English. RS: Our guest is Hoyt Bleakley, an economist at the University of Chicago. He and Aimee Chin at the University of Houston have studied t

词汇大师-- In Choice of Immigration Terms

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: what to call people who are in the United States without following immigration laws. RS: Sometimes they are called undocumented immigrants or undocumented workers or illegal alien

词汇大师-- 'For Good' or Offered 'On a Plate'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some listener questions. RS: Starting with this one from Rajpal Rawal in India, who sends us two sentences with questions about pronunciation -- more specifically, about

词汇大师-- Listening to the Sound of Words

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: sensing the meaning of words from their sound. A study in next week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the connection. RS: Researchers studied

词汇大师-- Learning English by Listening

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about authentic listening materials. RS: It's the subject of her latest textbook, called Real Talk 1. LIDA BAKER: One of t

词汇大师-- Understanding the Reasons for Grammar

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: going beyond the rules of grammar. RS: Diane Larsen-Freeman is director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. She believes grammar is better understood

词汇大师-- Getting Into the Writing Game

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: advice from a writing coach. RS: Jack Hart is a managing editor at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. We talked to him last year about the classic writing guide by William Strun

词汇大师-- 'Islamofascism'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: extremism by any other name. RS: The term Islamofascism, or Islamic fascists, has prompted some debate. We were curious how the term fascism originated and how political scientist

词汇大师-- Using Language Technology

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: an electronic tutoring system that helps non-native speakers of American English learn to pronounce words with a native accent. RS: The product is called NativeAccent. It's sold b

词汇大师-- 'National Punctuation Day'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the founder of National Punctuation Day. RS: Sunday was the day for a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ev

词汇大师-- Forget 'Chicken' and 'Egg,

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker explains the use of the words after and before. LIDA BAKER: I'm going to say a few sentences and I just want you to tell me two things: Is the sentence

词汇大师-- Lost for Words?

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place. RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches m

词汇大师-- Tribes in California

More than half of the over one hundred native California tongues have disappeared. Many others have only a few, aging speakers. When this last fluent generation dies, languages spoken by Californians over centuries, will also die. At a recent gatheri

词汇大师-- Concise and Precise

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: some advice about writing. RS: For the past 18 years, Jim Allan has run a secretarial center in Los Angeles. He offers typing -- and a lot more. He draws on his background as a co

词汇大师--'Talk to the Hand

I'm Nancy Beardsley, filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we'll talk about bad manners-and how they're reflected in what people are saying and not saying to one another these days. Our guest is British writer Lynne

词汇大师--F-u-n With Broadway's

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a track from the original Broadway cast recording of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. RS: The show is a musical satire of spelling competitions and the pressure to go t

词汇大师--Acting Like an Actor

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: acting like an actor to improve your memory. RS: Our guest is Tony Noice, an actor, director, teacher and cognitive researcher - someone who studies how we think. He and his psych

词汇大师--An English Learner

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some listener mail. RS: Faisal in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is stuck in traffic -- traffic terminology, that is. Faisal is taking an English course. It seems that one day, many

词汇大师--When There Is Bad News

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: giving doctors better skills to communicate bad news. RS: Anthony Back [pronounced like Bach] is a medical oncologist at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cance

词汇大师--Self-Instruction

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