词汇大师--How a Conversation Can Really Become...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: When two people click, that means they really understand each other. Well, that metaphorical clicking could be the sound of what researchers call speaker-listener neural coupling.

词汇大师--Taking the Frustration Out of Phrasal Verbs

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. The first word is a verb. The second word, sometimes even a third, is usually a preposition. Ph

词汇大师--'Don't Let Somebody Else's Words

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We're back with management expert Kathleen Kelley Reardon, talking about her new book, Comebacks at Work: Using Conversation to Master Confrontation. RS: She says dealing with dif

词汇大师--Seriously: 'OK' Began as a Joke

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: We talk with Allan Metcalf, author of the new book OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word. RS: And not just the greatest word, in his view. ALLAN METCALF: America's m

词汇大师--What Is Your Conversational Style

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: What students coming to study in the U.S. can do to avoid culture shock in the classroom. RS: We asked Susan Iannuzzi. She's an international consultant in English language teachi

词汇大师--How to Avoid Being Seduced by Words

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Our guest is the author of a book called On Words: Insight Into How Our Words Work -- and Don't. RS: Paula LaRocque has worked for many years as a writing instructor and newspaper

词汇大师-- Five New Year's Resolutions for Learners

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--Some Online Words to Help Remember a Year

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

词汇大师--Now We're Past the, Uh, First Decade

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

词汇大师--Have the Rules of English Changed

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

词汇大师-- Our Brains Don't Always Know

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

词汇大师-- Communicating by Hand

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 sometime

词汇大师-- Exploring 'Myths and Misconceptions'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we're back with Pat O'Conner, co-author of the new book Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language. RS: For instance, consider English's lack of --

词汇大师-- Some Terms That Have Outlived Their Roots

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is author Ralph Keyes (kize). His newest book about language has a mouthful of a title. RS: It's called I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Dr

词汇大师-- You Do Not Have to Watch 'Star Trek'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we talk about invented languages. RS: These are the subject of a new book by linguist Arika Okrent. ARIKA OKRENT: For most of the history of invented languages, they've been tryin

词汇大师-- English Teacher in Cameroon

AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: another conversation from last month's international convention in Denver, Colorado, for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. MARTINA MBAYU NANA: I am Martina Mbayu Nana. I teach English

词汇大师-- US Hospitals, Courts

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER: we look at the growing need for interpreters in American hospitals and courts ... RS: And how technology is addressing shortages. AA: We start with health care. Faith Lapidus has o

词汇大师-- New Book Looks at Influence of Servants

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Finding inspiration in the words of those around us. RS: The American poet Emily Dickinson wrote the lines I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you -- Nobody -- too? Then there's a pair o

词汇大师--If All Else Fails at a Party

A: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: If mixing with people at parties leaves you at a loss for words, writer Jeanne Martinet offers some help in an updated edition of her popular book The Art of Mingling. RS: Give us

词汇大师--Getting Relaxed With Reduced Forms in Speech

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: reduced forms in spoken American English. RS: We're talking about forms like whaddaya -- meaning what do you, as in whaddaya say? Whaddaya Say? is also the title of a popular teac