In South Africa, most children are required to learn a second language (called the First Additional Language – FAL) at Foundation Phase level (Grades 1-3). For the vast majority of non-English HL speakers in our…
Tagged By dictionaries
How dictionaries can support home learning during the COVID-19 pandemic
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis, an economic crisis, and also a crisis for children’s education,” say the authors of a recent article titled “COVID-19 and Children’s Education”1. The education crisis is widespread: According…
Are they still making them? Dictionaries in a digital world
When I say I make dictionaries for Oxford University Press, people used to say, “Remind me not to play scrabble against you!” Now they say, “Are you still making dictionaries? I just use Google.” It’s…
Môre! Hoe gaan dit?
When you’re learning a language, you may feel reluctant to try out the new vocabulary and grammar by speaking. Perhaps you’re afraid of pronouncing a word wrongly and feeling silly. Children learning languages at school…
Subject versus general dictionaries – is it an either/or
So you’ve bought your child age-appropriate dictionaries at various stages of his school career, supported his additional-language acquisition with bilingual dictionaries (as opposed to monolinguals), and even invested in a thesaurus. Your child writes beautiful…
The real value of dictionaries
“Of all the knowledge and skills which a language learner must master, the most important element, and the one involving the heaviest learning load, is an adequate working vocabulary.” – Foreword to the Oxford Advanced…
Launching Oxford Global Languages: “living dictionaries” for isiZulu and Northern Sotho are born
Two African languages, isiZulu and Northern Sotho, became the first to take part in a global language initiative at a launch event at the 2015 Reading Association of South Africa (RASA) and Pan-African Literacy for…
Sindiwe Magona on the Power of Words
Sindiwe Magona understands the power of words. As a writer, as a teacher, as a motivational speaker and as an activist – she has used words and her ability with them to make her mark…