Whether your abbreviation of choice is ESL or EFL, here are some great blogs on teaching English to non-native speakers.

ESL Podcast Blog

TEFLtastic

ESL Trail

EFL Geek

To the right of the Visual Thesaurus display are the Meaning Lists, which list the meanings currently displayed by the Visual Thesaurus. Meanings are divided into four parts of speech: Noun, verb, adjective and adverb. Each part of speech is color-coded to match the circles representing meanings in the Visual Thesaurus display.

As you roll over meanings in the Meaning List, the circles representing those meanings in the Visual Thesaurus display area will highlight and their definition will be shown. Similarly, as you roll over circles representing meanings in the display area, the items in the Meaning List will highlight.

"Taglines" are the slogans that copywriters and marketers devise to make a brand more memorable. New contributor Sarah Williams, founder of the copywriting company Wordsmith, sheds some light on what makes a winning tagline.

Short quiz — which products match these taglines? "Don't leave home without it," "It's the Real Thing," "Think Different." (Answers at the end of the article.)  Continue reading...

Continuing our political theme this week, columnist Nancy Friedman takes a look at the buzzwords of the current campaign season. Her background in developing names and brands gives her a unique perspective into how new political coinages bubble to the surface.  Continue reading...

Our two-part interview with William Safire about the new edition of his Political Dictionary focused on the lasting contributions of political talk to the English lexicon. But sometimes the language of politics is more idiosyncratic. High-profile politicians who are speaking publicly on a daily basis inevitably develop their own verbal mannerisms, their peculiar linguistic likes and dislikes. Take New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, for instance. We've recently learned that he's a big fan of the word unconscionable, but he's got a problem with the word maintain.  Continue reading...

Regret the Error surveys notices in the press correcting journalistic slip-ups — ranging from the hilarious to the alarming.

Last week we presented the first part of our interview with New York Times columnist William Safire about the latest edition of Safire's Political Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2008), a thoroughgoing guide to the nuances of American political lingo. In part two, Safire explores how the discourse of politics has changed since the previous edition of the dictionary was published in 1993. It's a peculiar terrain full of moonbats and wingnuts, where pork-busters decry the bridge to nowhere.  Continue reading...