Last modified 11 Oct 2002
1. Recommended reading 2. Some on-line teaching (and other) resources
3. Facts about language 4. Facts about English 5. Facts about other languages
An annotated list of highly recommended popular books.
A review of what the research literature says about the effects of formal grammar teaching on children's writing.
A free on-line grammar of English, with exercises
This is written for undergraduates but should be useful for teachers who want a solid foundation in grammar. It takes a reasonable stand between traditional grammar and modern research-based grammar. The grammar is also available for about 25 pounds on CD.
A web-site which allows you to search vast collections of English texts
This site allows English Corpora to be searched on-line; it also provides much general information about, and a tutorial on, Corpus Linguistics.
Fun with grammar (especially for schools)
A lovely site built by Sue Palmer. Look out for Vera the hyperactive Verb who finds peace at last by learning to just BE!
A site full of brain-teasers in analytical linguistics for older students (secondary or university) which are set as a competition to find the Young Linguist of the Year. The competition started in Russia but has now been adopted by linguists in the USA.
Why do foreign speakers have trouble pronouncing certain sounds?
Are some sounds harder to pronounce than others?
What about artificial languages like Esperanto?
What is known about prehistoric languages?
How are present-day languages related?
Why do Hebrew and Yiddish (etc) look alike if they are not related?
How do linguists decide that languages are related?
What is a dialect? How are dialects and languages related?
Which languages are the hardest to learn?
Does your language affect the way you think?
Are all languages equally complex or are some more primitive than others?
Miscellaneous myths about language origins and differences
4. Facts about English
What is Noam Chomsky's theory of Transformational Grammar all about?