Lexical Leo (aka Leo Selivan)

How many of my colleagues are in the final throes of submitting their #IATEFL proposals?
I do wonder if they keep stats on how many submissions come in on the last day and, more specifically, in those frantic last couple of hours before the deadline!

These are great, but really really hard without a bank of headwords ('nodes'). In one of the sets I only got one right.

I’d also add the unpredictable sound patterns / stress, which can be a nightmare for speakers of syllable-timed languages like Italian or Spanish.

Just to add to Shonel's comment - true about 2, though many other languages also have lots of irregular forms (like gendered articles). As for 3, absolutely: English is full of polysemous (multi meaning) words and combining them can create completely new meanings (e.g. take + place = take place ?).

OpenAI claims new GPT-5 model boosts ChatGPT to ‘PhD level’ GPT-5's release comes as tech firms continue to compete in an effort to claim the world's most advanced AI.

"PhD level" - what does it even mean?
bbc.com/news/article...

Some other (misrepresented) grammar points that we need to talk about - hopefully next year @brunoleys.bsky.social at #IATEFL2025
P.S. If you're wondering about the title, it's a line from a poem by A. Marvell

I think I may have mistagged the speaker @brunoleys.bsky.social

Frequency of the present cont./progressive in the corpus, which often run counter to the way it's taught in #ELT
@brunoleys.bsky.social at #IATEFL2025
#reallyrealgrammar

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" - @BrunoLeys starting his #IATEFL2025 session on frequency in grammar teaching with some (ridiculous) examples of the Passive Voice he has found in published #ELT materials. Google them if you don't believe it.

"The use of ChatGPT may well enhance academic performance, in the same way that a line of coke may enhance sporting performance." Philip Kerr acerbic as ever.

News Quiz 2024: follow up Activities for reviewing and recycling the language  from News Quiz 2024 Fictional newspaper clippings generated with ChatGPT I hope you e...

The News Quiz 2024 follow-up activities are ready to use – with interactive options and editable worksheets to help students consolidate key language from the News Quiz I shared last week.

See here: bit.ly/3W59EUZ

News Quiz 2024 Traditional end-of-year news quiz By ibex73 via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY 4.0] It’s that time of year again – News Quiz 2024 is here! Continu...

Traditional end of year News Quiz is here!
leoxicon.blogspot.com/2024/12/news...

Oxford Word of the Year 2024 - Oxford University Press The Oxford Word of the Year 2024 is 'brain rot'. Discover more about the winner, our shortlist, and 20 years of words that reflect the world.

Which one do you prefer? Polarization (@merriam-webster.com's WotY) or brain rot ? corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...