Creating Facebook is a project run by Philip Seargeant and Caroline Tagg of The Open University’s Applied Linguistics and Literacies (ALL) Research Group. The pair collaborated with…
In the aftermath of a controversial clash of protests in Boston, Donald Trump sent out a tweet about the need to heal the nation – managing…
Dr Philip Seargeant, Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, wonders where we would be without emojis today and traces their origins in history, right back to Ancient Egyptian…
Facebook recently announced that it now has over 2 billion monthly users. This makes its “population” larger than that of China, the US, Mexico and Japan…
The writer Anthony Burgess is most famous for his novel, A Clockwork Orange. This month marks the centenary of the writer’s birth and his dystopian vision…
Sales of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four have apparently surged since Kellyanne Conway introduced the phrase “alternative facts” into public discourse. For many, the term is reminiscent…
This opinion article has been published by Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at The Open University, Philip Seargeant Since the Trump victory, and the Brexit…
Every December, lexicographers around the world choose their “words of the year”, and this year, perhaps more than ever, the stories these tell provide a fascinating…
Have you ever wondered why a person might wear their heart on their sleeve? Or why the world is your oyster? These literary expressions – and…
