Month: December 2014
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Merry Christmas one and all!
Everyone at Oxford University Press Australia wishes you a very Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful day, wherever you are. Here are some of our favourite seasonal quotations to get you in the mood! “Christmas, in fact, is not an external event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.” The…
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Hoot, ninnyhammer, tap-shackled: words you might use this Christmas!
Alexandra Mellas, Higher Education Sales and Marketing Assistant, takes your holiday conversations to the next level with David Crystal’s Words in Time and Place. Have you had to stump up a pretty penny on presents? Is eggnog making your cop-shotten uncle act like a saddle-goose this year? Use your words these holidays to add a…
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Take to the road with Mr Toad!
Alyce Crosbie, Sales & Marketing Coordinator, reviews The Adventures of Mr Toad by Tom Moorhouse. It’s great when classic tales are brought to life for modern-day audiences. The Adventures of Mr Toad, as retold by Tom Moorhouse, is a picture book retelling of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows from Toad’s point of view….
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Jane Austen was born on this day
Jane Austen was born 239 years ago today at Parsonage House of Steventon, Hampshire. The youngest daughter of a clergyman, Austen initially began writing for the entertainment of her family and close friends. Her family’s movements saw her relocate to Bath and Southampton, before settling in Chawton where Austen penned what would become some of…
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The Australian 2014 Word of the Year: ‘Shirtfront’
Each year the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) looks for a word that has come to prominence in the Australian social and cultural landscape; this year the ANDC Word of the Year is: shirtfront – in figurative use, to challenge or confront a person. It is transferred from a term used in Australian Rules football,…
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Creating inclusive literacy learning experiences
Rudyard Kipling famously said that, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind”. Words can heal, hurt, excite, sadden – or just help with basic, everyday tasks and communications. So much human interaction is based on words; written, spoken, signed, or even tweeted! It is little wonder then that literacy learning is…
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Child-friendly testing for young learners
Verissimo Toste, an Oxford teacher trainer, looks at how you can make testing a child-friendly experience for your young learners, and useful for you. “Testing young learners? Really? Seriously? Why?” That’s usually my reaction when I hear teachers talking about testing young learners. “So, how do you decide what to teach them? How do you know how to teach…
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Oxford Word of the Month – December: Billzac
Billzac – noun: a typical Australian soldier. During the First World War a number of terms for the typical Australian soldier appeared. In the early stages of the war a name from the Boer War, Tommy Cornstalk, was revived and used, along with Tommy Colonial. After the landings at Anzac Cove in 1915, the term…