While I am generally averse to reading articles that begin by telling us about how we are all living in “an increasingly globalized world,” I thought this article I caught in the Sunday New York Times might be of interest to members of the FIT community:

…there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain [...]

Mr. Manu Joseph pens another Letter from India for the New York Times, this time on the “Uncompromising Practicality [that] Could Be India’s Downfall.” I covered his previous letter here, noting the gaping flaws in his argument about the spread of English in India. This time, he serves up [...]

This New York Times article by Anand Giriharadas, “Language as a Blunt Tool of the Digital Age“, makes some interesting associations between the use of digital communication tools like text messaging, Twitter, and blogs, on one hand, and a global business environment in which a ‘simplified’ version of English is in ascendance, on [...]

President Obama made some surprising comments today about the blogosphere during an interview with the editors of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Blade:

“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up [...]

An interesting article from Zachary M. Seward at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard U., pointing out how the New York Times has been sifting through its data generated when readers highlight words to look up their definitions. Not only does the Times’ tracking its own data like this show us what [...]

Today’s Op-Ed column in the New York Times by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Maureen Dowd, entitled “Cheney, Master of Pain,” is the talk of the blogosphere. The big story is that Dowd plagiarized the following section which appears in today’s column:

More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, [...]

So a couple of news stories caught my attention today. The first piece appeared in the New York Times, entitled Public Provides Giggles; Bloggers Get the Book Deal. This piece begins by discussing blogs that have gone on to be published in traditional book format, like Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves, [...]

The New York Times is taking essay/photo submissions for “How Has College Changed You?”

College is a series of transformative experiences – moments that change the way you view the world. And yourself. Current students are invited to submit an essay or photographs that illustrate their metamorphosis, for a chance to be published in [...]

caught this language blog on the New York Times:

Schott’s Vocab is a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy. Each day, Schott’s Vocab explores news sites around the world to find words and phrases that encapsulate the times in which we live or shed light on [...]

In-depth New York Times article on English language instruction for foreign-born students.  A few excerpts:

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Walking the halls of Cecil D. Hylton High School outside Washington, it is hard to detect any trace of the divisions that once seemed fixtures in American society.

Two girls, a Muslim in a headscarf and a strawberry [...]

In the quest for learning more about, ahem, language and learning, here’s a New York Times article on intelligence.  The article was written by Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang, two neuroscientists famous for their award-winning book, “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive [...]