“Ey oop! Ey oop!”, says comedian Michael McIntyre to his audience in Leeds. “That’s supposed to be ‘hello’, according to you.” He sticks with his Yorkshire theme for a couple of minutes, mocking nowt, ...

When I recently explained why teaching grammar in primary school still matters, Radio 4’s Today programme invited me to debate the importance of standard English. My opponent was Nevile Gwynne, a ...

TEACHING ENGLISH as a first language is not easy—many youngsters leave school feeling they never quite mastered its finer points. Recently some commentators have been wondering whether the standard ...

“Our captain has a handicap to cope with, sad to tell. He’s from Georgia, and he doesn’t speak the language very well.” — ‘It Makes a Fellow Proud to be a Soldier’ by Tom Lehrer. Citizens of Georgia, ...