Memorial Day weekend is almost here, and with it, the unofficial start of America's summer season. Traditionally, Memorial Day is the busiest day in the year for traveling carnivals with their trained animals, games of chance and sideshow acts, compl...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk to language columnist and author Barbara Wallraff about her new book. It's called Your Own Words. In it, she explains, quote, how to outsmart the reference books and be...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster -- English made easy. There's a newspaper in California called Easy English Times. It's written for English learners, and it started in 1996. I met the publisher, Betty Malmgren, and the editor, Lorrai...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and today on Wordmaster -- it's TESOL time! RS: Next week is the thirty-eighth annual convention of the group known as TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. TESOL says there are one-point...

English is fast becoming the language of science around the world, but what is its future among everyday speakers? One expert points out that the percentage of native English speakers is declining globally while the languages of other rapidly growing...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- getting hyper about correctness. RS: English once had a system where nouns took different forms depending on whether they were the subject or the object of a sentence. Jack Lync...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- telling less, and showing more. RS: Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns. But here's how a lot of writers and writing teachers describe adjectives: in a word, over...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a new way to learn slang. RS: It's a pack of sixty cards with slang terms on one side. Definitions and synonyms are on the back, plus a humorous illustration. AA: Jen Bilik says...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- political rhetoric in America. RS: This time, Howard Dean didn't scream. He finished what he called a solid second behind John Kerry in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. AA:...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. RS: They're all around us, especially in spoken English. The first word is a verb. The second w...