We have added a number of lessons for different levels and articles about Christmas and how it can be taught and used in the classroom. There will be more to follow in the next few days, so please check the What's New page for updates.

In this video, Noam Chomsky talks about language at Google as part of the Authors@Google series.

In this question and answer session he discusses a number of topics, but the first is about universal grammar in which he provides an in-depth description of how his ideas on universal grammar have evolved over time.

Another interesting question he answers at the end of the session relates to the effect of email, instant messaging and the like on syntax and grammar (TXT Speak). Hear Chomsky's views on whether this is just a natural part of the evolution of language and how it's affecting our minds.

I've just found the following video in which Steven Pinker looks at language, and the way it expresses the workings of our minds. By analysing common sentences and words, he shows us how, in what we say and how we say it, we're communicating much more than we realise.

For my first blog post this year I thought I'd provide you with a couple of light-hearted and entertaining looks at the English language. The first shows you just how confusing the language can sometimes be, whilst the second demonstrates why some suggest that English spelling should be reformed.

There are going to be some major updates to our Lesson Plans page. Alex Case (publications) has started contributing to the site, and our aim is to have a long-term collaboration. The first batch are available now and we will be updating the page frequently.

Since the end of 2004, we have recorded how many entries we have in some of the sections of our site, which means that we can see how much new content we have created since then.

In 2007, we put the Language Articles, Teaching Articles and PDF Lesson Plans into databases and currently have 26, 31 and 116 entries respectively. These sections are growing fast as we have an additional contributor, Alex Case, who has been adding a lot, which we're very grateful for. There are a further 14 articles in the Members' Area.

In 2007, traffic continued to grow fast, so thank you to all of you for using the site. We hope that 2008 will see many improvements and additions.

Are you thinking about teaching abroad? If you are, then this article might help you out. The first thing I've got to say to you is not to allow yourself to be swayed by your emotions or the romantic notion of living in a foreign country. Employers count on this to hook you to come over and likely stay in unsatisfactory working and living conditions. Working for a dud of an employer and living in poor housing isn't a rosy picture, which can happen to you. I don't want to burst your bubble but teaching abroad is peppered with difficulties and challenges. It doesn't have to be a trying process, which prompted me to write this piece. If you think things through carefully and do some planning and your homework you can minimize potential problems and pitfalls. One more thing, don't assume that it's an easy way to make money because it isn't. When you factor in the start up costs and your day-to-day living expenses, you might find yourself no further ahead if you just stayed home.

An Illinois, non-profit organisation called Innovations for Learning has released a handheld cosole, like a Game Boy or Nintendo DS designed for education and targeted at kindergarten and elementary students. Despite its simplicity and lack of software, this device has a lot of potential for English language education.

In the last week I have contributed a graded headword analysis script to the Text Analyser in the Members' section (link: http://www.usingenglish.com/members/text-analysis/).

It is based on work I did recently to build a text editor for authoring graded readers with Dr. Robert Waring at Seishin Notre Dame College in Okayama, Japan. Although much simpler than the text editor, it allows teachers and students to run short texts (up to 100,000 characters) against two popular graded lexicons, provided by Dr. Paul Nation at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. A detailed description of how to use it can be found off the Help tab when you make your analysis (link: http://www.usingenglish.com/members/text-analysis/graded-analysis-help.php).

I recently watched an inspiring talk given as part of the TED 2008 conference by Dave Eggers, a philanthropist and teacher-at-large (as they describe him). The talk shows ways in which dedicated one-to-one teaching can be provided to pupils who would not normally have access to this sort of personal tuition. What's more, the students seem to lap it up.

The successful and growing network of professionals volunteering their time to shine their light on local students of all ages is only part of the story. His novel approach to teaching and the way he makes learning fun should be an inspiration to all of us.

As Time puts it: "Many writers, having written a first best-seller, might see it as a nice way to start a career. He started a movement instead."