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Philip Seargeantr

Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, The Open University

Philip Seargeant is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Open University. He has published extensively on topics from language and social media, to English around the world, to language and creativity.

His publications include 'The idea of English in Japan' (2009), 'Exploring World Englishes' (2012), and 'From Language to Creative Writing' (with Bill Greenwell, 2013), and the edited collections 'English in Japan in the Era of Globalization' (2011, Palgrave Macmillan), 'English in the World: history, diversity, change' (with Joan Swann, 2012), 'English and development' (with Elizabeth J. Erling, 2013), 'Futures for English Studies' (with Ann Hewings and Lynda Prescott, 2016), and 'Creativity in language: From everyday style to verbal art' (with Zsofia Demjen, 2016).

How AI threatens free speech – and what must be done about it

Jan 19, 2024 10:08 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology

Headlines about the threats of artificial intelligence (AI) tend to be full of killer robots, or fears that when theyre not on killing sprees, these same robots will be hoovering up human jobs. But a serious danger which...

From Z to Q: when letters become political symbols

Mar 23, 2022 13:38 pm UTC| Politics

Painted on the side of tanks and emblazoned on the shirt of Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak, the letter Z has come to represent support for Russias invasion of Ukraine. It has even been incorporated into the spelling of place...

The real reason you can't quit Facebook? Maybe it's because you can judge your friends

Jul 12, 2017 19:02 pm UTC| Technology

Facebook recently announced that it now has over 2 billion monthly users. This makes its population larger than that of China, the US, Mexico and Japan combined. Its popularity, and with it the influence it has in society,...

Truthiness and alternative facts: meaning is a moveable feast

Jan 28, 2017 06:18 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Sales of George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four have apparently surged since Kellyanne Conway introduced the phrase alternative facts into public discourse. For many, the term is reminiscent of Orwells dystopian Newspeak,...

Why Tolkien's fantastic imaginary languages have had more impact than Esperanto

Jan 11, 2017 17:44 pm UTC| Life

A hundred years ago this month, JRR Tolkien began writing The Fall of Gondolin while on medical leave from the war. This is the first story in what would become his legendarium the mythology that underpins The Lord of the...

US Election Series

The filter bubble isn't just Facebook's fault -- it's yours

Dec 06, 2016 07:43 am UTC| Technology Politics

Following the shock results of Brexit and the Trump victory, a lot of attention has focused on the role that Facebook might have played in creating online political ghettos in which false news can easily spread. Facebook...

Economy

The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system

Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isnt very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product a metric...

Beyond the spin, beyond the handouts, here’s how to get a handle on what’s really happening on budget night

Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, TV or news websites on budget night. The quickest way to find out what...

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburgs literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers...

Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget

With Jim Chalmerss third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief beyond the tax cuts although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this weeks consumer price...

Inflation is slowly falling, while student debt is climbing: 6 graphs that explain today’s CPI

Australias inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and its now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. The annual rate peaked at 7.8% in the December quarter of 2022 and is now just 3.6%, in...

Politics

US Urges China, Russia to Reject AI Control in Nuclear Arms, Align with Global Norms

Paul Dean, a senior U.S. arms control official, emphasized the critical need for China and Russia to join the U.S. in declaring that humans will always decide on the deployment of nuclear weapons, not artificial...

South Africa’s youth are a generation lost under democracy – study

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the countrys youth democracys children had enormous opportunities for advancement, all thanks to successive post-apartheid governments led...

Sadiq Khan on track for third term as London mayor – but nearly half of Londoners dissatisfied with performance

Polls have consistently shown that the incumbent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be on track to win a third term in office at the upcoming mayoral elections on May 2. One poll we commissioned as part of our...

Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’

Most American workers are hired at will: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party...

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

To say that the Labour party is flying high in the polls is something of an understatement. But despite its consistent lead against the Tories, the opposition finds itself in a rather odd position: on the cusp of power but...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Technology

Huawei Prepares to Unveil Kirin PC Chip Alongside New Qingyun Notebooks

Huawei is on the brink of a groundbreaking launch, with leaked information hinting at the imminent debut of the highly anticipated Kirin PC chip alongside the release of new Qingyun notebooks. The introduction of this...

Tesla Enhances Model Y Lineup with Longer-Range Variant, Price Adjustment

Tesla has revamped its Model Y offerings, bidding farewell to the standard range rear-wheel-drive (RWD) model while introducing a longer-range variant for an additional $2,000. This strategic maneuver aligns with Teslas...

Shiba Inu Coin Rockets as Burn Rate Skyrockets 1000% Amidst Market Rally

Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) ignites the crypto market with a phenomenal rally, propelled by a staggering 1000% surge in burn rates. As 29.11 million SHIB tokens are destroyed, market confidence soars, pushing SHIB past crucial...

Dogecoin Surges 13% as Network Activity Soars, Hits 28,000 New Addresses

Dogecoin experiences a remarkable surge, with its price skyrocketing by 13% in response to an unprecedented rise in network activity. On-chain analytics reveal a staggering influx of 28,000 new addresses, signaling renewed...

Bitcoin Surges Over $63K Amid Revitalized ETF Interest

In a whirlwind of crypto markets, Bitcoin stormed past the $63,000 mark, fueled by renewed ETF activity. Ethereum mirrored the bullish sentiment, holding steady above $3,100. Solana, XRP, and Cardano followed suit, marking...