Education, Skills and Learning

This theory is inspiring a new way to think about language

Giang Thi May teaches a first grade class at the primary school of Van Chai in Dong Van district, on the border with China, north of Hanoi, Vietnam, September 21, 2015. There is no electricity and no books. She teaches the children in the local Hmong language. Nearly three years after Taliban gunmen shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist last week urged world leaders gathered in New York to help millions more children go to school. World Teachers' Day falls on 5 October, a Unesco initiative highlighting the work of educators struggling to teach children amid intimidation in Pakistan, conflict in Syria or poverty in Vietnam. Even so, there have been some improvements: the number of children not attending primary school has plummeted to an estimated 57 million worldwide in 2015, the U.N. says, down from 100 million 15 years ago. Reuters photographers have documented learning around the world, from well-resourced schools to pupils crammed into corridors in the Philippines, on boats in Brazil or in crowded classrooms in Burundi. REUTERS/Kham TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYPICTURE 33 OF 47 FOR WIDER IMAGE STORY "SCHOOLS AROUND THE WORLD"SEARCH "EDUCATORS SCHOOLS" FOR ALL IMAGES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - GF10000226464

A new theory is inspiring novel methods to study the origins of language Image: REUTERS/Kham

Glenn Hadikin
Senior Lecturer of English Language and Linguistics, University of Portsmouth
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Branches of language. Image from the book Creation by Evolution (1928)
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