It’s taken a long time but here, finally, is the new version of davidnicholson.it! (If you’re nostalgic, I’ve kept a copy of the old site.)

More content

The new design is all about content. For my readers, it will make it easier to find things, with fewer clicks and more routes to articles. And I will be able to spend more time researching and writing—technical things like organisation and expansion which were big distractions last time round will now look after themselves.

What’s coming?

There will be articles about English. Big lessons on grammar, vocab and pronunciation, but also small precise explanations on individual points. When I write these articles, I usually begin from one of two starting points. First, I often write about a language area that I’m teaching to some of my students and my article grows out of those lessons. Secondly, I write articles when I have something particular to say–a different way of explaining something, a new interpretation or similar. In either case, I don’t intend to repeat what’s readily available in the standard books, and I certainly don’t aspire to providing a comprehensive view on the English language, if only because there’s too much stuff!

There will also be articles on the evolving relationship between English and Italian. The arena here isn’t a language classroom, it’s Italian society and culture, and there are no rules or principles. English as it is used by Italians, or in Italian contexts, is fundamentally interesting for Italians learning English, and it’s often entertaining too.

Check out GET SOME ENGLISH: a weekly suggestion for you to practice your English. It could be an article on the web, or a video or something else, but there will also be ‘real-world’ events happening in Rome: theatre or film, or just a great DVD at the news-stand.

What else?

I’ve designed and compiled several tools for people learning and practicing English.

TOOLS & TERMS has lists of irregular verbs and phonetic symbols. Others, such as false friends and homophones, will be added over time. If things go according to plan, all these lists will eventually be included in an iPhone app.

DICTIONARY SEARCH lets you search the best language resources directly from inside davidnicholson.it. Try out all the search choices–they’re all excellent.

IN ROME puts cinemas, bookshops, theatres, libraries and other sources of English on a map of Rome. I hope this is useful for everyone here who wants to get some practice from English culture.

LINKS contains my collection of language related links.

Feedback

Comments aren’t enabled yet, but I still welcome feedback on my articles and suggestions for new content. Write to me with comments, ideas and requests and I’ll do my best to respond!

More about the new design

This new design took a very long time because I’m not a web-designer: I got lost several times and started over at least twice. In this wilderness I had technical and practical help from Paolo Gironi and ChosenTime and good advice from several friends.

But, in the end, the design is mine, all mine! I had to think very hard about what sort of content I could produce that my students and readers would find useful. And I had to think equally hard about how to display that content with a minimum of distraction and how to organise it in a way that’s intuitive to use.

I decided to eliminate as many graphical elements as I could, relying on typography to keep everything clear. As the site is about language, I wanted everything to feel like text—even the graphical elements that stayed imitate typography. This turned out to be quite difficult so I hope it works for you.

Who it’s all for

When I started my first site, I just wanted a container for the ideas and advice that I use frequently with my students. But if it’s useful for them, it should be useful to a lot of other people too. This hasn’t changed so if you like the new site please tell your friends and colleagues.