e-wot?

Here are a few tricks you can do with Google that might help in class, or that you could pass on to your learners. I’ve called the symbols you need to use ‘operators’.

There’s lots more you can do, but I think these are the most useful.

Specific group of words in exact order:
Operator: “ … “ (double inverted commas)
e.g. “language learning“

This is great when searching for quotes. Have a go. Who said:
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder. (paste into the search box in double inverted commas and hit search)

It’s also great for searching for errors that pop up on your PC.

Exclude words:
Operator: - (minus sign)
e.g. “language learning” -britain

Search by document type:
Operator: filetype:
You need to add the file extension (three letters) after the colon.
e.g. “language learning” filetype:ppt

This OR That:
Operator: OR (must be in capitals)
e.g. “language learning” OR “language study”

Definitions:
Operator: define:
e.g. define: weblog

Force words to be included in the search:
Operator: +
e.g. language learning study education +china

Include any other word:
Operator: *
e.g. “tea and *”

Search within a specific site:
Operator: site:
e.g. “language learning” site:www.britishcouncil.org

Numbers:

Google does numbers too. Try these in Google Search:

23 + 22 (hit search or enter)

96 – 15 (hit search or enter)

2 * 6 (hit search or enter)

Etc… you get the idea

Try these in Google search:

Time in Madrid (hit search or enter)

28 Singapore Dollars in UK Pounds (hit search or enter)