The Story of English in 100 words. By David Crystal

Something I've always found fascinating is seeing how passionate people can get about almost anything. What fascinates me further is listening to those people speak at great length with such gusto about their passion. I once listened intently to a good friend of mine speak for two hours about the difference between coffee grinders. Now, I love coffee as much as the next man but I never thought I could be so captivated by the subject of grinders. Obviously, it isn't simply the intensity with which someone imparts their knowledge. Of course, said person has to do so with at least a modicum of charisma.

It is for that very reason that I try to impart as many as my intersts as pòssible on my students. It does, unquestionably, make a difference if your students are also intersted in the subject matter. Such as with my recent football class. But that is not in any way vital. If you can show students why you find things intersting they will often take up a liking themselves. I do, of course, also like to give my students the chance to go about showing their passion in class and providing a platform for them to share their ideas and zeal for whichever subject they find enticing.

Since becoming an English teacher my love for the language has only become deeper. Whilst some areas of grammar are really rather captivating, it's the etymology of the language I find truly alluring. The most recent books I've read have all been wordbooks and from one of those I've found some wonderufl material for my higher level classes and I've also peaked their interest greatly. It has become hugely apparent that when students know something about a word they find it an awful lot easier to use it in context. Added to that there are always otherwords that come connected. The next three classes I'm going to write about are all from David Crystal's book "The Story of English in 100 Words."

The first word I used for my classes was debt. It explained how and why many silent letters appeared in our langauge. My students found this extremely interesting as, especally to a Spanish learner, silent letters can often be a real pain in the derriere.

The next word I spoke about was dilly-dally, which talks about why we repeat sounds in words and provides a great number of examples. Examples which my students knew existed but now have a nice compartment to put them in and use them again at will.

Word three was Rep. It talks about how words are reduced and then reused in their shorter forms.

The final word I have used in class, so far, is Americanism. As a great number of my students have been to the states and often complain of the differences I like to flash up some examples and then use Prof Crystal's example of Harry Potter to show just how much the language can change by simply crossing the atlantic.

I'm going to get to putting these classes up on the web over the next week or so. I have a few materials to adapt. Most of the classes involve students reading extracts of the book but I have turned a few sections into "exam style" activities. When I get to a scanner I'll get them up

If you are a teacher, particularly of higher levels, I would strongly advise getting your hands on a copy of this wonderful book.

Memes and Procrastination Poo Pages

Trying to spark an interest in reading can sometimes be somewhat difficult when it comes to language learners. What I've started to do with my teenagers is get them to read little by little. With things like Memes. They may only be 10 or 15 words but each one tends to lead to even more reading.  It really isn't a great deal but it builds up.

I've recently introduced some of my classes to what I call procrastination or poo pages. Those black holes you sometimes get stuck in when all you really want to do is be productive. You know the type of pages you read while you're sitting on the toilet. Perhaps not the image you want. It is however a great way of getting your students to use English when they aren't even thinking about it.
I've showed my classes pages like:
themetapicture.com/
lamebook.com/
bored.com/
passiveaggressivenotes.com/
uhpinions.com/
textsfromlastnight.com/
buzzfeed.com

Bear in mind some of these have fairly choice language so choose carefully as to which ones you want to show your students.

Added to that I get students to find funny memes and as much with as much word play in them as possible to bring to class and present themselves. I've added a bunch of these to a powerpoint. I've notieced a huge interest in this and students try and outdo each other by bringing more and more complex jokes to class. Or simply something really cute. they are always in English. which can only be a good thing.
Just here:
Materials- look for memes

Right then, that's it for today. I do hope this brings a smile and sparks that interest in reading. Even if it is only 50 words a day.

'til the next time.

H

PET Speaking. And I'm not on about your talking puppy.

Those of you who have read, spoken to or listened to me before will know I have a very slight aversion to exams. My feelings on the matter are such that the thought of them often gets me a wee bit agitated. This is mostly because over the past 8 and a half years I've found motivations changing in students and going somewhat from a want to learn to a have to learn. With that it has led many teachers down a road free of imagination and joy. It has turned a huge number of classrooms into exam factories and the fun behind learning has, in many cases, almost disappeared.

This is very much the case in large schools with large classes where teaching is becoming closer to impossible by the day. Sadly, however, it is also the case in a number of classrooms in the private sector as well. Academy classrooms are one of the few places true teaching can still take place. It's for that reason I dedicate a huge amout of my spare time trying to think up ways of making exam practice a little more fun. If you look back over my previous posts you'll see fun is at the heart of my teaching.
This post, however, isn't all that much fun. It's just a quick half an hour class with some very basic hints, tips and useful language to use in the PET exam. I did this presentation at my current school and the rapid advance in the students speaking, well those that paid attention, is clear to see.

I simpy put up the powerpoint. Elicit as many answers as possible. Provide the language and see how the students go. The part two grab activity is a particularly useful one. Just print out the vocab and get students to cut out each phrase. When that's done make them use each phrase as they go through a speaking activity. The pair who use the most win the game. It's a slightly more fun way of drilling.
I've done the same with describing a picture. Each student gets the list of phrases to use and then has to adapt them to their picture.

So as I said a nice quick easy refresher for students getting ready to do the exam. I'd try and do this early on in their learning so they have time to try it a number of times before going into the exam. Sadly, this isn't the best way of learning a language. It is alas a good way to pass an exam.

I always find a smile and some energy gives my students a huge boost as well. especially with drier subjects like this one. Give it a shot.

Just follow this link below and it'll lead you right to the powerpoint and various other delights.
PET Speaking hints and tips

Thanks for reading. I hope it helps your students as much as it's helped mine.

Movies and Emoticons. What more could a teenager ask for?

Whilst trawling the endless breadths and depths of this here internet for something a little more exciting in class, I came across this little gem.
As we all know teenagers, well everyone really, are utterly obsessed with the wonders of mobile technology. I like to harness this excitement rather than crush it at first sight like many educators nowadays.
Before I had happened upon the soon to be revealed super wonder site. I was sitting in my office trying to make emoticon clues to various riddles and such. I then hit upon the idea of doing moive titles. At that very moment. It dawned on me. "someone will have done this... for sure." Within about four strokes of the keyboard I found myself immerced in a glorious array of crypitic movie titles. I printed them out and shoved them in front of my class of 32, 15 year old boys. I paird them up and told them to figure them out in English. the quickest one to get 30 correct could then take out their phone and start creating some titles for themselves.
Just have a look here. a huge thanks goes out to Memolition.com for this one. It has been an absolute life saver and the students just can't get enough of it.

 Next stop book titles. Or is that a little bit too optimistic.

Here's the link
50 film titles

Just another commentator

Whilst teaching in an all boys school I realised I was missing something. How could I get these boys to really go crazy with their English. How could I show them that English really is a beautiful language full of nuance and some unforgettable adjectives.

This idea came to me whilst watching England Vs Spain in a recent Friendly international.Most boys like football, most boys like watching goals. As do a number of girls as well. Let's not be sexist about this.

The Spanish right-back, Mario Gaspar, Scored an absolute scorcher of a scissor kick from the edge of Englad's 18 yard box and all the commentator could come up with was the same as every other goal ever scored in the history of Spanish football the extended Gooooooool. No matter the beauty of the goal or the glory of the build up to it the end result is always met with the same sence of enthusiasm. While every goal counts equally the language used to describe them should, in my humble opinion, reflect the beauty of the goal.

If you look in the links to the right (a few materials) you'll find a vocabulary list of football words. Materials

I've chosen six examples

Maradona. Best goal ever?
Zlatan Vs England
Iniesta Vs The Netherlands
Sir Geoff Hurst Vs Wast Germany
Bergkamp vs Newcastle
King Thierry Vs Man utd

There are thousands of examples you can use. I used these as they were a variety of different styles  of goals and I could watch each one about a million times. Feel free to go crazy and select your own.

I show the students the goals and play them the commentry three or four times. I let them take notes of useful phrases, I give them the vocabulary list attached then I let them work together in pairs to create the perfect commentry.

If you have a class where students aren't interested in football. Perhaps set the final task as a project at home and let other students provide commentry. You can then record them over the video footage and see which pair come up with the best NEW commentary.

This has been a huge hit in recent classes. I hope it works the same for you too.

Enjoy.

@EFLuencyfella