Exploring the English language in the world today - Lesson plans www.britishcouncil.org/englisheffect
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Exploring the English language in the world today Lesson plans www.britishcouncil.org/englisheffect
The English Effect Introduction Discover what the English language means to individuals across the globe, how the words we use today have been shaped by other cultures and languages, and how using and playing with language can be fun. The following lesson plans are linked to The English Effect exhibition based at the London offices of the British Council. The exhibition will tour to other British Council centres around the world. The ideas and activities can be used as starting points in individual lessons or form part of larger cross curricular projects. They aim to develop knowledge and understanding of English as a global language alongside important skills and competencies, such as collaboration and creativity and provide links with the Connecting Classrooms themes of identity and belonging.
Around the world in 80 words! Learning objectives To increase vocabulary, stimulate an interest in the origin of English words, their definitions and the countries where they originate. Curriculum links English, Geography Introduction Divide your class into small groups with copies of some of the words from The English Effect exhibition and a map of the world. These can be found in Appendices A and B. Discussion points and activities Activity 1 Encourage your pupils to discuss with their group what each word means, which language and country they think the word originates from and then to place the word on its country of origin on the map. Can they give a reason for their decision? Reveal the correct answers and discuss whether they were surprised about any of the individual words and how many have been borrowed from other languages and countries. Why do they think this is? Having matched the word and country on the map, ask your pupils to choose a specific word and give clues using geographical language for the rest of the class to identify it. For example, ‘This word originates from a country that is in the northern hemisphere, in the continent of Europe and originally meant quince jelly.’ Answer: Marmalade, which came from Portugal Activity 2 Give each group three words and their definitions, taken from the list in Appendix C. Ask them to read the true meaning and then invent or use dictionaries to produce two other fake but plausible sounding definitions for each word. One person then reads out the word and the three definitions. The other groups try to identify which is correct. For example: 1. Cravat is a Spanish word which means an arched structure for climbing plants. 2. Cravat came into English in the 1700s from the Netherlands. It is a temporary camp without tents or other cover. 3. Cravat is a French word which has come to mean a kind of ornamental neck scarf. Which is the true definition? Encourage the pupils to discuss the alternatives before making their decision.
Follow up activities Can your pupils find other words that English has borrowed from other languages? Make a display showing their country of origin and tweet them to #EnglishEffect. Ask your partner school if they know of any words that come from their language or English words that they use and add to your display. Choose one word from The English Effect list each day to be your class word of the day. How many different sentences can your pupils invent using the word correctly? What is the most inventive or alliterative sentence they can come up with? Encourage your class to invent other games using the resources such as snap type card games where they match words and definitions. Ask them to give their game a catchy name and write instructions for others to be able to play. Resources • Words/stickers – Appendix A • Map of the world – Appendix B • Words and definitions – Appendix C • English dictionaries • Certificates
Wow words and favourite phrases! Learning objectives To expand vocabulary, encourage creativity and interest in the English language and raise awareness of words that are special to certain parts of the UK. Curriculum links English, geography, art and design Introduction Danny Boyle, Director of the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony recently unveiled a neon artwork showing his favourite word, wonder. In an interview he said this word makes him think of the phrase The Isles of Wonder, from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. This was the title of the Opening Ceremony and reminds him that ‘Wonder should continue to run through all our lives’. On a television programme, actor and author Stephen Fry said his favourite word is puffling, which is the word for a baby puffin. Discussion points and activities Ask your class to discuss their favourite English words with a partner, then choose one of these and write it beautifully on a template of a leaf. Decorate the leaf in a style of their choice and then use these leaves to create a tree of your class favourite words. Photograph your tree and compile an alphabet of your class or school’s favourite words and swap them with your partner school. Can your pupils think of words that are special to your region of your country? In the north of England for example, people sometimes use the word nesh to mean weak or delicate and dree for dreary or cheerless. In her novel North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell writes a glossary of these words at the back of the book. Can you make a glossary with definitions of words that might be unique to your area of the country? Other well-known English authors including Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy have used local words and dialect in their books. When the Artful Dodger meets Oliver Twist he says ‘Hello my covey! What’s the row!’ and in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess is told ‘Bide here a bit and the cart will soon come.’ What do your pupils think these words mean? Can they find other examples of local words and dialect in books? Discuss whether they think children should use local words and dialect in schools when writing.
Follow up activities Create pieces of artwork incorporating your favourite English words using a variety of techniques and materials. You could draw or paint on paper or fabric, use batik, or collage techniques or create an image of a word in the style of pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein. Photograph your creations and share with your partner school. The English language is changing all the time and the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words that have entered the language four times per year. Recent additions include Vulcan – the fictional alien race from the Star Trek films and, ‘whip-smart’ from North America meaning ‘looking neat’. Make up a word that you think should be part of the English language with a note about how to pronounce it and a definition. Swap your invented words with your partner school. Resources • Leaf template • Art materials
What does English mean to me? Learning objectives To investigate what English as a global language means to young people today. To encourage pupils to share their learning with parents, carers and the wider community. Curriculum links English, history, geography, ICT Introduction In response to the question ‘What does English mean to you?’ one person replied ‘it means the world to me.’ Another said, ‘We can understand each other and promote our relationships and friendships’. Discussion points and activities Show your pupils some of the clips of people discussing what English means to me from the exhibition. What would be the response of your pupils to this question? Record and film their replies and swap with your partner school if you have one. You could also enter The English Effect competition to win an iPad by uploading your film to YouTube and then sending the link to englisheffect@britishcouncil.org. Invite your pupils to interview parents, carers or grandparents, asking what English means to them and carry out some of The English Effect activities with others at home. Who achieved the most correct answers – children or adults? Were their parents/carers surprised at how many common words originated in other countries? Can they think of any English words that they commonly used as children that are used less frequently today? Encourage staff, parents and visitors to the school to add their own favourite words to the language tree. Perhaps you could also record their favourite book or poem in the English language too. Follow up activities When communicating with each other, many young people use words and phrases or text speak that is unfamiliar to older generations. Ask your pupils to write a useful guide to common words and phrases they use when talking with their friends for an older generation. Resources • Words/stickers – Appendix A • Map of the world – Appendix B • Words and definitions on Appendix C • Certificates • Clips of ‘What English mean to me’ at http://englisheffect.britishcouncil.org/changing-lives/ • List of words/stickers
Appendices Appendix A Sticker set with 20 words and images on them. Word definitions: 1. Barbecue Arawak (The Caribbean) Barbecue came into English from Spanish in the 1600s. It may come from Arawak (indigenous Caribbean language) barbacoa ‘wooden frame on posts’. In its early English use the word had a wider meaning such as ‘rack on which food is cooked over an open fire’ and hence a meal or gathering at which this occurs. 2. Budgerigar (Australia) This name for a type of small parrot, often shortened to budgie is perhaps one of the more surprising words to have entered English from Australian Aboriginal languages. Some other examples include other names of animals like kangaroo, koala, wombat, as well as boomerang and corroboree. 3. Candy Arabic (The Middle East) Candy came into English from French in the late Middle Ages, but it came into French from Arabic. The basic expression is sugar candy, ultimately from Arabic sukkar qandī ‘candied sugar’. The Arabic word is probably of Indian origin. 4. Cider Hebrew (The Middle East) Cider entered English in the Middle Ages from French cidre, and came into French from Latin, which took the word from Greek. It came into Greek through the Bible from Hebrew šēk _ār ‘strong drink’. 5. Clock Dutch (The Netherlands) The word clock came into English in the late 1300s from medieval Dutch. The Dutch word, and related words in many other European languages (German Glocke, French cloche), have the basic meaning ‘bell’, but English clock has always referred typically to a mechanism that rings a bell, and hence a timepiece. 6. Coach (Hungary) Coach entered English in the 1500s from French, but comes ultimately from Hungarian, probably from the name of Kocs, a place in Hungary on an important coaching route where such vehicles were apparently made. A sporting coach has the same origin, someone who trains or coaches people being compared to the driver of a horse-drawn coach. 7. Dollar (Germany) The word dollar originated from the German Taler. The word occurs in English from the mid-1500s referring to various different silver coins, including Spanish coins used in many of its colonies. Also used in British colonies in North America during the War of Independence, the dollar was adopted as the US currency in 1785.
8. Llama Quechua (The Andes, South America) The name of the llama, the characteristic pack animal of the Andes, unsurprisingly comes originally from Quechua, a language of the Andes. Llama first entered English in 1600 and came into English via Spanish, reflecting Spanish colonialism in South America. 9. Magazine Arabic (The Middle East) The idea behind the magazine that you read was originally that it was a ‘storehouse’ for articles. The word entered English from French in the 1500s, but originates in Arabic, in which mak _zin means ‘storehouse’. This can be seen in modern French magasin meaning ‘shop’, as well as in modern English military uses of magazine. 10. Marmalade (Portugal) Originally meaning a type of quince jelly, marmalade is first found in English in the late 1400s. Although the word is now widespread in European languages, it may have entered English directly from Portuguese marmelada, as a result of trading links between the countries. The Portuguese word comes from marmelo ‘quince’. 11. Parka (Russia) Parka came into English from Russian in the 1620s, but it originated among the Nenets people of the Arctic regions of Russia, and originally referred to the type of jacket made from animal skins that they wore. In the 1890s it began to be found referring to hooded winter coat. 12. Robot (Czech Republic) The word robot comes from Czech, and first appeared in 1920 in Karel Čapek’s play Rossum’s Universal Robots. In this play it is the name of a type of mass-produced worker made from artificially synthesised material. It comes from the Czech word robota meaning ‘forced labour, drudgery’. 13. Shampoo Hindi (India) Shampoo entered English in the mid-1700s as a result of increasing British involvement in South Asia. Its probable origin is Hindi cām . po, meaning ‘press’. The original meaning in English was ‘to massage’. Over time the meaning became ‘to wash or scrub (the head or hair)’, and finally shampoo came to mean the substance for washing hair. 14. Shawl Urdu or Persian (Middle East/Asia) Shawl came from Urdu or Persian in the 1600s. It entered many other European languages when the item of clothing was imported widely. Like the names of other manufactured items, it is probably ultimately from the name of a place, Shāliāt, a town in India. 15. Ski (Norway) Ski entered English from modern Norwegian in the 1700s. In modern Norwegian, as in most of the other European languages in which the word appears, it is pronounced like English she, not with the ‘hard’ /sk/ sound of the English word.
16. Sushi (Japan) The word sushi has been found in English from at least the late 1890s. For most of its first 100 years in English, sushi is found chiefly in references to Japan or to the occasional, very exotic Japanese restaurant outside Japan. 17. Tea (China) Tea is first found in English in the mid-1600s, shortly before the first aristocratic craze for tea drinking. Originating in Chinese, tea probably came into English via Dutch, and may have come into Dutch via Malay, reflecting the trading routes by which tea first came to Britain. 18. Tomato Nahuatl (Mexico) Tomato came into English in the 1600s, from Spanish. However, Spanish had itself borrowed the word in the 1530s, soon after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. The word originates from Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs), in which the word is tomatl, and may come from tomau ‘to grow’. 19. Vampire (Hungary) The origins of vampire lie in Eastern Europe, a region where Dracula, the most famous of all vampires, is said to have come from. The word is found in English in the early 1700s, and comes from Hungarian vampir, via French vampire. 20. Zombie (West Africa) Zombie has its origins in West African languages, although it came into English (in the early 1800s or earlier) via the religious beliefs of communities in the Caribbean, the southern US, and other parts of the Americas who had been brought from Africa as part of the slave trade.
Appendix B Fold out world map enclosed. Appendix C Avatar Sanskrit Avatar originated from Sanskrit, originally meaning ‘the descent of a Hindu god to Earth in bodily form’ It is also used in Science Fiction. Dodo Portugal The name dodo comes from Portuguese, meaning ‘simpleton’, as the bird showed no fear of man when it was encountered by European sailors so it was easily killed and eaten. Cravat France Cravat came from the French word cravatt which meant the linen scarf that people wore round their necks. From this, cravat has come to mean a kind of ornamental neck scarf in English. Easel The Netherlands Easel was borrowed in the 1600s from the Dutch word esel meaning ass. This use of the word comes from the resemblance in shape and function, because of the way that an easel carries an artist’s canvas. Honcho Japan The word honcho meaning boss or leader was first found in American English in the late 1940s, and was borrowed from Japanese by US servicemen stationed in Japan after the Second World War. Gnu South Africa Gnu entered English in the late 1700s from two South African languages and is probably an imitation of this animal’s call. Clan Scotland This can be traced back to the 1400s in English and comes from a Scottish Gaelic word spoken by Irish settlers in parts of Scotland meaning ‘children’. Baroque Portugal Baroque entered English from French in the 1700s. The word came to mean ‘bizarre’ in general, and was adopted as the name of an artistic style which has bold ornamentation.
Admiral Arabic Admiral came into English in the Middle Ages from French and Latin, but originally came from Arabic. In early use it meant ‘military commander’ as well as specifically ‘commander of a fleet’. Samovar Russia This name for a type of heated urn used for making tea came into English from Russia. The word means ‘self-boiler’, as this device could heat water for many hours. Moose Eastern Abenaki English-speaking settlers in North America borrowed Moose from the language of native American people. It is a large North American elk. Bungalow Hindi or Bengali Bungalow is a one-storey house. It comes from a Hindi or Bengali word meaning ‘belonging to Bengal’. Appendix D Certificate to be photocopied and filled in by the teacher for each student to take home.
© British Council 2013 / C666 The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
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