Surely one of the most fascinating subjects for the language classroom is the subject of language itself. By that, I’m not referring to those all-too-familiar grammar explanations in which the teacher uses images of winning the lottery to explain the second conditional (we’ve all done it!) I am referring to the topics that might be found within the subject of linguistics itself. This could be any of the following:
- Variation in language
- Evolution of language
- Prescriptive versus descriptive approaches towards language
- English as a lingua franca
- Word borrowing
These are some of the things that poet Dizraeli explores in this performance that was commissioned by Macmillan dictionary:
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If you are interested in using the poem in the classroom, I have created three worksheets to accompany the video. They can be downloaded from the Macmillan dictionary site. Would love to know how you get on.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Mike Harrison // Feb 20, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Hi Jamie
Thanks for these worksheets! I had been trying to think of ways to use Dizraeli’s poem in the classroom - something I may well do very soon. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’ve also got the genesis of an idea for using this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5bVgycjhM. Something like ‘Unlikely things to see at the supermarket’ =)
Mike
2 Danièle // Feb 23, 2010 at 1:23 pm
I agree that language itself is one of the most fascinating topics! (at first I was worried that it might just be more interesting for me, with the attention to language I try to pay as a teacher, but it seems that any motivated students enjoy and appreciate it too)
One of my favourite group-discussion topics is “If you could change the English language as you liked, what would you change?”*
(most popular answer: get rid of the present perfect…)
*from: Discussions A-Z (I think)
3 Mike Harrison // Mar 11, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Hi Jamie and others
Sorry about the above link in my comment, which seems to just go to a page full of videos.
I have no idea whether this will actually embed, but this is the video clip by Dizraeli I was talking about
Mike =)
4 Mike Harrison // Mar 11, 2010 at 3:01 pm
No it didn’t =(
I hope this link works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5bVgycjhM
5 Meylysa // Mar 12, 2010 at 10:38 am
Hello Jamie,
Thank you for sharing the video and worksheets. The poem is difficult for even me to understand =) I think advanced students of English would enjoy it. I think, in my case, I might share it with the volunteer teachers and tutors at our school. It brings up interesting topics concerning language development, lingua francas and the prospect of the death of English (gasp!)…=)
In any case, thank you for the resources.
Meylysa
ESL Teacher
6 admin // Mar 15, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Hello Meylysa
Really nice to hear from you. Glad you enjoy the poem. I am sure you are right that students would find it difficult to understand without a transcription. For that reason, I didn’t include any listening comprehension tasks in the lesson plans. I think that the issues that the poem raises are more valuable.
Hope all is well in Hawaii
Jamie
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