SESSION 10: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 ENGLISH: What do you want to improve? How much? Why? How do you try to improve?
- knowledge of slang
- pronunciation
- writing
- text message shortcuts
- grammar
- reading
- slang
- punctuation
- grammar
- not understanding movies
- pronunciation
- spelling
- different accents
2.3 SLANG WORDS: Make a list of English slang words or expressions that you know and their correct form in English.
2.4 SLANG DISCUSSION: Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion on Wednesday:
a) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘slang’?
b) Do you think standards of speech are falling in your country?
c) How well spoken are you in your native language?
d) What’s wrong with slang and “street” language?
e) What do you think of the phrase “innit” to cover a variety of tag questions?
f) Do you like using slang?
g) What English slang do you like or dislike?
h) If you knew more English slang, how would it help you?
i) Does using slang in your own language make you sound stupid?
j) Did you find this article interesting? Why?/Why not?
k) Do you think people need to rethink the importance of grammar and language?
l) What do you understand by the term “articulacy as a form of personal human freedom and power”?
m) Do you think most people know where and when to use slang?
n) Do you think Emma Thompson has a point?
o) Is there “teenspeak” in your country? What do you think of it?
p) Do you think it’s OK to use text messaging shortcuts in regular written English?
q) What is your biggest problem with English?
r) What can parents do to understand “teenspeak”? Go to a “teenspeak” course?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 10, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Slang is absolutely essential for the development of a language, it shows a language is alive. Express your opinion.
- Advantages and disadvantages of using slang in you daily life.
In today’s world, nearly every languages have slang in them, especially in important languages such as Spanish and English ones. Our languages are attacked by new words which come from other languages and new ways of communication, for example, text messages using either, computers or mobile phones.
ReplyDeleteMany people are concerned by this development of the languages. Young people use slang even when they shouldn’t, for example, when they speak to elderly who don’t understand anything they listen to, besides, another example is when they are at school and they use this words in class in front of teachers. So in my opinion, it is a wrong way to communicate to other people, because of that I find it very rude.
However, languages have to renew if the language wants to go on alive. It has been in this way for thousand years. We can find new words in dictionaries every days. All the new words which we use frequently, at the end finish being caught by academics, who study them, and afterwards, they decide if this words are included in language dictionaries or not.
To sum up, slang is very integrated in our daily life, but it doesn’t mean that we have to use them whenever we want, but when people speak to people’s group whose they belong to, and all of them understand themselves. When people are outside these groups they should use a formal language, so in this way, languages keep growing or raising little by little in a proper way.
Languages have always been spoken in different ways. From English to Spanish, passing by Italian, German, Dutch or any other, they used to use some words than they haven't used any more. And we are using new words that our ancestors could not imagine, as for example: computer or ADN.
ReplyDeleteHowever, English, despite of being alive, should be spoken properly, as the rest of current languages. We can compare how our great-great grand-father dressed with how we usually dress nowadays. Obviously, nobody has any doubt of it is substantially different. But, I believe that, everybody agree in that point, every place or situation has its appropriate clothes. It is in that way that I am trying to develop the main idea.
In addition to that, if we are in a “slang” place we surely sound ridiculous if we speak using the Queen English or, on the contrary, if we are giving a lecture to nuclear physicists using slang expressions, we may seems particularly stupid or a little eccentric.
In conclusion, languages are alive if we like or not, but it don’t mean that we can use them as we want. So, we should decide what the most appropriate way to express our ideas is and it will demonstrate how intelligent or how stupid we are.
Languages have always been spoken in different ways. From English to Spanish, passing by Italian, German, Dutch or any other, they used to use some words than they haven't used any more. And we are using new words that our ancestors could not imagine, as for example: computer or ADN.
However, English, despite of being alive, should be spoken properly, as the rest of current languages. We can compare how our great-great grand-father dressed with how we usually dress nowadays. Obviously, nobody has any doubt of it is substantially different. But, I believe that, everybody agree in that point, every place or situation has its appropriate clothes. It is in that way that I am trying to develop the main idea.
In addition to that, if we are in a “slang” place we surely sound ridiculous if we speak using the Queen English or, on the contrary, if we are giving a lecture to nuclear physicists using slang expressions, we may seems particularly stupid or a little eccentric.
In conclusion, languages are alive if we like or not, but it don’t mean that we can use them as we want. So, we should decide what the most appropriate way to express our ideas is and it will demonstrate how intelligent or how stupid we are.
When you grow older, you tend to think things have to stay in the same way as you have known when you were young, of course, because there are better in this way. But if you look back on the past, you can see all the things are always changing and when they stop moving, they die.
ReplyDeleteTalking about language and vocabulary, people in general and young people in particular just try to adapt themselves to new technologies and new ways of communication. Maybe this adaptation means to become our language poorer, but why would you use a more complicated vocabulary if you can express yourself with less words.
Some years ago you needed more than twenty-four hours to cook a good soup and this one would be much better than the one you can cook at home nowadays, not to mention an industrial soup you can find in a supermarket, but how many people prefer to cook that long-cooked soup instead of buying a soup pack and cooking it in the microwaves?
Although we do not like, language will change in order to be useful for the people and it will be very difficult to impose a way of talking which implies to lose your time just because it supposes to be richer, in other words, pragmatism will defeat romanticism.