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If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to
him in his own language, that goes to his heart.
Nelson Mandela (South African anti-apartheid revolutionary)
One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the
way.
Frank Smith (contemporary English psychologist)
You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.
Geoffrey Willans (English author and journalist)
Activity 1
Come up with a new word
Work in teams of five. As a team, invent a new word. It could be a word in English, but just for
this time, it will work better if the word is in Spanish so that you can best analyze your school
community.
Now start using your new word. Use it in the classroom, in the schools cafeteria or in the
halls, wherever it is appropriate. The purpose is that everybody can learn it and make it part
of their vocabulary. Do it for five days, then share your experience with the class.
Activity 2
A new member in the family
The following exercise will help you see how a new word enters a language. This
phenomenon happens because of changes in society, technology, and scientific
developments.
You will need to have an Internet connection to do this exercise. Follow the
teacher's instructions carefully and do not get ahead of him.
1. Before doing the exercise, do some research and answer the following questions.
a. What is a linguistic corpus?
b. Why are corpora useful to study a language like English?
2. Visit the website:
http://corpus.byu.edu/time/
Your screen should look like this:
In the highlighted section, change the way the results will be displayed to CHART. You will
type the word you want to search in the text field WORD(S). In this booklet, we will use the
word hip-hop as an example.
4. Type the word and click on the SEARCH button. The results should display in a bar chart.
Notice when the word hip-hop grew in popularity. It began being used in the
80s and in the 90s. Today virtually everybody knows its meaning and
associates it with music, entertainment, and fashion.
Think:
Work with a partner. Write your answers in your notebook, then tell your
teacher.
5. You can click on the bars to see the word being used in context. In the images below you
can see the results (also known as concordances) for the word hip-hop. You can click on the
list item (also known as concordance) to see when the word was used and a more complete
view of the context in which it was used.
6. Now it is your turn! Look up the following words in the TIME corpus and decide how they
were introduced in the English language.
soccer
the Internet (a worldwide network of computers)
miniskirt (piece of clothing)
reggaeton (music style)
video game
5
Activity 3
Reading
1. Before reading the text about construction, do some research to answer the following
questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Construction
Donn E. Hancher
University of Kentucky
The construction industry is one of the largest segments of business in the United States, with
the percentage of the gross national product spent in construction over the last several years
averaging about 10%. For 2001, the total amount spent on new construction contracts in the
U.S. is estimated at $481 billion [Engineering News Record, Nov. 19, 2001]. Of this total, about
$214 billion is estimated for residential projects, $167 billion for nonresidential projects, and
the rest for non-building projects.
Construction is the realization phase of the civil engineering process, following conception
and design. It is the role of the constructor to turn the ideas of the planner and the detailed
plans of the designer into physical reality. The owner is the ultimate consumer of the product
and is often the general public for civil engineering projects. Not only does the constructor
have an obligation to the contractual owner, or client, but also an ethical obligation to the
general public to perform the work so that the final product will serve its function
economically and safely.
The construction industry is typically divided into specialty areas, with each area requiring
different skills, resources, and knowledge to participate effectively in it. The area
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Exercise 3
Your 10-year-old brother is curious about what you study in school. Write a short description
about construction and what is involved in it. Use the cognates that you identified in exercise
two to help you. Remember to keep it simple so that your younger brother can understand.
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make comparisons
Think:
How can you use what you have learned in this lesson when you take your
English classes or do homework?
Work with a partner. Write your answers in your notebook, then tell your
teacher.
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Activity 4
What kind of English should I learn?
This is a question that every serious English student should ask at some point in their studies.
However, it is not always easy to decide. This activity will show you some of the most
important varieties of the English language and hopefully, help you decide what kind of
English you should learn.
English is widely spoken all over the world. It is estimated that there are 427
million people who have English as their first language, just second after
Mandarin Chinese.
Exercises:
1. Listen to the text in six different accents. Raise your hand if you like the English you hear.
Barnes, M. (2014). AUE: The alt.usage.english Newsgroup. The Audio Archive: Arthur the
Rat. Retrieved June 08, 2014, from http://alt-usage-english.org/index.shtml
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Activity 5
The dictionary
What is a dictionary? What kind of dictionaries are there? How can you use it effectively? This
activity will help you answer these questions.
A dictionary is an extremely useful tool which will allow you to become more
independent in your studies. Learning to use it will help you know the meaning
of words even when there is not a teacher in front of you! It usually has
grammar reference sections, extra exercises, illustrations, and even a
pronunciation guide. How can all of those resources help you complement your
classes?
Exercise 1:
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2. Write the bibliographic record of three dictionaries of different kind. If it is allowed by the
library, take a picture for each cover. Write a brief description about the usefulness and
characteristics of each dictionary.
Organize the information as it is shown in the following example:
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Bibliographic record
Description:
A completely revised and updated edition of this best-selling language reference is now
available. It covers the core vocabulary of everyday life with over 75,000 clear, concise
definitions. It includes pronunciations, word origins and synonym lists, special sections and
tables.
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Activity 6
There's a problem with my food!
Read the following situation:
You are eating in the school cafeteria but theres something massively wrong with your food
(you name the problem). Four of you are sitting at a table when suddenly, the school principal
approaches you and asks you: How do you like your food? What will you say? How will you
say it?
Work in teams of 5. Write a conversation where you demonstrate the situation above. Each
team member has to speak and ideally, nobody should dominate the conversation. Take into
account that you will be talking to the school principal so, try to be polite.
Think:
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Activity 7
Online translators
1. Discuss the following questions with your class:
1. Do you know any online translator?
2. How often do you use them?
3. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using them?
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3. Individually, look for a short paragraph or poem in Spanish. Use an online translator of your
choice to translate it into the following languages:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Compare the original text with the final version that the translator gives you. Discuss your
findings in small groups, then tell your class.
4. Answer the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Activity 8
Structure and meaning
1. Discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups:
What is grammar?
Why is it important to study it?
Think:
Have a look at the following examples of an idea expressed in different languages and its
Spanish word-for-word translation:
Me duele la cabeza (tengo dolor de cabeza)
I have a headache
yo tengo un cabeza-dolor
jag har ont i huvudet
yo tengo mal en cabeza-la
der Kopf tut mir weh
La cabeza hace a mi mal
jai mal la tte
yo tengo mal en la cabeza
(u menja bolit golova)
en mi duele cabeza
Think:
After looking at the examples, would you say that the French or German speak
wrongly or differently?
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By now you know that English uses auxiliary verbs to make questions and
negatives, e.g. Do you like dancing? No, I dont. That is one of its peculiarities,
a linguistic tradition different from Spanish.
2. Discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups. Then tell your class.
What is meaning?
Why is it important?
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With the help of a dictionary, say what you think the sentence means.
Work in groups of three. Type or write the sentence (with large letters) on a separate
piece of paper. Interview an English teacher from your school; ask them to read the
sentence aloud and then say what they think it means.
Student: Read the sentence aloud, please.
Teacher: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Student: What do you think it means?
Teacher:
Think:
Is grammar more important than meaning or are they equally important? Why?
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Activity 9
The most frequent words in English
Have you ever wondered what the most frequently used words in English are? Have a look at
the following list of the 25 most frequent words of spoken English:
Frequency* Word
12,653 so
39,457 the
12,641 was
39,114 I
12,526 is
38,147 and
11,666 we
30,822 you
10,951 know
27,106 to
10,892 have
23,372 a
8,977 just
22,864 that
8,803 they
20,997 it
8,617 its
18,067 of
8,543 what
13,169 like
8,509 but
12,916 in
8,490 this
12,785 yeah
8,440 do
Make sure that you know the meaning and pronunciation of those 25 words
since they are extremely common in everyday conversation.
Exercises
1. Classify the words into content words and function words:
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Function words
Function words are words which have little
meaning on their own, but which show
grammatical relationships in and between
sentences: conjunctions, prepositions,
articles
2. What kind of words are more frequent in conversational English? What is the reason for
that?
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When you read or listen to English, pay attention to the words above. How does
native speakers use them? Highlight them in a text or make notes in your
notebook. In that way, you will not only be learning frequent vocabulary but also
frequent grammar!
3. Use the words from the list to make as many sentences as possible.
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Activity 10
I cant write in English and I dont know how to start
1. Work with a partner to discuss the following questions. Then tell your class.
1. Have you ever noticed how little children are able to communicate just with a few
words?
2. Have you noticed that what they say is not grammatically correct yet adults understand?
3. How do they do it?
2. Pay attention to the PowerPoint presentation your teacher will show you. Write your notes,
questions and comments here:
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25
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