Thursday December 2, 2005

Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

… And the winner is… no, not a movie, but a word. It’s official, ‘blog’ a contraction of the term ‘web log’, won the equivalent of a word Oscar yesterday for being the most searched word on the Internet in 2004. This is according to dictionary giant Mirriam-Webster. In a press release, they stated, “The number one word of the year, receiving the largest number of user- requests by a wide margin, is ‘blog’” Their dictionary definition is "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." According to Blogger.com, “A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more.” The word has been around since 1999, but only took off this year because of the explosion in world bloggers (people who blog - verb) who create blogs (noun). Blogging (noun) is the next big thing and will become as ubiquitous as texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing….

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about blogging, new technology, new words, web sites, the Internet…
To make things more fun, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. MY FAVE WORDS: Ask students to write down their 3 favourite English words, and three words they don’t particularly like. Explain to partners their reasons. Teacher puts interesting / common words on board.

3. OTHER CULTURES: Students mill around and ask what new words have entered the lexicons in their languages. Teacher writes a variety on board with English translations

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
- New words are too trendy for me. vs. You have to keep up with the latest vocab.
- I’m a traditionalist. It’s better for me to learn traditional vocabulary. vs No one uses old vocab.
- The Internet is a great way to learn new vocab. vs Books (paper ones) and dictionaries (paper ones) are best.
- Google, or other search engines, is the best way of finding collocations. vs. No, collocation dictionaries are the best way.
- New computer words are for geeks, netizens, cybernerds…not for real people. Vs. Wrong!
A personal diary should be personal and not be on the Web / Reading blogs are interesting.
The Internet and e-mail is destroying English and other languages. Vs. Opposite dude.

5. GEEK SPEAK: Introduce the geek / nerd. Ask if there are any geek in the class. Introduce the term ‘geekspeak’. Have a quick geekspeak quiz, especially the words at the end of the article - texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing. This is especially good (useful) with messaging/texting abbreviations: FYI, TTFN, CU …

6. …AND THE WINNER IS…: Put some categories on the board for other 2004 winners. Brainstorm suggestions for students to discuss / vote on.
E.g. file-sharing software / mp3 player / US politician / game / song / movie / happy event / mistake / etc etc etc

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. ‘BLOG’ WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the word ‘blog’. In fact it isn’t in paper dictionaries, so the challenge is to attempt this without conventional dictionaries.

2. BLOGGING: Students discuss reasons why people want to set up blogs and blog. What subject would they like to blog about? Get them to create new members of the word family ‘blog’ (mine are ‘blog off’, ‘blogging hell’, ‘blog jam’, ‘bloggercize’, ‘blognophobia’, ‘blogpert’, but I won’t give my definitions here.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	It’s	word on the Internet
(b)	a contraction	people
(c)	the most searched	big thing
(d)	dictionary	definition
(e)	by a wide	official
(f)	dictionary	giant
(g)	personal	margin
(h)	interact with	journal
(i)	the word has been	of the term …
(j)	the next	around since 1999

4. OTHER WINNERS: Students match the words which came 2^nd to 10^th in the Mirriam-Webster awards. (Listed in descending order) After students have finished and the answers checked, brainstorm the contexts for why these words were most searched (Iraq, US election, penchant for assisted bungee-less jumping … Don’t forget to work on pronunciation – these words can be tricky

(a)	incumbent (2nd)	devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause
(b)	electoral	of or relating to elections
(c)	insurgent	in cycling, a densely packed group of riders who stay together for mutual advantage
(d)	hurricane	the act of throwing someone or something out of a window
(e)	cicada	someone currently holding a specified office
(f)	peloton	a wind with a speed greater than 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour
(g)	partisan	complete independence and self-government
(h)	sovereignty	someone who rises in revolt against established authority, especially a government
(i)	defenestration (10th)	an insect with large wings; male has drum-like organs for producing a high-pitched sound

5. PRE-TELL: Students try to pre-tell the contents of the article from the following contracted or two-word lexical terms:
- word Oscar
- most-searched
- dictionary giant
- press release
- user- requests
- wide mar gin
- online journal
- easy-to-use (OK there are 3 parts here)
- took off
- big thing

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. 12-GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

…And the Winner is… Blog

… And the winner is… no, not a movie, but a __________. It’s official, ‘blog’ a contraction of the __________ ‘web log’, won the equivalent of a word Oscar yesterday for being the most __________ word on the Internet in 2004. This is according to dictionary giant Mirriam-Webster. In a __________ release, they stated, “The __________ one word of the year, receiving the largest number of user- requests by a __________ margin, is ‘blog’” Their dictionary definition is "a Web site that contains an __________ personal journal with reflections, comments, and often __________ provided by the writer." According to Blogger.com, “A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly __________ thoughts, interact with people, and more.” The word has been around since 1999, but only took __________ this year because of the explosion in world bloggers (people who blog - verb) who create blogs (noun). Blogging (noun) is the __________ big thing and will become as __________ as texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing….

wide term word number press off online ubiquitous post searched hyperlinks next

2. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the word match exercise.

3. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

4. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. 10-MINUTE DEBATES: In pairs / groups, students brainstorm ideas based on one of the ‘2-minute debates’ from above. Do the following to increase student involvement in language, ideas, opinion-giving, concept-familiarization, comfort and confidence with speaking…Take part in the debate, repeat the debate with same partner(s), repeat the debate with changed partners, talk about your role in the debate, talk about whether you agree with what you said in the debate, repeat all of the previous but with students now taking the opposite sides of their previous debates (change sides)

6. GROUP BLOG: Students choose one topic to blog about. The group / pair choose one student to go first. That student starts the blog on the chosen topic by writing down a thought, idea, opinion – anything. The next person reads and responds, and the next and the next. Keep it going in a circle. Students comment on these blog entries either as they are written down, or when the complete blog is finished, when students have been fully blogged. Students change groups / partners and share / talk about their blogs

7. NEW STUFF: Students express their experiences, knowledge and opinions on the new pursuits of texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing, surfing (the Net),

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on blogging. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. BLOGGER.COM: Try the real thing yourself in English. Follow the simple steps at blogger.com, start a blog and see what happens. Report yo ur experiment in the next class.

4. RESEARCH: Choose one of the new pursuits in Post-Reading activities #7 and create a poster of explanation.

ANSWERS

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	It’s	official
(b)	a contraction	of the term …
(c)	the most searched	word on the Internet
(d)	dictionary	definition
(e)	by a wide	margin
(f)	dictionary	giant
(g)	personal	journal
(h)	interact with	people
(i)	the word has been	around since 1999
(j)	the next	big thing

DEFINITIONS:

(a)	incumbent	someone currently holding a specified office
(b)	electoral	of or relating to elections
(c)	insurgent	someone who rises in revolt against established authority, especially a government
(d)	hurricane	a wind with a speed greater than 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour
(e)	cicada	an insect with large wings; male has drum-like organs for producing a high-pitched sound
(f)	peloton	in cycling, a densely packed group of riders who stay together for mutual advantage
(g)	partisan	devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause
(h)	sovereignty	complete independence and self-government
(i)	defenestration	the act of throwing someone or something out of a window