Topic: Lessons

Classroom lesson plans and interactive smart board activities.

Pragmatics and turn-taking: Activity 1

Stacey Solomon TV interview

Comparing different modes

Students compare examples of English in use, including various written and spoken examples, and analyse them according to a scale.

Clauses in composition: Activity

Extract from a charity advertisement:

Nana-Kwame will never see his brothers. He will never see his sisters. He will never see his mother or father. They are dead.

Extract from a charity advertisement:

You can make the difference. You have the power. If you give just £10 we can make huge changes to these children’s lives.

Taken from Louis Sachar, Holes

Classroom language and TV drama: Activity 2

Grange Hill

Nonfinite clauses in literature

In this activity, students look at how nonfinite clauses might be used in their own writing and that of others to vary the structure of a text. On one level, this is about creating something that people like to read: something that is interesting, varied and engaging and designed to hook the reader or suit the style you are hoping to adopt. On another level, it’s about students showing teachers and examiners that they know about different forms and can use them in their writing.

Present participles in composition

This activity involves working with nonfinite clauses to do some sentence-splitting and sentence-joining. The purpose is to develop your awareness of the different kinds of structures that are available to you as a writer.

Attitudes to new modes

In this lesson, students will explore new modes of communication such as texting, online chat, and Facebook, which often come in for criticism from people who believe that they are damaging the way we use language.

Forensic linguistics: how is it done?

an explanation of text analysis methods

Forensic linguistics often uses a form of language analysis known as stylistics. In the past, stylistics was largely used to study the language styles of literature texts, but when used as part of forensic stylistics it is applied to all sorts of language, from letters, text messages and audio recordings of police interviews, through to suicide notes and ransom demands.

Changing voice

Goals

Practise changing voice: from active sentences to passive, and passive sentences to active.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will practise turning actives into passives, and passives into actives.

Activity 1 in the right hand menu presents students with active sentences. Ask students to work individually, in pairs, or in groups and to write down a passive version of the sentence.

Forensic linguistics: some answers

suggested answers for the starter activity

So, what clues did you find? The police were convinced that the two sets of messages were actually from different people, and that Melinda hadn’t sent the messages on February 16th, but they needed evidence.

Some of the clues in the data are easier to spot than others, but here are some differences:

Englicious (C) Survey of English Usage, UCL, 2012-21 | Supported by the AHRC and EPSRC. | Privacy | Cookies