Units

Units A-Z

Units are sets of Resources on the same theme.

Verb identification In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying verbs. Goals Practise identifying verbs. Recognise linguistic criteria for identifying verbs. Remember the list of verb criteria for use and application later on. Lesson Plan In this lesson, students move beyond what is called the notional or semantic way of identifying verbs as 'doing words' to explore grammatical ways of identifying verbs. (You can listen to Bas Aarts discuss this.) » Read more	Vocabulary and semantic change Words change meaning over time. Some terms that used to have one meaning fifty years ago have developed very different meanings now. Often, slang terms are among those quickest to change, and we can see this in examples such as sick, wicked and gay, all of which have undergone fairly substantial shifts in meaning over relatively short periods of time. » Read more
Verb images This lesson asks students to think about tense and aspect, what they mean, and how else we can communicate those meanings. Goals Identify verb tense and aspect. Explain the meaning of verb tense and aspect. Use multimodal literacy skills to present information from words as pictures. Lesson Plan The teacher explains that today, we will be describing some pictures using language, and then drawing some pictures to describe language. » Read more	Word choice Why do writers use some words and not others? This lesson looks at word choice options, both grammatical and semantic. » Read more
Verbs Verbs have traditionally been described as ‘doing words’ or ‘action words’. This works well for some verbs, like sprint, chatter, eat. Here are some sentence examples with verbs which describe actions: » Read more	Word classes Word classes are categories into which we place words. Traditionally these have been called parts of speech, but word class is now the term used by linguists, and by the UK National Curriculum. The meanings of words can often be helpful in assigning words to a particular category. This is an effective approach for younger students, but older students can take a more sophisticated approach. » Read more
Verbs in fiction Exploring verb choices in different literary texts In this lesson, students identify verbs in fictional extracts and discuss the reasons why authors may have chosen particular verbs in their writing. » Read more	Word frequency What are the most frequently used words in English? And could we do without them? » Read more
Verbs in persuasive language In this lesson, students will analyse persuasive language in a charity appeal, and then write their own charity appeal. There is a particular focus on the way modal auxiliary verbs can be used to persuade. Goals Identify modal auxiliary verbs. Analyse persuasive language. Practise writing persuasively. Lesson Plan Activity 1 » Read more	Word frequency in speech and writing Comparing word frequencies is an interesting way to think about some of the differences between speech and writing. Which are the most frequent words in speech, and how do they compare with the most frequent words in writing? » Read more

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