The OED is updated four times a year, every March, June, September, and December. The material added to the dictionary includes revised versions of existing entries (which replace the older versions), and new words and senses both within the alphabetical sequence of revised entries and also across the whole A to Z range. More than 600 new words, phrases, and senses have entered the Oxford English Dictionary in our latest update.

Morphological word formation

There are two subcategories; words created by derivation and words created by conversion.

Derivation

Derivation is the process of forming new words from existing ones by adding affixes to them, like shame + less + ness → shamelessness.

Convertion

Also known as zero-affixation, conversion involves forming a new word from an existing identical one, like forming the verb To google from the existing proper noun.

Blending

A blend is a word formed by joining parts of two or more older words. An example is smog, which comes from smoke and fog, or brunch, which comes from 'breakfast' and 'lunch'.

Sub-categories of blending are:

Acronym (a word formed from initial letters of the words in a phrase, like English laser from light amplified by stimulated emission of radiation)
Clipping (morphology) (taking part of an existing word, like forming ad from advertisemen

Recalque

A Recalque is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation. A sub-category of Recalquing is the semantic loan, that is, the extension of the meaning of a word to include new, foreign meanings.

Neologism

A neologism is a completely new word, like quark. Subcategories of neologisms include:

The eponym, a proper noun that becomes commonly used for an idea it is associated with, usually by changing its part of speech, like Xerox, Orwellian, and Stentorian.
The loanword, a word borrowed from another language, as cliché is from French.
An onomatopoeic word, a word which imitates natural sounds, like the bird name cuckoo.
Formation using phono-semantic matching, that is, matching a foreign word with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existing native word/root.

Languages are learnt in many diferent ways. Traditional learning in a classroom is only one way of input. Anyone who has learnt a foreign language knows that adquisition or "picking it up" is also plays a big role. Self-teaching is another way of learning a foreign language. None of these are less important than others and as teacher we can motivate students to learn in these three ways even within our classroom.

This activity is useful to reflect on the different ways of learning as well as to get to know each other a bit better. It consist of writing four words or having for pictures. One represents something you learnt through traditional learning. Another something you taught yourself. Then something you acquired and finally something you want to learn.

Reflection on the learning process

Here you can find a compilation of both the language and activities that we have worked on this strand of the programme. Although these activities have been used with a group of adults with a proficient level in English they can be adapted to any age provising more support and possibly different topics.

Call my bluff

New words in English

How did I learn

Types of learning processes

Call My Bluff is a long-running British game show between two teams of three celebrity contestants. The point of the game is for the teams to take it in turn to provide three definitions of an obscure word, only one of which is correct. The other team then has to guess which is the correct definition, the other two being "bluffs".

Call My Bluff began in 1965 and ran until 1988, when it was felt that the programme had run its course. Luckily it was re-commissioned in 1997, with former Blockbusters host Bob Holness as chairman and team captains Alan Coren and Sandi Toksvig.

Since we are all experienced teachers and the level of language is very high the teacher gave us an argument about a topic that was quite interesting for us: Should parents have the right to monitor their children's conversations with their friends online?

We were divided in two groups and were given one side of the argument to defend. In our groups we had to prepare a group statement that the representative would read and then, the debate began.

Once we had reached a consensus, we analysed the language used in the debate that we found interesting and made note of it.

This process is very useful as well to see what language does each student use and try to move them out of their comfort zone towards new terms and structures.

Most English learners feel that they need more conversation practice. In fact, over the years I've noticed that the number one requested skill by students is conversation practice. I think this points clearly to the fact that students need English to communicate first and foremost. Grammar, writing and other skills are all very important, but in the students' minds conversation is the most important. Unfortunately, teaching conversational skills is much more challenging that teaching grammar.

I find it helpful to first focus on building skills by eliminating some of the barriers that might be in the way of production. Having been assigned roles, opinions and points of view that they do not necessarily share, students are freed from having to express their own opinions. Therefore, they can focus on expressing themselves well in English. In this way, students tend to concentrate more on production skills, and less on factual content. They also are less likely to insist on literal translations from their mother tongue.

Having students support opinions that are not necessarily their own during debates can help improve students fluency. In this manner, students pragmatically focus on correct production skills in conversation rather than striving to "win" the argument.

Here you can find some examples of activites. Also here you have a few writing workshops very similar to the activity on the right: Weighing an argument Building an argument Refuting an argument

Class debate

Defending an argument

Venn diagram

Think Pair Share involves posing a question to students, asking them to take a few minutes of thinking time and then turning to a nearby student to share their thoughts.

This routine encourages students to think about something, such as a problem, question or topic, and then articulate their thoughts. The Think Pair Share routine promotes understanding through active reasoning and explanation. Because students are listening to and sharing ideas, Think Pair Share encourages students to understand multiple perspectives.

We used it to draw the main points of a good presentation but it can be used for many things in a classroom.

You can find information about his routine and more thinking routines for the classroom here.

We had been working in groups of four on a mini research project about a current topic. We chose the NHS since the papers were full of articles explaining how difficult to mantain it was and the changes under consideration.

We had to present it to the other class under five minutes. Before that, we agreed on three things that make a good presentation but you can find more here and here .

KISS: It stand for keep it short and simple. There is nothing people hate more than someone going on and on about something that can be explained in a sentence.
One minute, one slide: If you keep changing slides fast you are going to distract people too much.
Show team work: Divide and conquer? Sure. But make sure the work has been done together and that you all know the topic very well.

Down below you can see the first and the final presentation we did.

Think, pair, share

What makes a good presentation

After each of our presentations we were asked to give feedback to the different groups. As teachers we should be used to giving feedback but that doesn't mean we are good at it. People are usually too honest or sugar coate the truth too much.

This lesson could have been very painful if it wasn't for the sandwich technique (see opposite) and for group work. In our groups we had to give feedback using the sandwich technique after analysing the presentations.

Teachers are not the only ones who should be giving feedback. Students are, after all, in the centre of the learning process so they should have a say too.

If you want to improve on giving good feedback click here. Here I live a presentation from www.bostonpublicschools.org

The sandwich technique

Giving feedback

Working on the same topic as before we were told to do some research on a current affairs topic: The teachers' strike. After coming to class, we were assigned one role among Secretary of Education, Union Representative, Headteacher and Parent. In our groups we had to talk about what we knew about the strike and what our arguments were going to be to defend our possition.

Every person in the group had 30 minutes to reseach one are of the argment and then, dring the last five minutes we put in common the arguments we were going to use in the debate groups.

Reasearch is no just reading articles. I can be watching videos on how someone defends that possitions, investigatin the other team's arguments to find responses to them or it could be focusing on the language you need for debates.

Roleplay research

Avoiding deadlock in a debate

We were given five pieces of paper with crucial moments in the development of women's rights in the UK and the had to order them chronologically.

Then, we found five headings on the wall with different decades from the 50's to the 2000's. Then we had to blue tack our papers and look around and change some statements that we though our classmates had put under the wrong decade.

It is impressive how difficult it is to timeline this events since there are many contradictions, for example, Margaret Thacher was the Prime Minister however she couldn't file her own tax forms.

You can see the timeline with all the facts and some more we didn't see in class here.

In this wonderful group of teachers you can find people with very different ages. The teacher asked us to line up from the youngest to the oldest to divide us into four groups with a variety of ages.

Then, we needed to discuss gender issues that we remembered from when we were young. This served a an activation activity for the one on the right.

Then, after the activity, we watched this moving speech that Emma Watcson delivered in the UN for the HeforShe programmme. As her, I considered myself incrediably lucky of living in a time and a place where being a woman has never put a stop to my dreams. As a teacher I am determined to help build a society based on equality.

Organise chronologically

Gender issues

Humour varies across countries and cultures and it is a huge part of the communication between native speakers. Why do people laugh? And why do different people find different things funny? Are there any special linguistic mechanisms that humour understanding involves? You can find a great deal of information in this site that I have summarised here:

Implications for teaching and use of humour in the classroom

1. Humour is in most cases a linguistic phenomenon. As such, the ability to make and understand humour in a foreign language can be seen as part of the communicative competence and therefore, should be taught in the FLT classroom. Vega even claims that humour competence can be considered ‘the fifth component of the theoretical framework for communicative competence’ and it involves knowledge of the semantic mechanisms of humour, grammar, discourse rules, communication strategies, social norms of language use and world knowledge (Vega 1990).

Since to understand humour, one has to possess the correct semantic scripts and a good deal of the general knowledge shared by the majority of native speakers, the teacher should try to teach his/her students this lexical and cultural knowledge. It should include:

Scripts commonly used in the humorous discourse of a nationality (e.g. Americans think that Polish Americans are stupid; the British think that the Irish are stupid; Jews are stingy, etc.).
Appropriateness of subject matter, related to setting. There are scripts which are unavailable (tabooed) for humorous discourse in a particular situation, but may be all right to use in another. This appropriateness is culture specific.
The possible existence of genres of humour in the FL which are non-existent or different from those in the mother tongue (e.g. limericks and spoonerisms).

2. There are certain psychological benefits of humour and laughter which can be exploited in the EFL classroom.

3. What should teachers be careful about?

Gender. Sexist humour should be used with great caution in the classroom, because it is often rude and causes feelings of humiliation and resentment.
Maturity and age. Since there is a certain amount of intelligence involved in ‘getting’ a joke, our sense of humour develops with age.
Culture. Have you ever tried to tell a foreigner a joke and failed to arouse laughter? This would often be the case simply because they have not lived in the country and have no experience of what is being made fun of, or to use Veatch’s terms, they have no moral or emotional attachment to the principle being violated.
Timing. The teacher has to be aware of his/her students’ mood. Will they be receptive to a joke or will they experience it as annoying?

To sum up, humour can play a vital role in the teaching/learning process. First, it is an important part of the communicative competence and as such, should be studied in the EFL classroom. Second, when used carefully, it can be extremely useful to create a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere, stimulate the students, increase their satisfaction and productivity and enhance learning in general.

Telling jokes

Humour

We did two types of activities:

Activity 1:

The teacher provides new words added to the dictionary with three definitions (one true and two bluffs).

FOMO:
A - Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening

elsewhere, oftenaroused by posts seen on a social media website.
B - ...
C - ...

Activity 2:

In groups, students have to research new words added to the Cambridge dictionary recently. Then they must choose one and complete the definition with two other bluffs.

Then, the class votes on which one is the correct definition. The group that manages to get the least votes on the correct definition wins.

We chose applepick:

A - A new technique to harvest only the ripe apples.

B - Steal someone's iPhone.

C - The first person to choose team players in a sport.

Can you guess the correct one?

Venn diagrams are visual organisers that help compare two or more things to find common and differet points between them. Venn diagrams were conceived around 1880 by John Venn, so as you can see it has taken an while for them to reach our schools.

They can be done in a simple A3 piece of paper or online. If you use them in a paper with children you can print them out in colour or black and white so that they can decorate (specially if they don't have the skills to make their own circles). You have some templates here

Here you have website with the best tools to create a Venn diagram.

Research for an argument

As a teacher, what would cause you to strike? Using the Venn diagram on the right we were asked to reflect on the good thiings and bad things about our proffession. The Venn diagram was particularly useful for those aspects that we considered a double-edged sword.

Then we shared those diagrams with the other groups and got some more ideas. After that, we compared them with what teachers in the UK were striking for.

This was a very useful activity to get our brains going, to get ideas as a class with eveyone working together at the same time.

In these feedback technique you make positive statements, discuss areas for improvement, and then finish with more positive statements. If this technique is to be effective there can't be too much praise that obscures the criticism, there needs to be a balance. Praise must also be relevant and not used just as trivial information before the criticism.

Students can be stubborn. I can be stubborn. If I am giving a point to defend I will not back down. However, life is not about getting your way, it's about compromising. Students need to learn that in class as well. Everyone is much happier when they feel they have agreed on something as a team. If you start an activity like this in a class you should bear a few things in mind.

Before we do these types of activties it is important to remind children of the qualities of good talkers and listeners. Before they start the group work it is a good idea to remind them that they need to be respectful of other people’s ideas and opinions as they talk to reach a joint decision.

Here you can find a few more tips to include in this type of activities.

We all had one joke and then, we had to find jokes that were similar to ours. There were kock knock jokes, blonde jokes, English Irish and Scottish jokes, etc.

The we had to decide on what was the best joke in the group and tell it to the rest of the class so that we could analyse what makes a good joke.

The guardian newspaper gives this yips for telling a joke like a pro:

1. Relax If you feel awkward, so will the other person.

2. Vary your voice Monotone speech makes the joke boring.

3. Signal the punchline A little pause adds to the suspense.

4. If they don't laugh, give up Desperation isn't funny.

5. Believe in the joke you are telling If you think it's funny, they are more likely to agree.

And here are some of my favourite videos from these lessons on humour. Enjoy and use them in your lessons!

Vicky Pollard in Assembly from Little Britain

Catherine Tate as Lauren Cooper

Come fly with me

Adele needs to sign so the bartender can understand her.

Michael McIntyre - Comedy Roadshow

People with no kids don't know

Rastamouse is a Cbeebies show that follows crime-busting mouse reggae band Da Easy Crew, who split their time between making music and solving mysteries for Da President of Mouseland.

Some ESL teachers are reluctant to teach their students slang in class. However, it is important to provide students with an understanding of the usage of colloquial English and an awareness of the existence of slang expressions so they are not discouraged by non-textbook varieties of English. Furthermore, by practicing colloquial English and slang in the classroom setting, students can be spared potential embarrassment in the future by becoming accustomed to using it appropriately.

As teachers, if we are not constantly exposed to the foreign language, specially used by teens and young adults, it might be very difficult to teach slang to our students. Watching television and films helps to keep up with all these terms. If you need some more help you can find various lessons here, here and here.

Rastamouse

Teaching slang

In the class we analysed several articles about whether this show teaches proper English and numerous other controversial complaints about it.

Rastamouse: righteous rodent or rank stereotype?

Rastamouse provokes complaints of racism and teaching bad language

Leave Rastamouse alone

Rastamouse most-complained about children's TV show after sparking racism row