UNIT 2: MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

TOPIC: Language TIMING: 8 Sessions

Summary: This unit is divided in three blocks: 1) What I mean when I don’t say anything looks at body language; in 2) Slang is a piece of cake, innit? the focus is on the use of slang; and in
3) One language to rule them all! The central point lays on the dominance of English language and the extinction and revival of minority languages.
OBJECTIVES ASSESSMENT
Reading Comprehension Assessment Criteria
To understand the main ideas and specific information in a news article about slang in private boarding schools. Stated in Currículum LOMCE Catalunya Nivell
To understand the main ideas and specific information about an article about the effects of language in our behaviour. Avançat C1 - Anglès. [Pending Publication]
To understand the main ideas, events and Slang in an excerpt from a novel.
Listening Comprehension Assessment Procedures and Instruments
To understand the main ideas and details in a talk by an FBI Agent about how to read body language. Self-assessment: analysis of communicative
To understand jokes and Slang in a comedy TV show. input activities using self-assessment
To understand the main ideas and details from a promotional video from a private boarding school. questionnaire (reading and listening
To understand the main ideas and details in a News report about the abolishment of private schools; the revival of the Manx language. comprehension); analysis of written product
To recognise intonation in question tags (summary and graph interpretation) using self-
Spoken Production and Interaction assessment questionnaire; end unit self-
To take part in argumentative interactions about the correctness of using slang, respecting the social conventions. assessment checklist.
To take part in argumentative interactions about the dominance of the English language, respecting the social conventions. Peer-assessment: analysis of written production
To summarise and reformulate the main ideas in article about Slang. (graph interpretation) using a peer response form.
To initiate and maintain conversations about private education, respecting social conventions. Teacher-led assessment: information from self-
Written Production and Interaction assessment questionnaires (all skills); observation
To write a dialogue using slang following the conventions of this type of text.
and eavesdropping using a classroom observation
To write a description and interpretation of a graph about world languages, adapting lexis and structures to the topic.
numerical rating checklist and anecdotal records
To write a forum contribution about the situation of minority language, adapting to the communicative situation.
(all skills); analysis of written products (written
Mediation
mediation) using analytical rubrics.
Spoken Written
To express a personal response to a mural by Artez. To select and adapt the main ideas from a video to write an article about
To deliver a presentation of a graph using the appropriate the abolition of private schools.
discursive strategies of this type of text.
CONTENTS
Strategies
Language Use Strategies: listening and reading for gist and for detail; skimming; scanning; formulation of hypothesis and their verification or reformulation; guessing the meaning of words
using previous knowledge or the textual context; knowledge of oral and written conventions; simplification of a denser text; selection of relevant ideas; text interpretation; transmission of the main
points; data interpretation and drawing conclusions from visual inputs (graphs); clarification and exemplification of ideas (debate); conceding or partially agreeing; being emphatic, steering a
debate; referring back and disputing; presenting evidences. Language Learning Strategies: hypothesis formulation referred to meaning (listening and reading comprehension); reasoning and
verification of the formulated hypothesis (all skills); acknowledgment of usage differences between the oral and the written code (written mediation, writing – graph interpretation, speaking –
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debate, oral mediation – work of art interpretation); using self-assessment and peer-assessment as a tool to improve learning; accepting partial or superficial understanding of a communicative
situation; awareness of the role of classmates as a learning aid (pair/group work).
Text Types Text Organisation
Written Spoken • Contextual Adequacy: identifying interlocutors, their mutual relations and the communicative
Receptive: Receptive:
intentions; identifying the format of different text types, identifying the register; selection of
News articles, articles, Debate, talks, excerpts from TV programmes, a comedy
main ideas.
infographics, graphs, a literary sketch, news reports and reports.
• Coherence and Cohesion: Identification of the sequence of a graph interpretation and the
text. Productive:
use of adequate expressions to connect them; expressions to describe trends, quantity and
Productive: Dialogue, discussions, debate, problem solving tasks,
percentages; Formulas for discourse beginning (This graph shows…, ), maintenance
Dialogues, note taking, casual conversations, informal discussions.
(precision and nuance – let me put it another way; concessions – although it is true that…)
arguments for a debate and a
and closing (I may understand some of your arguments, but my mind is set. ); Topic
graph interpretation and forum
maintenance by means of co-reference; intonation as a resource for the oral cohesion.
contribution.
Functions Notions
Affirming, negating, comparing, annotating, expressing curiosity, describing the physical and evaluative Lexical elements: emotions, gestures and body language, slang, types of
qualities of graphs, expressing knowledge or lack of it, expressing doubt and certainty, describing states and graphs, trends, quantifiers, and statistics.
present situations, expressing future and events and predictions, defending (2); requesting, expressing and evaluative quality, quantity, existence and non-existence (1)
arguing an opinion or belief with different degree of firmness, expressing agreement or disagreement,
objecting, complaining, formulating conjectures (5); accepting or refusing to do something, admitting,
promising, swearing (6); giving advise and advising against, recommending, informing, warning, encouraging
and discouraging, expressing the desire for someone to do something (7); persuading, dissuading(8).
Macro-functions: 1) Socialisation; 2) Information; 3) Pleasure; 4) Feelings, attitudes, moods; 5) Opinions, 1) Entities; 2) Space; 3) Time; 4) Mode; 5) Estates, events, actions, processes
beliefs, hypothesis; 6) Intention, decision, volition; 7) Advice, offers; 8) Suasion and activities; 6) Logical relations between estates, processes and activities.
Sociocultural Competence Sociolinguistic Competence
- The British private boarding school system. - Connotations of using slang as a linguistic marker of social relationships.
- Slang, rhyming slang and Cockney accent. - Increasing the degree of subjectivity by means of hedging.
- Understanding gestures, postures and facial expressions to infer meaning.
- Using intonation for adding information or changing the topic.
Vocabulary & Lexis Morphosyntax Orthography Phonology
- Emotions. - Nominalisation - Punctuation - Intonation of vague expressions.
- Gestures and body language. - Hedging - Adding information or changing the topic.
- Slang - Anaphoric, Cataphoric and Exophoric References
- Types of graphs, trends, quantifiers,
statistics.
ACTIVITIES BY LANGUAGE ACTIVITY
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 Speaking Linguistic Competence
Reading
- Grammar – Building Monster Noun Phrases [English - Vocabulary – Emotions. Match emotions in the
- Article about how language affects the behaviour from [English Hub].
Hub] (Appendix X) short animation film Paperman (2012) with the
- An excerpt from the play G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion.
- Discussions about Emma Thompson’s words about word.
- (Jigsaw) – Article about the creativity of Slag from [medium.com]. Match
slang (Appendix X) - Vocabulary – Gestures and body Language
statements with paragraphs.
- (Game) – Adaptation of the British TV programme from [English Hub]. Match body parts with the
- A report about the situation of the minority languages in the world. Put the
‘Would I lie to you?’ from BBC One. gestures.
different parts of the text in order.
- (Game) – ‘Carrot in a box’ Adaptation of a section in - Vocabulary – slang [English Hub]. Match slang
- Article about the Slang used in British boarding schools from [The Telegraph].
the British TV programme 8 Out of 10 Cats from E4. words with their meaning. Rewrite sentence
Multiple choice Qs.
- (Game) – Graph Bingo (Appendix X) using the standard variety.
- An article about the English language from [www.cosmosmagazine.com].
- (Game) – Graph Battleships (Appendix X) - Vocabulary - Types of graphs, trends,
Multiple-choice Qs.
- (Game) – Graph Who’s Who (Appendix X) quantifiers, statistics. Match words with images,
- Graph Description – SA describes a graph and SB fill in the gaps and rewrite sentences.
Mediation
Written draws the graph (and vice-versa). - Grammar – Nominalisation. Choose the

- Note taking from the video ‘How bilingual brains perceive time differently.’ to - Writing – Graph interpretation: Ss draw conclusions correct option and rewrite sentences.

write noun phrases. from different graphs and infographics in small groups. - Grammar – Hedging. Underline, match

- Note taking from the video ‘Don’t insist on English’ by Patricia Ryan from TED - Debate: Is Slang used to belong to a certain social sentences halves and rewrite sentences.

Talk to help organise ideas (jumbled and cut out). group or to socially distance oneself from unwanted - Grammar and punctuation – Add connectors

- Note taking from the video ‘How long will the global dominance of the English people? and punctuation marks in a text (jumbled and

language last?’ by David Bellos from Big Think to help draw conclusions from a - Debate: Are languages with fewer speakers bound to cut out).

graph. disappear? - Phonology – Intonation in question tags

– Write an article about the abolition of private schools from the video ‘Should [English Hub]. Draw arrows for rising/falling

we abolish private schools?’ from The Guardian. intonation and Imitate intonation.

Spoken
- React to ’Silencio’ a mural by Artez.
Writing
- Using the notes from ‘How bilingual brains perceive time differently.’ write sentences using Nominalisation.
Listening - A dialogue using Slang.
- Video (comedy sketch): ‘Catherine Tate: Lauren and Beyoncé’. rite down - Arguments about using Slang in school (using Nominalisation).
Slang words. - Graph Interpretation: Write about the graph ‘The Big Language Divide: Most spoken languages around the
- Video (report): ‘Former FBI Agent Explains How to Read Body Language’. world and languages dominating the Internet’ from The Times of India.
Multiple-choice Qs. - A forum contribution about the situation of minority language
- Video: ‘Northern Ireland and the revival of Manx Gaelic’. Multiple choice Qs.

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