5.2.2 Manual para el alumno 1 Language Awareness activities Jesús Horacio Báez Ávila “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” −Nelson Mandela (South African anti-apartheid revolutionary) “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” −Frank Smith (contemporary English psychologist) “You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.” −Geoffrey Willans (English author and journalist)
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Language Awareness activitiesJesús Horacio Báez Ávila
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk tohim in his own language, that goes to his heart.”−Nelson Mandela (South African anti-apartheid revolutionary)
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along theway.”−Frank Smith (contemporary English psychologist)
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”−Geoffrey Willans (English author and journalist)
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Activity 1Come up with a new word
Work in teams of five. As a team, invent a new word. It could be a word in English, but just forthis time, it will work better if the word is in Spanish so that you can best analyze your schoolcommunity.
What kind of word is it? Is it a noun? Is it a verb? Is it an adjective or adverb? How do you spell it? What does it mean? How is it pronounced?
A word normally has a specific function. Sometimes people like to invent newwords so that they cannot be understood easily or to distinguish themselves aspart of a group. Words usually refer to people, objects, places and phenomenaaround us.
Write your answers below:
Now start using your new word. Use it in the classroom, in the school´s cafeteria or in thehalls, wherever it is appropriate. The purpose is that everybody can learn it and make it partof their vocabulary. Do it for five days, then share your experience with the class.
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Activity 2A new member in the family
The following exercise will help you see how a new word enters a language. Thisphenomenon happens because of changes in society, technology, and scientificdevelopments.
You will need to have an Internet connection to do this exercise. Follow theteacher's instructions carefully and do not get ahead of him.
1. Before doing the exercise, do some research and answer the following questions.
a. What is a linguistic corpus?b. Why are corpora useful to study a language like English?
2. Visit the website:
http://corpus.byu.edu/time/Your screen should look like this:
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3. Once you have pressed the ENTER button, your screen will change to this:
In the highlighted section, change the way the results will be displayed to CHART. You willtype the word you want to search in the text field WORD(S). In this booklet, we will use theword hip-hop as an example.
4. Type the word and click on the SEARCH button. The results should display in a bar chart.
Notice when the word hip-hop grew in popularity. It began being used in the80s and in the 90s. Today virtually everybody knows its meaning andassociates it with music, entertainment, and fashion.
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Think: Why does a word become popular? Why did anyone not use it before?
Work with a partner. Write your answers in your notebook, then tell yourteacher.
5. You can click on the bars to see the word being used in context. In the images below youcan see the results (also known as concordances) for the word hip-hop. You can click on thelist item (also known as concordance) to see when the word was used and a more completeview of the context in which it was used.
6. Now it is your turn! Look up the following words in the TIME corpus and decide how theywere introduced in the English language.
soccer the Internet (a worldwide network of computers) miniskirt (piece of clothing) reggaeton (music style) video game
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Activity 3Reading
1. Before reading the text about construction, do some research to answer the followingquestions:
1. What types of text are there?2. What type of text is the one below?3. Where can you find a text like this one?4. Does it use formal or informal language?
You can use the following link to help you: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/factsheet/en03text-e3-f-different-types-of-text
2. Read the following text about construction. Then answer the exercises at the bottom.
Construction
Donn E. HancherUniversity of Kentucky
The construction industry is one of the largest segments of business in the United States, withthe percentage of the gross national product spent in construction over the last several yearsaveraging about 10%. For 2001, the total amount spent on new construction contracts in theU.S. is estimated at $481 billion [Engineering News Record, Nov. 19, 2001]. Of this total, about$214 billion is estimated for residential projects, $167 billion for nonresidential projects, andthe rest for non-building projects.
Construction is the realization phase of the civil engineering process, following conceptionand design. It is the role of the constructor to turn the ideas of the planner and the detailedplans of the designer into physical reality. The owner is the ultimate consumer of the productand is often the general public for civil engineering projects. Not only does the constructorhave an obligation to the contractual owner, or client, but also an ethical obligation to thegeneral public to perform the work so that the final product will serve its functioneconomically and safely.
The construction industry is typically divided into specialty areas, with each area requiringdifferent skills, resources, and knowledge to participate effectively in it. The area
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classifications typically used are residential (single- and multifamily housing), building (allbuildings other than housing), heavy/highway (dams, bridges, ports, sewage-treatmentplants, highways), utility (sanitary and storm drainage, water lines, electrical and telephonelines, pumping stations), and industrial (refineries, mills, power plants, chemical plants,heavy manufacturing facilities). Civil engineers can be heavily involved in all of these areas ofconstruction, although fewer are involved in residential. Due to the differences in each ofthese market areas, most engineers specialize in only one or two of the areas during theircareers.
Construction projects are complex and time-consuming undertakings that require theinteraction and cooperation of many different persons to accomplish. All projects must becompleted in accordance with specific project plans and specifications, along with othercontract restrictions that may be imposed on the production operations. Essentially, all civilengineering construction projects are unique. Regardless of the similarity to other projects,there are always distinguishing elements of each project that make it unique, such as the typeof soil, the exposure to weather, the human resources assigned to the project, the social andpolitical climate, and so on. In manufacturing, raw resources are brought to a factory with afairly controlled environment; in construction, the “factory” is set up on site, and productionis accomplished in an uncertain environment.
It is this diversity among projects that makes the preparation for a civil engineering projectinteresting and challenging. Although it is often difficult to control the environment of theproject, it is the duty of the contractor to predict the possible situations that may beencountered and to develop contingency strategies accordingly. The dilemma of this situationis that the contractor who allows for contingencies in project cost estimates will have adifficult time competing against other less competent or less cautious contractors. The failurerate in the construction industry is the highest in the U.S.; one of the leading causes for failureis the inability to manage in such a highly competitive market and to realize a fair return oninvestment.Hancher, D. E. (2003). Construction. In W. F. Chen & J. Y. R. Liew (Eds.), The Civil
Engineering Handbook (2nd ed., p. 2785). Hawaii: CRC Press.
Improve your inferencing skills. Try to guess the meaning of unknown wordsfrom context – e.g. what part of speech is it? What does preceding andfollowing information suggest the unknown word might mean?(Southampton, 2010)
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Exercise 1
Decide if the following statements are true or false. Justify your answers.
1. This text is about construction in the United States. (T) (F)2. Conception, design and construction are part of the civil engineering process. (T) (F)3. Dams, bridges, ports, sewage-treatment plants, and highways, are examples of utility
construction projects. (T) (F)4. Many civil engineers are involved in residential projects. (T) (F)5. In construction, the “factory” is set up on site. (T) (F)
Exercise 2
Underline ten examples of cognates in the text. Write them in your notebook.
A cognate is a word which is similar in form and meaning to a word in anotherlanguage because both languages are related. For example English bicycleand Spanish “bicicleta”. Think, Why are there so many cognates betweenEnglish and Spanish?
Exercise 3
Your 10-year-old brother is curious about what you study in school. Write a short descriptionabout construction and what is involved in it. Use the cognates that you identified in exercisetwo to help you. Remember to keep it simple so that your younger brother can understand.
When writing a descriptive text it is a good idea to:
use adjectives and adverbs make comparisons say how something feels, smells, looks, sounds, and tastes
Think:How can you use what you have learned in this lesson when you take yourEnglish classes or do homework?
Work with a partner. Write your answers in your notebook, then tell yourteacher.
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Activity 4What kind of English should I learn?
This is a question that every serious English student should ask at some point in their studies.However, it is not always easy to decide. This activity will show you some of the mostimportant varieties of the English language and hopefully, help you decide what kind ofEnglish you should learn.
English is widely spoken all over the world. It is estimated that there are 427million people who have English as their first language, just second afterMandarin Chinese.
David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language 3rd. Edition
Exercises:
1. Listen to the text in six different accents. Raise your hand if you like the English you hear.
Arthur the Rat
As read in the alt.usage.english newsgroup (AUE) Audio Archive
Once there was a young rat named Arthur, who could never make up his mind. Wheneverhis friends asked him if he would like to go out with them, he would only answer, "I don'tknow." He wouldn't say "yes" or "no" either. He would always shirk making a choice. Hisaunt Helen said to him, "Now look here. No one is going to care for you if you carry on likethis. You have no more mind than a blade of grass."
One rainy day, the rats heard a great noise in the loft. The pine rafters were all rotten, so thatthe barn was rather unsafe. At last the joists gave way and fell to the ground. The walls shookand all the rats' hair stood on end with fear and horror. "This won't do," said the captain. "I'llsend out scouts to search for a new home."
Within five hours the ten scouts came back and said, "We found a stone house where there isroom and board for us all. There is a kindly horse named Nelly, a cow, a calf, and a gardenwith an elm tree." The rats crawled out of their little houses and stood on the floor in a longline. Just then the old one saw Arthur. "Stop," he ordered coarsely. "You are coming, of
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course?" "I'm not certain," said Arthur, undaunted. "The roof may not come down yet.""Well," said the angry old rat, "we can't wait for you to join us. Right about face. March!"
Arthur stood and watched them hurry away. "I think I'll go tomorrow," he calmly said tohimself, but then again "I don't know; it's so nice and snug here."
That night there was a big crash. In the morning some men—with some boys and girls—rodeup and looked at the barn. One of them moved a board and he saw a young rat, quite dead,half in and half out of his hole. Thus the shirker got his due.
Barnes, M. (2014). AUE: The alt.usage.english Newsgroup. The Audio Archive: Arthur theRat. Retrieved June 08, 2014, from http://alt-usage-english.org/index.shtml
2. Answer the following questions:
a. What dialects of English did you hear?b. Your teacher will identify the most popular variety of English in the classroom. What is it?c. What are your conclusions?
To decide what English variety you should learn, take into account your plansand potential opportunities. What kind of company would you like to work for?Will you have plenty of chances to listen to British English in your workplace?Choose what you think will work for you, in the end, all English dialects areequal for communication. There is no dialect superiority!
3. An excellent way to learn a language is through imitation. Do some research on theInternet and listen to different accents. Try visiting http://www.dialectsarchive.com/. Whichaccent is your favorite? Is there a famous person with that accent? Why don't you try toimitate them? Share your decision with the class.
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Activity 5The dictionary
What is a dictionary? What kind of dictionaries are there? How can you use it effectively? Thisactivity will help you answer these questions.
A dictionary is an extremely useful tool which will allow you to become moreindependent in your studies. Learning to use it will help you know the meaningof words even when there is not a teacher in front of you! It usually hasgrammar reference sections, extra exercises, illustrations, and even apronunciation guide. How can all of those resources help you complement yourclasses?
Exercise 1:
Answer the following questions:
1. What kind of information can you find in the dictionary?2. What is the disadvantage of using an abridged English-Spanish dictionary?3. What is the advantage of using an English-English dictionary?4. How can I know which meaning I need if a word has multiple meanings?5. A word can be a verb and a noun, give an example.6. How does a dictionary show the different meanings of a word?7. What types of English dictionaries are there? Write a brief description of each one of them.8. What is a word called in the dictionary?9. How is a derived word formed?10. What abbreviations does the dictionary use? What do they mean? Where in the dictionaryare they?11. How is a compound word formed?12. What are the parts of a dictionary?13. What is the name of the alphabet which was designed to show the pronunciation ofwords?14. What is a self-access laboratory?
Follow-up activities:
1. Visit a local library specialized in the English language so that you can see by yourself allthe reference books, dictionaries, magazines and media that are available for you. There areat least two libraries of this kind in Mexico City:
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Biblioteca “Benjamín Franklin”Liverpool 31, Col. Juárez, C.P. 06600, México D.F.Phone 5080-2089Webpage: http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/bbf/biblioteca.htmOpens Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 19:00
Biblioteca Británica PúblicaAntonio Caso No. 127, Col. San Rafael, C.P. 06470, México D.F.Phone 3067-8817Webpage: http://www.tamflibrary.org.mx/index.php?lang=ESOpens Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 19:30 and Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00
2. Write the bibliographic record of three dictionaries of different kind. If it is allowed by thelibrary, take a picture for each cover. Write a brief description about the usefulness andcharacteristics of each dictionary.
Organize the information as it is shown in the following example:
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Description:
A completely revised and updated edition of this best-selling language reference is nowavailable. It covers the core vocabulary of everyday life with over 75,000 clear, concisedefinitions. It includes pronunciations, word origins and synonym lists, special sections andtables.
Bibliographic record
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Activity 6There's a problem with my food!
Read the following situation:
You are eating in the school cafeteria but there´s something massively wrong with your food(you name the problem). Four of you are sitting at a table when suddenly, the school principalapproaches you and asks you: “How do you like your food?” What will you say? How will yousay it?
Work in teams of 5. Write a conversation where you demonstrate the situation above. Eachteam member has to speak and ideally, nobody should dominate the conversation. Take intoaccount that you will be talking to the school principal so, try to be polite.
Taken from: http://econwatson.blogspot.mx/2010_06_01_archive.html
Think:
How would the conversation change if you were talking to a friendlyteacher and not the school principal? And if you were talking to a friend?
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Activity 7Online translators
1. Discuss the following questions with your class:
1. Do you know any online translator?2. How often do you use them?3. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using them?
2. Translate the following saying into English:
Camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente
1. Use the Google translator: ……………………………………………………………………...
2. Use the Bing translator: ………………………………………………………………………...
3. Ask someone who knows English to help you:
…………..………………..…………………………………………………………………………...
Are the translations the same?Are they grammatically correct?
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Tell your class.
The purpose of translation is to help people understand the meaning of what isbeing said in a foreign language. Translation has helped different societies toshare knowledge and do business together, even when they don’t share thesame language. However, exact equivalence is of course impossible.
David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language 3rd. Edition
3. Individually, look for a short paragraph or poem in Spanish. Use an online translator of yourchoice to translate it into the following languages:
1. From Spanish into English2. From English into German3. From German into Portuguese4. From Portuguese into English5. From English into Spanish
Copy both texts in the table below:
Original text (in Spanish) Final version (from the translator)
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Compare the original text with the final version that the translator gives you. Discuss yourfindings in small groups, then tell your class.
4. Answer the following questions:
1. Why no translation is accurate?2. How can a dictionary help to avoid the problems of word-for-word translation?3. Why should I avoid word-for-word translation?4. Online translators have been very useful for many people. After doing this activity, give
suggestions on how to use them.5. How can I apply what I learned in this activity in the English class and when studying at
home?
There is no such thing as “best” translation. The success of a translationdepends on the purpose for which it was made
David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language 3rd. Edition
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Activity 8Structure and meaning
1. Discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups:
What is grammar? Why is it important to study it?
Think:
Why is there always a grammar section in exams? Why do teachers give too much emphasis to it?
Have a look at the following examples of an idea expressed in different languages and itsSpanish word-for-word translation:
Me duele la cabeza (tengo dolor de cabeza)
I have a headacheyo tengo un cabeza-dolor
jag har ont i huvudetyo tengo mal en cabeza-la
der Kopf tut mir wehLa cabeza hace a mi mal
j’ai mal à la têteyo tengo mal en la cabeza
У меня болит голова (u menja bolit golova)en mi duele cabeza
Think:After looking at the examples, would you say that the French or German speakwrongly or differently?
By now you know that English uses “auxiliary verbs” to make questions andnegatives, e.g. Do you like dancing? No, I don’t. That is one of its peculiarities,a linguistic tradition different from Spanish.
2. Discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups. Then tell your class.
3. Have a look at the following phrase in English:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
With the help of a dictionary, say what you think the sentence means. Work in groups of three. Type or write the sentence (with large letters) on a separate
piece of paper. Interview an English teacher from your school; ask them to read thesentence aloud and then say what they think it means.
Student: Read the sentence aloud, please.Teacher: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.Student: What do you think it means?Teacher: …
Think:
Is grammar more important than meaning or are they equally important? Why?
To be understood in English or any other language, it is important to take careof your:
1. Grammar (the structure of your sentences)2. Meaning (the choice of words you use to express your ideas)3. Pronunciation (articulation of sounds)
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Activity 9The most frequent words in English
Have you ever wondered what the most frequently used words in English are? Have a look atthe following list of the 25 most frequent words of spoken English:
Frequency* Word39,457 the
39,114 I
38,147 and
30,822 you
27,106 to
23,372 a
22,864 that
20,997 it
18,067 of
13,169 like
12,916 in
12,785 yeah
12,653 so
12,641 was
12,526 is
11,666 we
10,951 know
10,892 have
8,977 just
8,803 they
8,617 it’s
8,543 what
8,509 but
8,490 this
8,440 do
* Frequency per million words
Reppen, R. (2010). The 25 most frequent words from a conversation corpus of one millionwords. In J. C. Richards (Ed.), Using Corpora in the language classroom (Kindle Edi.).Cambridge University Press.
Make sure that you know the meaning and pronunciation of those 25 wordssince they are extremely common in everyday conversation.
Exercises
1. Classify the words into content words and function words:
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Content words Function wordsContent words are words which refer to athing, quality, state, or action and whichhave meaning when the words are usedalone: nouns, verbs, adjectives, andadverbs.
Function words are words which have littlemeaning on their own, but which showgrammatical relationships in and betweensentences: conjunctions, prepositions,articles
2. What kind of words are more frequent in conversational English? What is the reason forthat?
When you read or listen to English, pay attention to the words above. How doesnative speakers use them? Highlight them in a text or make notes in yournotebook. In that way, you will not only be learning frequent vocabulary but alsofrequent grammar!
3. Use the words from the list to make as many sentences as possible.
3. Write a short story about what you do on weekends or about something interesting orimportant that has happened to you. Remember the information you learned in thepresentation, how can you use it to do this exercise?
