Possible warm ups / cool downs

… And the winner is… no, not a movie, but a word. It’s official, ‘blog’ a contraction of the term ‘web log’, won the equivalent of a word Oscar yesterday for being the most searched word on the Internet in 2004. This is according to dictionary giant Mirriam-Webster. In a press release, they stated, “The number one word of the year, receiving the largest number of user- requests by a wide margin, is ‘blog’” Their dictionary definition is "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." According to Blogger.com, “A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more.” The word has been around since 1999, but only took off this year because of the explosion in world bloggers (people who blog - verb) who create blogs (noun). Blogging (noun) is the next big thing and will become as ubiquitous as texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing….

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about blogging, new technology, new words, web sites, the Internet…
To make things more fun, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. MY FAVE WORDS: Ask students to write down their 3 favourite English words, and three words they don’t particularly like. Explain to partners their reasons. Teacher puts interesting / common words on board.

3. OTHER CULTURES: Students mill around and ask what new words have entered the lexicons in their languages. Teacher writes a variety on board with English translations

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
- New words are too trendy for me. vs. You have to keep up with the latest vocab.
- I’m a traditionalist. It’s better for me to learn traditional vocabulary. vs No one uses old vocab.
- The Internet is a great way to learn new vocab. vs Books (paper ones) and dictionaries (paper ones) are best.
- Google, or other search engines, is the best way of finding collocations. vs. No, collocation dictionaries are the best way.
- New computer words are for geeks, netizens, cybernerds…not for real people. Vs. Wrong!
A personal diary should be personal and not be on the Web / Reading blogs are interesting.
The Internet and e-mail is destroying English and other languages. Vs. Opposite dude.

5. GEEK SPEAK: Introduce the geek / nerd. Ask if there are any geek in the class. Introduce the term ‘geekspeak’. Have a quick geekspeak quiz, especially the words at the end of the article - texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing. This is especially good (useful) with messaging/texting abbreviations: FYI, TTFN, CU …

6. …AND THE WINNER IS…: Put some categories on the board for other 2004 winners. Brainstorm suggestions for students to discuss / vote on.
E.g. file-sharing software / mp3 player / US politician / game / song / movie / happy event / mistake / etc etc etc

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