LANGUAGE WORKS – A COLLECTION OF RESOURCES FOR EXPLORING LANGUAGE
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a most excellent publication and it is highly recommended.
compelling in content...funny...definitely engaging ... exactly what we would hope for as English teachers
D Murray Secondary English |
DVD with 176-page photocopiable resource.
Excite students’ interest and develop their expertise as creative users of language. |
10 units of work for students at Key Stages 3 and 4, offering opportunities to:
• experiment creatively with language
• find out more about how we use language and communicate
• explore how our language contributes to our identities as individuals and members of groups and communities
• investigate language change in relation to our changing society
• discover the way in language can help – or hamper – what we do in the workplace and in school learning
• find out about the differences between spoken and written texts
• explore the language of 21st-century texts such as texts, emails and blogs.
Language Works DVD
Central to Language Works is the DVD, an eclectic and lively collection of clips, from ‘vox pops’ on accent, dialect, RP and Standard English to cookery programmes through time (Fanny Craddock to Jamie and Nigella). Extracts from The Apprentice reveal the way groups use language to get things done, while a Catherine Tate Show sketch highlights the role language plays in peer group conversation. ‘Mathilda Talking’ traces the language acquisition of one baby over an 18-month period, while ‘Texts for Tots’ explores the language and grammar of picture books and the ways children begin to read.
The units in a nutshell
1. My Language – Influences and Attitudes
Students think about their own language and how it creates a sense of identity and belonging, using this as a context for learning about accent, dialect, Received Pronunciation and Standard English. The DVD includes clips from the BBC programmes Blimey, Say It Like It is and The Catherine Tate Show plus interviews with language expert Dr Graeme Trousdale and students from London, Cumbria and Liverpool.
2. Telling a Story – From Talk to Text
What are the differences between a spoken story and a written story? Students talk about the stories they tell in everyday life, then watch either 17 year old Sevim or Tim telling an anecdote to a friend. They go on to analyse the differences between the spoken and written versions of the story.
3. Keeping in Touch – Txts, Emails, Blogs & Letters (No DVD)
This unit uses a selection of different texts all written by people on holiday or travelling as a context for analysing the differences between speech and writing.
4. Texts For Tots – The Language of Picture Books
Classic picture books Where the Wild Things Are and John Brown Rose and the Midnight Cat are the focus for students’ exploration of the way words and pictures work together, as well as more focused analytical work on the grammar and vocabulary of picture books. An extension activity comparing Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and a Ladybird adaptation challenge the assumption that children’s books always have to be written in simple language. The DVD includes clips of babies enjoying books and Year 3 pupils reading as a stimulus for thinking about what it means to read.
5. Mathilda Speaking – Learning to Talk
Pupils watch a series of clips showing the language development of one baby from 12 months to 31 months as she learns to speak and communicate using language. Activities including charting, graphs and writing in role provide a supportive context for a first introduction to this fascinating aspect of language.
6. Playing With Words – Games to Explore Language (no DVD)
This unit is organised rather differently, not as a sequential unit but as a series of games and suggestions for learning about language through play, with an emphasis on open-ended exploration. The language learning points are indicated at the beginning of each unit.
7. The Apprentice – How Groups Talk
Alan Sugar’s apprentices are analysed, focusing on the roles taken in discussion by the individuals, the ways discussions work and non-verbal communication. Students apply what they have learned to the discussions of a group of Year 9 ‘apprentices’, before putting into practice their strategies for good group talk in a simulation ‘Cash and Choice’.
8. Cocoa Bean – Words That Sell
This unit explores the ways in which words and visual language are used to create the right image of a product, using a case study of one small chocolate-making company.
9. What’s Cool? Digging For Words
Students investigate the ways in which language changes, focusing on the shifting meanings of words. In a sustained extract from the BBC programme Balderdash and Piffle Courtney Pine investigates the word ‘cool’. Students carry out their own linguistic excavation into a word of their choice.
10. Cooking the Books – Language Through Time
Recipes from the 14th-century onwards and TV cooks from Fanny Craddock to Jamie are the focus of an exploration of language change, in the context of social and cultural change. |
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Reviews
This could not be timelier. With the new language strand explicitly described in the renewed framework – pupils will explore the significance of English and the variations in its use and development, and comment on how language is used across a variety of contexts and situations – this resource is a gift for hard pressed teachers, particularly for those teachers for whom language study is a bit wobbly. The DVD is key to the book as it enables language to be the living, organic and dynamic force that it is and brings the book to life. Helen Bulbeck, Secondary Consultant, NATE Classroom
All of the materials are photocopiable and benefit from a clear, uncluttered layout. The DVD that accompanies the print based resources is compelling in content with wide ranging clips that will promote discussion at from key stage 3 to Advanced level English Language.
….in this publication, the work is prepared for your convenience; and the clips are funny, contemporary (without dating quickly) and most definitely engaging as well as being highly suited to their purpose.
…What is most enjoyable about the resource pack is that the materials are exactly what we would hope for as English teachers …They are exemplary in suggested teaching practice, have logical and clear progression through the unit worksheets and are supported by perfectly precise and lively clips. This is a most excellent publication and it is highly recommended.
D Murray, Secondary English
I've just used the materials on the Apprentice for Lang & Power with my AS class - I'm also going to adapt some of the materials on Children's Reading for my A2 group. It's great to have ready made materials which engage & inspire the students & help them to see language issues in a real context. It's the kind of stuff I wish I had time to make myself! A great resource from the English and Media Centre.
Louise Astbury, Oldham Sixth Form College
It's a really excellent resource for GCSE - I'm using the advertising language part with my re-sit class at the moment - but would also make for very accessible and thought-provoking GCSE/AS Language transition material. It also looks really smart, which is a plus!
Dan Clayton |
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