Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №23/2008

Jazz Up Your Lesson

Do you think your students know the alphabet???!!!

Let them play some games to wreck their brains and to get to know alphabet a little bit better ? Letters have magic power in them! You do not believe? Let’s see…

Game 1: “Meaningful Alphabet”

Let the students write the alphabet in a colomn and ask them to tell what every letter alone might mean. Give an example of any letter, so that students would comprehend the task better. Here I give you the whole alphabet with some possible meanings of its letters.

A

indefinite article; the best, as in “A-class”; blood group; negation as in “atypical”.

B

bee; to be; blood group.

C

see; sea; Roman numeral 100.

D

Roman numeral 500.

E

for everything which is electronic, as in e-mail.

F

a mark for a failed test; used to hide offensive word as in “F-word”.

G

in American English 1000 dollars; G7 or G8 (including Russia) – the Great 7 / 8 (Большая Семёрка / Восьмёрка).

H

hydrogen, as in “H-bomb”.

I

myself; intellectual as in “IQ” – intellectual quotient; Roman numeral 1.

J

contraction from the female name Jennifer.

K

“OK” – actually meaning “all correct”; 1000 pounds.

L

used to denote litre, length, left; Roman numeral 50.

M

used to denote metre, mile, million, married, mass, minute, male, medium, Monday; Roman numeral 1000.

N

“and” as in “Rock’n’Roll”, “Fish’n’Chips”; used to denote North.

O

“OK” – actually meaning “all correct”; oh! – exclamation; zero.

Q

question; quotient as in “IQ” – intellectual quotient; queue.

R

are; used to denote right, restricted; variety of contractions such as “R’n’B” – rhythm and blues, “R’n’D” – Research and Development.

S

ass; as; possessive case after the apostrophe; contracted “is” after the apostrophe; used to denote shilling, small, South.

T

tea; “to a T” – means “exactly, just right”; used to denote form or direction as in “T-shirt”, “T-road”.

U

you and contraction for “you” in writing; in British English means “universal”; used to denote shape as in “U-turn”.

V

used to denote “victory” especially with a finger gesture; Roman numeral 5.00

W

used to denote Watt, West.

X

“x-ray” – medical inspection; an informal sign for a kiss, especially in the end of a letter; a sign used to mark film, not suitable for children; Roman numeral for 10.

Y

why?

Z

the end as in “from A to Z”.

Game 2: “One Letter Words”

Material needed:

– cards with questions / hints / descriptions on one side and the answer on the other

How to play:

Put a deck of cards before students. They take turns in taking a card. The student who has just taken a card reads the hint and tries to guess the letter. If he guesses it – he takes it, if he doesn’t guess – other participants may try and so the one who guesses the letter takes the card and the game continues. (The next turn may be taken by the first player or by the one who actually guessed the letter.)

To “give the big …” means to brush off or ignore.

(Answer: E, originally for “elbow”)

A mark of shame for drunkards in colonial America.

(Answer: D)

A Roman numeral for 50.

(Answer: L)

A T-shirt without sleeves is called a(n) … – shirt.

(Answer: A)

The curved opening on a violin’s face is called the … hole.

(Answer: F)

In music, the German note for B-natural.

(Answer: H)

The color black.

(Answer: K, as in the acronym CMYK – cyan, magenta, yellow, black that is used in 4-color printing)

Adjective indicating the strength of ale. (Answer: X, with X being the weakest and XXX the strongest)

A(n) … bar is a piece of jewelry used in piercing; it’s also a car roof design that includes two sunroofs.

(Answer: T)

A Roman numeral for 500.

(Answer: D)

The sixth note in a C-major musical scale.

(Answer: A)

The word “and” used to denote a joyful musical style, adored by dancers.

(Answer: N, as in Rock’n’Roll)

Retinol is known as vitamin …

(Answer: A)

Informal designation for a 5-dollar bill.

(Answer: V)

Two of these chromosomes make a female.

(Answer: X)

A Roman numeral for 1000.

(Answer: M)

A(n) … bag is a golf bag used for carrying golf clubs.

(Answer: J)

An arm signal indicating that help is needed.

(Answer: V)

Ascorbic acid is known as vitamin …

(Answer: C)

In mathematics, an indefinite whole number.

(Answer: N)