Activity

"What do you Call it?"

A quiz that makes students guess what various different items are called in different English -speaking countries.

This quiz teaches students what a variety of random items are called in different English-speaking countries, and also requires them to produce a number of different sentences using the "Call..." grammar point.

I have used American English (Since it's what the textbook uses) and Irish English (Which is where I'm from) for this quiz. Of course feel free to either leave it as is, or switch up which varieties of English you use.

Step 1: Split the students into groups and have the members of each group choose their speaking order.

Step 2: Show the example for phase 1. In phase 1, the English word that is furthest from the Japanese is display first, followed by the closer one, and finally a picture. Students must say "We call it/them _______ in Japanese."

(How students go about giving the answers is up to you. I usually have them race to be the first to raise their hand. But I will ask all groups to produce the sentence. All groups who say the correct answer get a point, but the first group to do so gets 2.)

Step 3: Work your way through Stage 1 and then show the example for Stage 2. In stage 2, the students will be shown a picture and the name of the Item in either Irish or American English. Their job is to guess which English it is by using the phrase "They call it/them (insert item name) in Irish/American English."

Step 4: Work through Stage 2 and finally move into Stage 3, starting with the example. In Stage 3, students are shown a picture, and the name of the item in a particular variety of English. Their task is to guess if this is true or false. I ask the students: "Do they call it X in Irish/American English?" if students think the answer is yes, they answer with an affermative sentence, if not, the answer with a negative sentence.

At the end their is a slide with some extra words that have interesting names in different varieties of English. Most times I did this it took the full class or very near that.But with higher-level classes they may have 10 minutes or so left at the end and they can have fun making some sentences.

I'm happy to receive any feedback on this, or if you do change the English varieties used then please let me know, I'd love to see it!

Files:
Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • What do you call it Quiz.pptx (2.52 MB)
  • 2
    Submitted by GaeilgeAmee May 18, 2022 Estimated time: 30 - 50 minutes
    1. SaveItForaRainyDay May 20, 2022

      Cool! My only comment --> Could be a regional thing, but I am American, and I say "rubber band." I've never heard "elastic band" before.

    2. GaeilgeAmee May 23, 2022

      Ah okay thanks for the info! I guess it might be a regional thing. I asked two American ALTs in my area and they both said elastic, but I'll keep that in mind! ☺️

    3. KobeALT May 24, 2022

      I say elastic band and I am from the UK.

    4. GaeilgeAmee May 25, 2022

      @KobeALT Ah okay! Thanks for the info, I'll keep that in mind when I'm letting them know some of the terms in British English.

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