Illustration by Oliver Munday
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Overview | What role does slang play in our language? How does slang both shape and reflect culture? In this lesson, students consider the slang words they use daily and the role slang plays in our culture. Then, they explore the etymologies of these and other slang words and display their findings in a visually interesting way, as well as compile a class dictionary.
Materials | Computers with Internet access.
Warm-Up | Tell students to work with a partner to recreate a recent or typical conversation, either verbal or via text message, they had with a friend. They should use the exact words and terms they actually did or would use, whether or not they think you, their teacher, would understand them or deem them appropriate.
Walk around the room, peering over shoulders and choose a few of the more appropriate dialogues. Ask a few of these groups to perform their conversations for the class.
Once the selected students have performed, ask: Which terms do you think adults would fail to understand? Would you use the same words in conversation with your parents or teachers? Why or why not? Why do teenagers often use different terms with friends than with adults? Which of the words you heard in the conversations just now or in those that you wrote would you expect to find in a dictionary? Why?
Related | In the Times Book Review essay “The Definitive Slang Dictionary,” the linguist Ben Zimmer examines efforts from 1937 to the present day to pin down and study slang:
Read the complete lesson plan here.
Overview | What role does slang play in our language? How does slang both shape and reflect culture? In this lesson, students consider the slang words they use daily and the role slang plays in our culture. Then, they explore the etymologies of these and other slang words and display their findings in a visually interesting way, as well as compile a class dictionary.
Materials | Computers with Internet access.
Warm-Up | Tell students to work with a partner to recreate a recent or typical conversation, either verbal or via text message, they had with a friend. They should use the exact words and terms they actually did or would use, whether or not they think you, their teacher, would understand them or deem them appropriate.
Walk around the room, peering over shoulders and choose a few of the more appropriate dialogues. Ask a few of these groups to perform their conversations for the class.
Once the selected students have performed, ask: Which terms do you think adults would fail to understand? Would you use the same words in conversation with your parents or teachers? Why or why not? Why do teenagers often use different terms with friends than with adults? Which of the words you heard in the conversations just now or in those that you wrote would you expect to find in a dictionary? Why?
Related | In the Times Book Review essay “The Definitive Slang Dictionary,” the linguist Ben Zimmer examines efforts from 1937 to the present day to pin down and study slang:
Read the complete lesson plan here.
