Keep Your English Uptodate3 Teacher's Pack: Lesson Plan and Student Worksheets With Answers
Keep Your English Uptodate3 Teacher's Pack: Lesson Plan and Student Worksheets With Answers
Keep Your English Uptodate3 Teacher's Pack: Lesson Plan and Student Worksheets With Answers
up to date 3
Teacher’s pack
Lesson plan and student worksheets with answers
Innit
CONTENTS
bbclearningenglish.com/radio/specials/1130_uptodate2/page2.shtml
LESSON STAGES
A
Explain to the students that they are going to listen to a talk by Professor David Crystal, an
expert on the English language, and that the talk is about the way English is changing. This
particular talk is about the word ‘innit’.
B
Hand out Student Worksheet 1. Students do Speaking, Exercise 1 in small groups or
pairs.
C
Students do Vocabulary, Exercise 2 - without dictionaries at first.
Practise the pronunciation of the vocabulary, as they will hear it in the talk.
D
Students read Listening: Section 1, Exercise 3 and then listen to Section 1 of the talk.
They answer questions ‘a, b and c’.
E
Hand out Student Worksheet 2
Students read Listening: Section 2, Exercise 5 and then listen to Section 2 of the talk.
They answer question ‘a’.
F
Students try to answer Listening: Section 2, Exercise 6. They listen again to Section 2 to
check/complete their answers.
G
If you wish to do some extra work with the class, hand out Student Worksheet 3
For the vocabulary exercise, give the students copies of the audio script and play the
complete talk as they read.
The final discussion activity is connected to the language work, using the tag questions
during discussion. You could think of more discussion topics as well.
AUDIO SCRIPTS
Listening Section 1
Innit. Spelt I-N-N-I-T. ‘Innit’- usually pronounced that way, usually with a regional accent
of some kind, usually a Cockney accent of some kind, often with a Jamaican accent – it’s
because it’s come really from the fashionable use in London mainly by the Asian
community and the Jamaican community popularised by Ali G and others, it was actually
the name of a film in 1999 - ‘Ali G, innit’.
It’s easy to see where it comes from; it’s a contraction of ‘isn’t it?’ - A tag question. It’s
there, isn’t it? It’s there, innit? In fact, that kind of pronunciation has been around for an
awful long time.
Listening Section 2
What’s happened with this new usage though, is it’s become generalised to other persons
and tense forms of the verb. People would now say ‘we need to go on the bus, innit?’
Traditionally we’d say ‘we need to go the bus, don’t we?’ They shouldn’t do that, innit?’ –
instead of, ‘they shouldn’t do that, should they?’ And so that kind of usage where innit has
now become part of the whole paradigm of the verb – I’m going, innit? You’re going,
innit? He’s going, innit? She’s going, innit? And so on.
Very unusual for English – English has always kept its tag questions very controlled in the
past. But it’s not that unusual in languages as a whole - I mean, French has ‘n’est ce pas?’,
German has ‘nicht wahr?’, Spanish has ‘verdad?’ - for all the different forms of the verb.
English has never gone in that direction, until now. I mean, basically all that’s happening
is that the phrase is asking for agreement, asking for support in an argument. As I suppose,
I’m doing now, innit?
ANSWER KEY
VOCABULARY
Exercise 2
a. regional accent the sound of a voice associated with a part of a country
b. Cockney a traditional term for someone who lived in east London
c. popularised made more fashionable
d. contraction a short form of a word
e. generalised made less specific or used more widely
f. as a whole in general
LISTENING: SECTION 1
Exercise 3
a. INNIT
b. isn’t it
c. ii. At the end of a sentence to make a question
Exercise 4
a. False – ‘often with a Jamaican accent – it’s because it’s come really from the
fashionable use in London mainly by the Asian community and the Jamaican
community.’
b. True – ‘it was actually the name of a film in 1999 - ‘Ali G, innit’.’
c. False – ‘that kind of pronunciation has been around for an awful long time.’
LISTENING: SECTION 2
Exercise 5
a. ii it can replace all the traditional tags, such as wouldn’t it, will it.
iv. you can use ‘innit’ with any subject pronoun– I, you, he, we...
Exercise 6
a. False– ‘Very unusual for English – English has always kept its tag questions very
controlled in the past...’
b. True – ‘But it’s not that unusual in languages as a whole.’
c. True – ‘the phrase is asking for agreement, asking for support in an argument.’
EXTRA WORK
VOCABULARY
Exercise 7
a. community
b. to be around (has been around)
c. traditionally
LANGUAGE
Exercise 8a
WORKSHEET 1
SPEAKING
b. Do you tend to have fixed opinions or do you change your opinion quite easily?
c. When discussing something with someone do you find it hard to express your
opinions clearly and strongly?
d. When discussing something with someone, do you think you listen carefully to
the other person, or do you think more about what you are saying?
e. Do you enjoy having arguments and strong discussions?
f. What kinds of thing influence your opinion: your experience, your friends, your
teachers, your family, the mass media, politicians, religious leaders...?
VOCABULARY
LISTENING SECTION 1
3. Now, listen to Professor Crystal talking about a new word in English and answer
these questions.
4. Listen to Section 1 again and decide if the following statements are true or false,
according to Professor Crystal.
a. The Italian community in London has influenced the pronunciation of ‘innit/isn’t it’.
b. ‘Innit’ has been used in the name of a movie.
c. This is a new pronunciation of the tag ‘isn’t it’.
WORKSHEET 2
LISTENING SECTION 2
a. Which two things below does Professor Crystal say about the new usage of ‘innit’?
i. only young people use ‘innit’
ii it can replace all the traditional tags, such as wouldn’t it, will it.
iii. you can use innit at the beginning of a sentence
iv. you can use ‘innit’ with any subject pronoun– I, you, he, we...
VOCABULARY
7. Find the phrases in the text that have the following meanings.
LANGUAGE
8. ‘Innit’ is becoming the generalised question tag. Add the traditionally correct
question tags to these statements.
DISCUSSION
9. We often use tag questions when we have discussions. We use them when we
suggest an opinion or idea, and we want people to agree with that idea. Discuss
these topics with your partner and use tag questions in your conversation.