Worksheets for speaking on the theme ''Disappearing Languages''

English is GREAT

Task 1 – Speaking

             1.Take it in turns with your partner to speak for one minute about how you

              use English.

Give yourself two minutes to prepare your answer. You should talk about:

•       what you use English for now.

•       what you like and dislike about the English language.

•       what you would like to be able to do better in English in the future.

•       other languages that you speak and what you use them for.

2.    Discuss this statement with your partner:

Half the world’s 6000 plus languages will die out by the end of the century

and there’s no valuable reason to do anything about it.

Endangered languages

•       Do you speak an endangered language?

•       Are there any endangered languages near where you live?

•       Is it important to keep all the world’s languages alive? Why?/Why not?

•       What can be done to keep endangered languages alive?

Task 2 - Bingo

•        Play bingo with words from a video about the world’s endangered languages, called ‘Languages Matter!’ Your teacher will give you a bingo grid.

•        Watch the video or listen to your teacher call out words from the video.

•        Cross off the names as you hear or see them. When you have crossed off a complete line of words, shout, ‘BINGO!’ Continue watching the video until someone crosses off all their words and shouts ‘BINGO!’ again.

•       You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-XozG0RSCo&feature=player_embedded#!

www .teachingenglish.org. uk © British Council 2012

Worksheet | English is GREAT

Extension activities

1. World Languages Reading Game

What interesting facts do you know about the languages of the world?

•       In your pair or team, use the internet to search for interesting facts about the languages of the world.

•       Write the facts you collect in the grid below. You should use complete sentences.

•        Useful websites

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/World/Languages-50.html

The team with the longest list of interesting facts is the winner. Get searching!

Fact	Fact
Number
1
2
3
4
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6
7
8
9
10
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15

Worksheet | English is GREAT

2. Prepare a talk

Prepare a five-minute talk for your next class about one of the world’s endangered languages.

Talk about:

Name of the

 language

Where it is

 spoken

Statistics about

 the language

Any more

 information

Useful websites include: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/ (search under ‘endangered languages’)