Good Idea - Bad Idea

This session with work I am teaching two wonderful levels. Now, I know I wrote about how it was going to be brutal to teach one of the levels but it turns out its actually quite a bit of fun. But I also teach Level three. This level is dead center of the learning curve. They are not too low and not too high... they have fun learning and they make the best of it. They seem motivated and excited and that makes teaching fun.

The unit we had to cover today and yesturday was called Different Kinds of English. Now, I usually dont enjoy doing nationalities because the students dont seem to care that often but this time i decided to add a slant to it. I wouldn't focus on nationalities so much as types of English.

To do this I turned to my trusted computer/internet and got to work. Guess what I looked up. If you guessed British, american and Candian differences you are wrong. But if you guessed slang, you are correct. I found a big long page of different slang words that are used commonly in public. Of course I had to delete several that i had never heard before but others I kept.

" We have ways to make you talk," officer Mutt grinned. "IOf you guys dont start telling the truth, i'll find a way to make you come clean."

Next, I had them read the list for homework and come up with several that they enjoyed the most. Now, students dont tend to do their homework in class so we did a bit of recall while we were in the class. Some of the favourites were suck, booze, boozer, airhead... but the most enjoyable ones ( at least for the teens) were (can you guess?) the swear words. They especially like the word for female dog and 'arsehole' (both versions).

Once this was finished I had them each choose five words and create sentences with them. They didnt know what the purpose of the sentences were yet and that is what made the next step so much fun. I made them get into groups of three and create a dialogue using their sentences. It was so funny. Their English wasnt the greatest ( it is level three afterall) but they did it and I believe it went over pretty well.

Although I thought this was a very good and creative idea and soon came to realize the bad part of my plan. Which are the words you think the students are going to use the moment they leave the class? Not the ordinary ones. Of course not. They tend to choose the swear words. And so, the moment the door opened, one of my students went out the door and yelled " Hey Asshole!" to one of his friends. Oy! I expressed my concern by telling them that those words shouldnt be used within the school. Hopefully it will wear off soon and the words will be mostly abandonned.

In general, I think the lesson went well. My baqd for leaving in the cussing words but they will hear them around so... I guess its slightly helpful.