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Next update: 9 October 2009

Names
Jo Budden

Theme: Trends in choosing names
Lexical area: British names and expressing opinions

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
To introduce this topic you could tell students about some people you know with unusual names or you could tell them about the names that celebrities have recently given to their offspring. For example, David and Victoria Beckham’s children are called Romeo, Brooklyn and Cruz and Jordan and Peter André have recently named their daughter Princess Tiaamii! There are many more crazy names including Blade, Ocean, Moon Unit, Pilot Inspektor and Rocket, which should get even the least interested students to react!

Task 1 is a name game which gets students moving. Could be good to wake up a sleepy class after lunch! Task 2 asks students to think about the names they like and don’t like and to consider reasons for their preferences. Task 3 involves flashes pictures of famous people to the class to see if they have good memories for names and faces. Task 4 looks at the lists of the most popular names for babies in the UK at the moment (updated December 2007) and Task 5 is a fun drawing game better suited to the end of a class. Task 6 is a high level reading text from Trend UK which looks at the name of ‘Chavs’ which is currently being used in the UK to describe a sector of society. The text could be used as a starting point for a discussion for mature students.

1. The name game
To begin with, students sit in a circle and do the hand actions of lap (both hands to lap), clap, left click, right click. When they get the hang of it, add these words in time to the rhythm “Concentration, concentration, concentration now beginning, are you ready? If so, let’s go!” On the first finger click, you say your name, and on the second click you say the name of someone in the circle. You have passed the turn to the person you nominated on your second finger click. Then they say their own name on the first click and the name of another student on the second. For a competitive group, eliminate those students who make mistakes.

When students have got the hang of the game you can use it to practise any lexical sets. You could ask students what their favourite sports are and use them instead of their names. Or you could carry on the names theme and give each student a picture (or a word card) of a famous person and they use their names instead. If you have noticed particular problems with pronunciation choose names to practise the problematic sounds. Drill them beforehand with the whole group.

Task 1 The name game
Listen to your teacher’s instructions to a play a name game with your class

2. Top 3 / worst 3 names
This task asks students to think about their favourite and least favourite names. A difficult question for anyone to answer, so keep the task snappy and encourage the students to react on their first instincts. Get them to think about why they like some names and not others. Do the names remind them of people they like, their idols or family members? Share your own favourite names and give them reasons to get the students on track.

Task 2 Top 3 / worst 3 names

• What are your favourite names?
• What are your least favourite names?
• Think about why you like some names and not others? Is it because of how they sound? Do they remind you of people you like / don’t like?

Write your top 3 and worst 3 in the table and try to think about why.

Compare your answers with a partner.

3. Flash the face!
For this activity you will need ten pictures of very famous people. Use old magazines or get some photos from the internet. Choose people you think most of your students will easily recognise. Put the pictures onto card. Ask students if they have good memories for faces and / or for names. Ask them to write 1 –10 in a notebook and then flash the face by quickly flipping over the card. Only give them a second to see the face. Flash it again if requested! At the end, go through the pictures one by one, check the answers and ask students what they know about the famous person.

Task 3 Flash the face!

• Are you good at remembering people’s names?
• Are you good at remembering people’s faces?

Your teacher is going to quickly show you a picture of ten very famous people. You have to write down the name of the person as quickly as you can.

4. Top ten baby names in the UK
This is a low level speaking task where students get the chance to find out the most popular names in the UK at the moment. To keep it completely up to date you could do an internet search to find the most recent list and use that instead. You could also use this task to revise ordinal numbers in English that students often have trouble with. For higher levels, rather than just using the lists, you could print off this pdf file which explains how the statistics have been changing over the years. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/fnames1206.pdf

For very low level students who need practice at spelling, you could give each student only the list of girls’ or boys’ names, not both and they could ask their partner. ‘What’s number 1?’ ‘It’s Jack’, ‘How do you spell Jack?’ ‘J-A-C-K’ etc. until both lists are completed.

Task 4 Top ten baby names in the UK
Before looking at the lists answer these questions:

• What are the most popular names in your country?
• Guess the most popular boy’s name in the UK
• Guess the most popular girl’s name in the UK
• Do you know what your own name means?
• Do you like your own name?
• Do you know lots of people with the same name as your own?

5. Picture consequences
This is a classic children’s party game but can be put to many uses in the language classroom. Each student needs a piece of paper and a pencil. Make sure students have their paper in portrait (not landscape) and ask students to draw a hat at the top in the middle. When they have finished they should draw two short lines to show where the head begins and then fold over the paper leaving only the two short lines showing. Students then pass the folded paper to their right and the teacher instructs them to draw a face and neck. Students fold, leaving the two lines of the neck peeping out from the fold. Instruct students to draw the body, to the waist. Fold and pass as before. Then they draw to the knees, then fold and pass, then to the feet.

It’s important to tell students not to cheat and peep at the folded part of the body. That will spoil the surprise at the end. Students then unfold the paper and reveal the misfit type character they have created between them. Then ask students to have a good look at their person and to invent an identity for him / her. They should start by choosing a name. Each student should present their ‘character to the class and justify the name. E.g. This is Esmeralda. I think she looks like an ‘Esmeralda’ because …..

Task 5 Picture consequences
You need a piece of paper and a pencil. Listen carefully to your teacher and follow their instructions.

6. Group names
I have included a reading task in this lesson for high level students. I would only use this text with mature students and be very careful how you deal with it. I would treat it lightly!

Ask students about names they have in their language, or know in English, for different groups of people. You could start with Yuppies, dinkys (dual income no kids yet!) snobs etc. Ask students what they think about how society sometimes ‘labels’ groups of people with a name. Explain that now in the UK there’s a new phenomena of labelling people – Chavs! If you have been in the UK recently you will no doubt be aware of this new term so use your own experiences to enhance the theme.

You could split it up for students to read in groups and then feedback to the class. Bring in some pictures to illustrate the items mentioned in the text and let the students lead the way with the discussion.

Task 6 Group names

Chavs - coming to a town near you?
What do David Beckham and Britney Spears have in common? They have both been called chavs!

Are You A Chav?
Do you like to wear a baseball cap under a hooded top? Do you like to turn old cars into flashy powerful machines? Do you own a ferocious dog?

If you do, you might be a chav.

Chavs are Everywhere
According to Wikipedia, a chav is ‘a derogatory slang term currently in popular usage in the UK. It refers to a stereotype lower-class youth or young adult perceived as uneducated, uncultured and/or violent.’

A stereotypical chav apparently wears brand-name sportswear, loves heavily modified cars and cares little for the non-chav world.

And chavs appear to be everywhere: the fashions can be seen in every town, the charts are full of music from singers and bands who fit the bill, and even celebrities are being mocked for their ‘chav-ness’ – including David Beckham and Britney Spears.

The Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year for 2004 was… yes, you’ve guessed, it: ‘chav’.

Chavs: The Dark Side
However, despite all the fun and games, the chav phenomenon has a sinister side.

Many people now associate the word chav with social problems such as public drunkenness, violence and teenage pregnancy.

In addition, many argue that this is just a new form of discrimination: unlike many social groups, people have had the name ‘chav’ imposed upon them by others.

So, is it all harmless fun or a frightening social trend? Gentle mockery or discrimination?

There is one group of people who never seem to be asked for their opinion: the chavs!

Is chav just another word for the UK’s working class? Is it just a middle-class putdown of those who like to wear certain brands? Is it really bad to be labelled a chav?

SOURCE: This text was written by Matt for the British Council’s Trend UK project.

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