Ahoy, me hearties!

Who is the most favourite character of all kids?

Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy?

This makes pirate fancy dress party a good choice for building a creative lesson and letting the kids have some fun.

In advance, ask kids to think of a pirate costume. Let each child choose a character he would like to represent (it can be someone from "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Treasure Island").

Advice children about their choice.

Schedule the lesson, letting your students know when their costumes will be needed.

The activities and tasks for the lesson will depend on the kids age and English skills.

• It can be discussion about the characters personality, for intermediate and advanced learners; brief introduction of each character, or identifying the key words for describing a character, for beginners and elementary level.

• It can be all kinds of guessing character games, adjusted for each level.

• Treasure hunt map can be used to practise giving directions and instructions.

• It can be group or team discussion about the ways to survive, if having been marooned.

• It can be discussion of the videos from Pirates of the Caribbean movie or any other pirate movie chosen by a teacher.

In other words, there is a vast number of activities which can be made up for the pirate theme by a creative teacher.

However, I'd like to share a couple more things.

First, the funny game based on the fact that pirates often go:"Arrrrrrgh!"

A teacher is to ask questions starting with "What is the pirates' favourite..."

Students need to guess that the words for the right answers are to have AR sound, and then think of such words to answer teacher's questions.

For example:

- What is the pirates' favourite vehicle?

- Carrr or carrrgo!

- What is the pirates' favourite country?

- Arrrgentina!

-What is the pirates' favourite pastime?

-Barrr crawling.

-What is the pirates' favourite way to come to agreement?

-Parrrley!

-What do pirates like counting to fall asleep?

-Starrrs!

Use your imagination to make a list of possible questions, adjusting them to your students level. Students are to use their imagination too; and the answers can vary. A teacher can reward the right answers with bonuses, announce and reward the winner of the game, or point out the funniest and the wittiest answers.

One more thing, the pirates vocabulary. It can be shortened for beginners and is better to be introduced in the beginning or in the middle of the lesson.

____________________________________________________________________

buccaneer, bucko - a pirate

Davy Jones' Locker - sea bottom

skedaddle - to get away

flogging - punishment

swab the deck - wash the deck

Jolly Roger

ahoy - hello

matey - friend

Aye! - Yes!

me - mine

me hearties - my team

scurvy - a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C

scuttlebutt - gossip

Shiver me timbers! - the phrase is based on real nautical slang and is a reference to the timbers, which are the wooden support frames of a sailing ship. In heavy seas, ships would be lifted up and pounded down so hard as to "shiver" the timbers, startling the sailors. Such an exclamation was meant to convey a feeling of fear and awe, similar to, "Well Blow Me Down!", or, "May God Strike Me Dead" (Wikipedia)

seadog - seaman

Walk the plank! - Walking the plank was a form of murder or torture thought to have been practiced by pirates. The victim was forced to walk off the end of a wooden plank or beam extended over the side of a ship, falling into the water to drown, sometimes with bound hands or weighed down, often into the vicinity of sharks (Wikipedia).

plunder - defeat

monkey - small cannon

landlubber - land lover, derogatory name used by pirates to describe all non-seamen

blow the man down! - shoot him!

booty - treasure

avast! - Used by seamen as a warning, literally "look out", but often used by pirates as a greeting e.g. "Avast there ye old seadog".

dead man's chest - coffin

Arrrgh!

swallow the anchor - retire from sea

adrift - loose, not on moorings or towline

Blimey! - interjection expressing anger, surprise, excitement

bounty - award

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Making short skits to introduce each word is an engaging activity based on the vocabulary.

Prepare spreadsheets (matching the number of your students) with the words without their definitions, and a list of the words with definitions. Take two or three words to base the skit on, show the definitions to those who have volunteered to act, telling them to think of a skit to perform in several minutes in front of the class, demonstrating the meaning of each given word. Students with the best guesses can make up a group of actors for a skit to introduce another group of words.

Finally, I'd like to mention some good quotes from Pirates of The Caribbean movie, which can be used to spark conversation. It can as well be another guessing game like"Which character does the phrase belong to?"

If you lock away your heart, you've truly lost, mate.

(Jack Sparrow)

This is a dinghy, not my vessel. My vessel is magnificent, and fierce, and huge-ish, and... gone.

(Jack Sparrow)

What arrrrr you doing?

(Captain Barbossa)

Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different?

(Davy Jones)

Every man has a price which he will willingly accept, even for that which he hopes never to sell.

(Lord Beckett)

You can mistrust me less than you can mistrust him, trust me.

(Jack Sparrow)

No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it.

(Will Turner)

Aaand, just one more tip - you can use music to set the atmosphere of your lesson. Choose something from Hans Zimmer works e. g. "Drink up, me hearties!"or "Davy Jones".

I hope, you see now that pirate theme is the right one for creating a fantastic lesson!

What is the main problem of advanced English learners?

So, what is it? Sophisticated vocabulary? Grammar? Necessity to sound like native speaker?
I'll tell you - it's a LACK OF CHALLENGE.

Cmon, you know the way it usually starts. During the classes you may transform grammar structures and do some comprehensive reading (all to get ready for your TOEFL or CPE), you may dwell on some specific vocabulary, but you actually never work hard!

Let's admit

- you are by far not so anxious about preparing your speeches: it is never a problem for an advanced English learner to think of something just on the spot
- neither you are anxious about the vocabulary (one can dig into it forever, and your own vocabulary is already pretty rich)
- not that it's difficult for you to transform grammar structures after the examples in the exercises or the way your teacher wants you to.
As a result, you feel stuck at the same level without any progress. You don't see much point in continuing with the classes, but to say hello to the old friends or maintain your level.

Does it mean you've reached perfection? Not really.

Here some TRUE challenges for an advanced learner.

1. Try proofreading and beta-ing. You'll need to demonstrate all your skills there: spelling, grammar, punctuation etc. It is always easy to choose between grammar structures when doing exercises in your course book or correcting a text with mistakes, made on purpose. Trying to correct something written by a native speaker, meant to express his ideas rather than follow some learning patters, is quite different thing.
In order to do it, you'll have to demonstrate good 'feel' of the language and ability to give good advice on sentence flow.

2. Express yourself. Just as I've said, there is a GIANT difference between writing a letter, narrative, article, summary, or whatsoever following the guidelines in your course book, and expressing yourself. Unleash your imagination and create a narrative or even fan fic, write something you feel strongly about, as if it is a blog or personal diary. Convert your thoughts and emotions into words. Do it for the audience of native speakers. There won't be an example to write after and you'll be challenged to convey your idea.

3. Write summaries. Summaries is the best way to push you into using your own words for expressing ideas.
Here you go!

Vorpal (размышление на тему слов)

В английском языке есть слово "Vorpal", перевода которого вы не найдете на lingvo.com, придумал его Льюис Кэрролл (Lewis Carroll). Это слово встречается в "Алисе в Зазеркалье" ("Through the Looking-Glass"), в стихотворении "Бармаглот" ("Jabberwocky") два раза в словосочетаниях "Vorpal Sword" и "Vorpal Blade". Само стихотворение  является, пожалуй, самой известной попыткой ввести в язык несуществующие слова.

С легкой руки английского сказочника во многих компьютерных играх самый-распресамый меч называется "Vorpal Sword".

В компьютерной игре "American McGee's Alice" Алиса орудует "Vorpal Blade".

Вот и он (жмите на картинку, она большая и красивая, это постер к сиквелу "Alice: Madness Returns")

В русской версии игры он переводится как "кухонный", так как Дина Орловская, автор самого известного перевода этого стихотворения на русcкий язык, не дала буквального значения оригинального словосочетания "Vorpal Sword".

Сам Кэрролл говорил, что он не знает, как объяснить этот термин. Традиционно его понимают как "sharp" ("острый") или "deadly" ("бьющий без промаха"). А переводят (в контексте стихотворения) как "меч бурлатный" (Щепкина-Куперник), "бострый меч" (А. Щербаков), "чудо-юдоострый меч" (В. Орел) и т.д. и т.п. в зависимости от воображения переводчика. Из вышеперечисленных переводов "бострый" мне симпатичнее всего, так как в других содержатся аллюзии русских сказок.

Александр Тейлор (Alexander L. Taylor) в своей биографии Кэрролла "Белый рыцарь" ("The White Knight") предположил, что слово могло возникнуть путем поочередной перестановки букв в словах "verbal" (словесный) и "gospel" (евангелие). Если учесть тот факт, что Кэрролл был священником и математиком, любящим лингвистические шарады, то это вполне возможно, так что, на мой взгляд "Vorpal Sword" - это скорее "Sacred Sword".

Ниже картинка сэра Джона Те́нниела (John Tenniel), первого иллюстратора книг об Алисе. Это, собственно говоря, Бармаглот. Кстати, он же "Борморчун" -  "jabber" согласно http://thefreedictionary.com переводится, как "говорить быстро и непонятно", бормотать.

Чей-то сын держит "Vorpal Sword".

При написании статьи использован материал из Википедии и http://centrolit.kulichki.net/centrolit/jabberwocky/index.html

Интервью с Американ МакГи, если кто не в курсе, что за игра такая и любопытно глянуть.

Feels like spring

should I greet you as if we had merely eaten together one night when the white birches dripped wet and lightning etched black trees on your walls? it is not love I am asking love comes from years of breathing skin to skin tangled in each other's dreams until each night weaves another thread in the same web of blood and sleep and I have only passed through you quickly like light and you have only surrounded me suddenly like flame the lake is cold the snows are sudden the wild cherry bends and winter's a burden in your hand I feel spring burn in the bud. Copyright, Mary Mackey 1987 From "The Dear Dance of Eros"

What's wrong with CAE?

By way of example:

In the reading part of CAE test, which was giving an outline of the existing guide books publishers, they were asking: "The guide books of which publisher are least numerous?"

It took me AGES to find the answer. All due to the fact that the key word "few" was buried insіde the longest sentence, describing other features of the publisher.

Well, I guess anyone to pass CAE is likely to be familiar with emphatic structures. Actually, to emphasize on something we need to put it in the beginning or in the end of a sentence. I guess, the authors of the CAE are likely to know this too.

I would say, that writing skills of a person who puts tiny "few" in the middle of a long sentence, and hopes for it to be spotted by a reader right away, ss...suggest of incompetence.

Since the purpose of the test is not to check how attentive someone is, but to monitor his language skills, what is the point of such tasks? Hardly there can be someone wishing to pass CAE test and at the same time wondering what "few" means.

What is more, exactly such tasks give rise to numerous strategies of passing the FCE CAE CPE tests, to the strategies not relevant to having language skills.