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Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Foreign Language
  --Language Arts

Grade

• 6-8
• 9-12

Brief Description

Discover the foreign-language roots of English words.

Objectives

Students

• learn that many English-language words have their origins in other languages.
• use a dictionary's word derivation notes and abbreviation key.

Keywords

dictionary, abbreviation, word derivation, word origin, key, vocabulary

Materials Needed

• dictionaries (with word derivation/origin information included with definitions)

Lesson Plan

Where do words come from? Many words in the English language are derived from words in other languages. Dictionaries (collegiate dictionaries, not dictionaries published for use by elementary-grade students) usually provide information about the derivation of words. In this lesson, students will peruse the dictionary looking for words that have their derivation in other languages.

blare [fr. MD blaren to shout]
cir - cle [fr. L circus circle; Gk kirkos ring] dis-tant [fr. FR distant remote]
es-pi-o-nage [fr. FR espion spy]
force [fr. L fortis strong]

Challenge each student (or you might pair students for this activity) to find ten interesting words -- each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet -- for which they can document word origin/derivation from another language. Then set aside time for students to share their word lists. By doing this, you will be familiarizing students with the word derivation features of dictionaries and exposing them to other languages.

If you are a foreign language teacher, you might challenge students to use an English dictionary to track down five words that are derived from the language you are teaching them.

After students share their list of words with classmates, you might create a class dictionary that includes all students' contributions.

Notes
Many words in the English language have their roots in Olde English (OE) or other old (O) languages, or in the Latin (L) language. You might encourage students to find at least five of their ten words that have roots in other than one of the ancient/old (O) languages or in Latin (L). Doing that will make the task a bit more difficult, but it will provide a better view of the rich origins of the English language.

Assessment

If you teach older students, you might have them match the foreign language words from which words on the students' list were derived to its English translation.

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.10 Applying Non-English Perspectives
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

LANGUAGE ARTS: Foreign Language
GRADES K - 12
NL-FL.K-12.1Communication
NL-FL.K-12.3 Connections

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12/15/2005