Putting the grammar back into Xmas

Putting the seasonal cheer back into grammar (and putting the grammar back into Xmas)

Some of you might be thinking that the problem with Xmas today is an excess of commercialism or the lack of real religious feeling, but the way I see it the problem is an excess of worksheets teaching students vocabulary like “holly” that they will have forgotten by the same time next year (if they even understand the concept of holly anyway) and a lack of tie ins between those seasonal worksheets and everything else students do in the classroom. For those that agree with me that what is needed to make your Xmas complete is lots more grammar, here are some ideas on how to tie in your Xmas lessons with whatever grammar point you are studying at the time (the ideas should work with other major festivals and celebrations too)…

See below for not only shed loads of good grammar ideas in the continuation of this article, but also a whole stocking full of other ideas for Chrimbo-themed lessons for kids (from pre-school) to adults- “Christmastastic fun for all the family” (R)

The continuation of Putting the Grammar Back into Xmas

Doing something with Xmas songs for adults (but not adult Xmas songs, you understand…)

Combining Xmas with a Young Learner’s syllabus (actually mainly very young learners and other young beginners)

 Xmas vocabulary you can mime (also mainly for very young learners)

And some worksheets showing how it can be done:

Christmas Modals of Deduction- with lots of lovely cultural information from all over the world for students who like that kind of thing or teachers who are trying to force them to like it…

Xmas traditions passive bluff

Xmas adverbs of frequency guessing game

There are also three Xmas song worksheets here on TEFLtastic, although to be honest they are just an idea of what you can do with the songs as I’ve never had a chance to test them out and so wouldn’t necessarily recommend you to use them as they are. As ever, though, you are free to amend them and use them as you wish:

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer with mixed up lines (very tricky task!)

White Christmas song correct the mistakes (could perhaps do with changing more of the mistakes to ones students can guess more easily before listening)

The Christmas Song gaps- the “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” one. Again, could be made easier.

For kids, especially lowish level Primary School classes, GenkiEnglish is a great resource for seasonal stuff. If anyone else has some links for good Santa related stuff (or even baby Jesus related stuff, I guess- didn’t he have some kind of connection to Xmas at some point?) please let us know below.

More or less on the topic, the story that the X in Xmas is a way of taking Christ out of Christmas is completely bogus. The X stands for the first sound in the Greek word for Christ (pronounced something like a Spanish “j” in Jose and usually converted into a “k” sound in English) and the short written form also comes from Greek. Should people really take to calling it Exmas (as in Futurama), it could hurry on the secularisation of Christmas, but it is not as if that process needs any help… 

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 2:33 pmand is filed under Christmas lessons, Cultural differences/ cultural training, Flashcard games, Genki English, Grammar, Grammar games, Lesson planning, Listening, Modals, Modals of deduction, Pairwork and groupwork, Passives, Photocopiable worksheets, Present simple for routines etc., Present tenses, Songs with adults, TEFL, TEFL games, TPR, Teaching, Teaching low levels, Teaching young learners, Using songs with kids, Word origins, links, pre-school/ kindergarten/ very young learners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.