USA and UK: 5 mini activities
Teaching tip
1 Culture
Draw this table on the board and ask students to work in pairs to complete it.
Key: 1 dollars and cents; 2 football; 3 Washington DC; 4 66 million; 5 Stars and Stripes
2 Spelling
On the board write the following words – make sure they are randomised.
Ask the class which words are British English and which words are American English.
Key: The 1, 3, 6 and 7 are British English and 2, 4, 5 and 8 are US English.
Ask students to write the American spelling for the British words and the British spelling for the American words.
Key: 1 center, 2 pyjamas, 3 neighbor, 4 favour, 5 theatre, 6 airplane, 7 tire, 8 programme.
3 Match the words.
Ask students to draw two columns on a sheet of paper. At the top of the first column write UK English and at the top of the second column write US English. Read out the words below in a random order. Tell students to write the words in the correct column. Ask two confident students to do this activity on the board.
Key:
UK English: cupboard, autumn, ladybird, mobile phone, rubbish, petrol, pavement, chips, motorway.
US English: closet, fall, ladybug, cell phone, garbage, gas, sidewalk, French fries, highway.
Then ask students to match the pairs of words. Or you could write the words on slips of paper and tell student to find the pairs of words.
4 What would an American say?
Write these sentences on the board – or do a dictation.
Key: 1 On vacation we ate a lot of chips and cookies. 2 My apartment is on the second floor. I never take the elevator. 3 I’ll change the baby’s diaper and then take her for a walk in the stroller.
5 Shout out!
Divide the class into two groups, the British and the Americans. Read out the following short sentences. When the students hear a sentence that belongs to ‘their’ country, they should shout out British or American as appropriate.
