Teaching Ideas

The World Cup is a week old and if you are struggling to keep up or simply have no idea what’s going on and you need some language for those World Cup conversations, then here’s a list of 6 talking points to help you through till next week at least. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

1. Vuvuzela

If you don’t know what a vuvuzela is then you are on the wrong site. Annoying drone of angry bees or fantastically atmospheric backdrop to the tournament? There is talk of a ban but that would be hard to implement and extremely unfair to the hosts. Should it be banned? Let us know here.

2. Lack of Goals

The atmosphere is fantastic, the stadia are brilliant, Messi looks like he is up for it but where are all the goals? After the first set of matches there were a total of only 25 goals from 16 matches which makes it fewer than the Italia 90 World Cup which is long-regarded as the most boring in recent times. No one wants to lose the first game but where is the sense of adventure that teams had in Germany 2006?

3. The Ball

The Jabulani, the official World Cup football, has been called the roundest ball ever produced by Adidas. They would though. Commentators, managers and fans are suggesting that the misplaced passes, over-hit crosses, goalkeeping mistakes and the lack of decent long shots have been caused by the unpredictability of the ball. How can it be unpredictable when the ball is the roundest ball in football history? Stop complaining and get on with it, after all, it’s only a ball. continue

The winter transfer window is about to close, meaning that clubs have only a few more days to buy, sell, loan and trade players. Speculation abounds as gossip, whispers and rumours fill newspapers and websites with the language of football transfers.

One area that my football-loving students find difficult to understand is the language used to describe the world of football transfers, particularly when they appear as headlines in newspapers or websites. Let’s take a look at some of the headlines that have recently appeared on the Sky Sports website and see if we can break down their meaning a little.

Strachan eyes Nak deal

Espanyol confirm Boro interest

Stoke to hijack Pompey keeper

Norwegian snubs English interest

Kaboul seals return to Spurs

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In this video worksheet post we use a clip from the excellent The History Of Football [2002] [DVD] on the 1966 World Cup final between Germany and England. There is also a worksheet, transcript and answer sheet below. The report lasts for 3 minutes 30 seconds.

Transcript

Bobby Moore and Uwe Seeler were out in the middle exchanging international compliments and meeting the referee Dienst of Switzerland.

The West German attack had bite and purpose, on they came again. An English defensive lapse gave the ball to Haller… and that was it. One down after 12 minutes spurred the English attack. This time a chance came to West Ham’s Geoff Hurst – it’s the equaliser!!

It’s there. Peters has scored. If only they could keep the lead for a few desperate minutes against the West Germans, now a team playing their hearts out to keep in the running. Germany would not let up then seconds before the final whistle, agony for England. Webber scored. It had to be extra time. Then Geoff Hurst, cool and collected, had the ball in the net. No! It bounced out. ‘Goal!’ claimed England. ‘No goal!’ protested the Germans. The referee consulted the linesman who’d been in line with the posts and goal it was.

When there was only a minute to go England still had no thought of being content with that one goal lead racing to beat the whistle, Geoff Hurst saw an opening in the defence and achieved a hat trick.

Bobby Moore lead England up to the Royal Box to receive the Jules Rimet Cup and the winners’ medals. To be here as winners of the FA Cup has often been described as the summit of a footballer’s ambition, how much greater is the triumph they enjoy now.

Three years go Alf Ramsey set out on the hard road that lead to the World Cup. Only the optimists thought he could possibly succeed, certainly not West Germany whose team now ran a lap of honour. They were very sporting losers. Finally it was England that the whole world of sport was now cheering.

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This week’s main report looks at the World Cup play-off match between Ireland and France. Listen to our Irish football correspondent, Brendan, discussing whether Ireland can cause a huge upset and make it to South Africa 2010. The transcript can be found below, while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Listen to the report here

Once FIFA decided to move the goalposts late in the World Cup qualifier campaign and seed the play-off draw, football fans here in Ireland greeted the draw with fear and trepidation. In the end those fears were realised when Stephen Piennar drew the name of France out of the bowl, made more difficult when we discovered that we’d have to play the second leg in Paris. continue

In this video worksheet post we use a clip from the excellent The History Of Football [2002] [DVD]on the topic of Folk Football. There is also a worksheet, transcript and answer sheet below. The report lasts for 2 minutes 10 seconds.

Folk Football Worksheet | Transcript

(for audio only, click here)

Transcript
The legend, whether true or not, is still enacted year in, year out by the people of Kirkwall, Scotland, making it one of the last strongholds of the game, which for hundreds of years dominated Britain.

The game itself is remarkably similar to other long-abandoned folk matches played on the island. The pitch is the entire town; the players number in their hundreds; the goals are local landmarks a mile apart. One goal was generally all it took to win the game, although that could take a whole day. In Kirkwall, two sides compete: the ‘up-the-gates’ and the ‘down-the-gates’. Their struggle for the ball, or ‘baa’, is deeply symbolic. continue

Try languagecaster’s online crossword puzzle.

• Before you try the puzzle,  listen to our Main Report and read The Good the Bad and the Ugly.
• You can do both if you listen to our weekly Podcast: this has the Main Report and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Predictions and English for Football).
• Click the image below to try the puzzle (check the top menu for hints). Good luck!

Try languagecaster’s online crossword puzzle.

Before you try the puzzle,  listen to our Main Report and read The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

You can do both if you listen to our weekly Podcast: this has the Main Report and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Predictions and English for Football).

Click the image below to try the puzzle (check the top menu for hints). Good luck!

Try languagecaster’s online crossword puzzle.

Before you do listen to our Main Report and read The Good the Bad and the Ugly (you can do both if you listen to our weekly Podcast: this has the Main Report and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Predictions and English for Football).

Click the image below to try the puzzle (check the top menu for hints). Good luck!

This week’s main report looks at one of the countries that has already qualified for the 2010 World Cup – Paraguay. The transcript of the report is below.

Try our online  listening quiz.

Listen to the report here

Transcript

Bigger than Japan but smaller than Spain, a population slightly larger than Denmark, but smaller than Hong Kong, and looking forward to their eighth appearance in the World Cup Finals, more than Portugal but fewer than Hungary – which country am I talking about? continue

This post gives explanations of two more footballing clichés. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

To run your socks off | Listen to the cliché here

This cliché is used when a team or an individual player is seen to work very hard during a game. The expression is often used with the verb ‘work’ as in he worked his socks off throughout the game. Indeed, this phrase is synonymous with certain types of battling midfield players such as Steven Gerrard or formerly Roy Keane who often run their socks off to get their teams back into a game. If a team works their socks off it means that they battled hard and did not give up. To work your socks off. continue

This week’s main report looks at the Bundesliga with Hans guiding us through the German league. The transcript of the report is below and includes vocabulary in bold which is explained at the foot of the post.

Listen to the report here

Transcript
Hans: Hello and welcome to the Bundesliga. My name is Hans and I’m delighted this season because my team SC Freiburg are back in the top flight after several seasons in the second league. However, as always with the Bundesliga, everybody is talking about Bayern München.
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This week’s main report looks ahead to the group stages of the Champions League. In this interview Damian asks Manchester United fan Brendan about this season’s competition. The transcript of the report is below and includes vocabulary in bold which is explained at the foot of the post.

Main week 5

DF: Now the Champions League group stages are about to start and after last season when there were really no surprises at all the question is, do we really care? Brendan. continue

Listen to this week’s show here

This World Cup Stars post features possibly the greatest player of all time, Diego Maradona. To help you understand a little better there is a vocabulary list containing the words in bold at the foot of this post

TRANSCRIPT

Pele may have won more World Cup titles, Ronaldo may have scored more goals, Lothar Matthäus played more games but no one has dominated the World Cup as much as Diego Maradona. He won the trophy in 1986, scored 7 goals in 21 consecutive appearances over four tournaments from 1982 to 1994 and was never far from the centre of World Cup controversy. The sad departure in 1982, the ‘Hand of God’ and subsequent wonder goal against England in 1986, the tears in the final of 1990 and the drug scandal in 1994 have all meant that Maradona is a definite part of World Cup history. continue

This post gives explanations of two more footballing clichés. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

Can’t win the title in August but you can certainly lose it | Listen here

This cliché is a classic example of stating the complete obvious to make a point. As most European leagues start in August and finish in May it is mathematically impossible for a team to win the title so early in the season. So no matter how well a team begins the season it is far too early to predict that they will become champions. However, if a team that is tipped to do well has a bad start to the season then it might be difficult for them to recover and go on to win the title, meaning that a winning start is vital.
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La Liga kicks off this weekend and on this week’s main report we ask whether the Spanish League is now better than the Premier League. Explanations of key terms are explained in bold at the end of the transcript below.

Listen to this week’s show here

TRANSCRIPT

Spain or England?

The much-anticipated Spanish football season, La Liga, kicks off this weekend, and it is one which Ronaldo now claims is the best league in the world – though that may only be because of his recent move there. But maybe Ronaldo has a point; has a shift occurred in the power structure of club football? continue