Breaking news: Oxford word of the year

This article came out this morning, so I’m kind of hoping we are the first to give you something to work with on it! Do you have a favorite dictionary? Are you a Miriam-Webster kinda woman? An Oxford gentleman? A Collins bro? The difference didn’t matter much to me until this morning when I saw their three choices for “word of the year”. Collins chose artificial intelligence. Topical, but oh so boring. Miriam-Webster went with the pretentious choice of authentic. barf. We could have used that a few years ago… What did the genius lexicographers at Oxford Publishing come up with? Something current, something new and something awesome. The Oxford word of they year is rizz.

If you are on the internet as much as I am, you’ve heard this word about 18 times this year and finally deciphered its meaning. For the rest of you out there, you’ll be learning alongside your students. This breaking news activity consists of:

• The original article as your authentic material.
• A reading comprehension activity in the true/false variant.
• A paired speaking activity to talk about language evolution, slang and language learning.
• Two vocabulary activities to learn about 8 new words being added to the Oxford dictionary
• A make your own interview style activity to practice using the new vocabulary so that your students can use some brand new English words even native speakers don’t know yet!