A super-duper language phenomenon (reduplication in English)

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Vocabulary - reduplication

reduplication in English
photo of the author Justa |

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson about reduplication in English students discover the meaning of common reduplicatives and practise them in everyday conversations. The idea for the lesson about reduplication comes from one of our subscribers. Thanks, Victoria! #yousuggestwecreate

B2 / Upper Intermediate
C1 / Advanced45 minStandard LessonPremium Plan
student's versionteacher's versione-lesson plangenerate revision tasks

REDUPLICATION IN ENGLISH

First, in the lead-in task, students learn the term reduplication, discuss its meaning and brainstorm examples. In the next exercise, they look at five reduplicatives used in sentences (e.g. hoity-toity, easy-peasy) and match them with their meanings.  Afterwards, they look at a set of questions with different reduplicatives missing letters ‘a’ and ‘o’. Students have to add missing vowels and guess the meanings of the six reduplicatives. After that, they discuss  the questions. Before discussing, you could ask students to briefly explain the meanings of the reduplicatives in the questions. Next, students analyse five dialogues with gaps and complete them with a few examples of exact reduplication (e.g. so-so, night-night).  

DIALOGUES & GAME

The second part of the lesson focuses on practising reduplication in a less controlled way.The aim of the first exercise is to create dialogues and include two reduplicatives studied earlier. Students have to leave blank spaces where the new language should be. Then, they exchange the dialogues with their partners and guess the missing words in their partner’s dialogues. For stronger groups, there is also an optional exercise which familiarises them with contrastive reduplication – we use it when we want to stress the word’s prototypical meaning. The lesson finishes with a game. Students in turn choose a card and perform small tasks consolidating the new language (e.g. Name three things that can be hoity-toity or Give three examples of knick-knacks).

WORKSHEETS

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  1. James Smith

    Hi, just wanted to say that this is a great idea for a lesson. I did the same topic last year with some of my classes.
    I also used a nice, short video from ‘BBC Reel’, which I would recommend to tie in with this lesson plan. 🙂
    https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08fvz6y/the-english-language-laws-you-never-knew-you-knew

    1. Justa

      Hi James! Thank you so much for the link! I agree that the video could be a great addition to the lesson plan, especially for stronger students.

    2. Adriana Chagas

      Wow, thank you soooooo much for link! super-duper! I loved this lesson guys from ESL brains, you rock!

      1. Justa

        Thank you, Adriana! Much appreciated 🙂

  2. Bonnie Michetti

    A very interesting informal language lesson for students of a more advanced level. Thank you very much!

    1. Justa

      Thanks, Bonnie!

  3. Simon

    Excellent ideas. Going to use this today with my Advanced student.

    1. Justa

      Thanks! I hope your student will enjoy it 🙂

  4. integrateenglish

    A great lesson but there is a problem in the quiz in the e-lesson. Number 7 links to a deleted slide 🙁

    1. Stan

      Green boxes link to the right slides but we’ve just also linked each number seperately so you can either click the box or the number (and you don’t see that ‘deleted slide’ notice)

  5. Josh

    great job, but can you make it a little bit less Freudian next time?

    1. Justa

      Thanks for the comment! But I’m not sure whether I know why you think this lesson is ‘Freudian’.

      1. Josh

        the teeny weeny part raised a lot of eyebrows….

        1. Josh

          Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great lesson though.

          1. Justa

            Now, I see what you mean, but I would never thought about that though😊 I’m happy that the lesson was successful 🙂

  6. Blaithin Nugent

    I really liked this lesson. It was a nice light class which lead to a lot of fun conversations. Thanks

    1. Justa

      Great to hear that! Thanks for sharing your feedback with us!

  7. Alex

    Hey, great lesson, but I had one question. When you say ‘three ways of saying’ (in the final task) are you just asking the students to use them in a sentence?

    1. Justa

      Hi Alex! Let me clarify that. When we say ‘three ways of saying’, we want students to list more or less synonymous words or expressions. E.g. ‘Give three ways of saying okey-dokey: OK, sure, all right’

  8. Lydia goold verschoyle

    A super, refreshing and fun lesson, thank you!
    The itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini made its way in there too! 😀

    1. Justa

      It’s actually a cool idea to use the song here 🙂

  9. Marianna_esl

    Excellent lesson plan. Will use this with my students tomorrow. Thank you

    1. Justa

      Thanks! I hope your students enjoy it 🙂

  10. Olga Svetkina

    This is a fantastic lesson! I also used some examples of schm- reduplications to lighten up the mood at the end of the lesson (fancy-schmancy etc.).

    1. Justa

      That’s a good idea! Thanks for sharing it with us 🙂

  11. mariascan

    Great lesson plan for C1 students!!

    1. Justa

      Thanks!

  12. Hurricane82

    This looks great! I’m going to use it this morning. Can you correct the typo in the instructions for ex 5 in the students’ version? FYI 🙂

    1. Justa

      Hi there! Thanks for spotting that! I’ve just corrected it! I hope you have a great class 🙂

  13. AP

    This was fun. I’ve even been using it with B1 level students. I also used the BBC video to introduce the topic after the 1st speaking exercise. Really good lesson with some fun, accessible vocab for the students to recognise and use.

    1. Justa

      Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us! We’re happy to hear that the lesson is so engaging 🙂

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