?? Happy Silent Letter Day! ??

Should we have a ‘Silent Letter Day’, i.e. a day when all those pesky silent letters are 'voiced’ and celebrated? This video proposes just that. The silent letter words included range from A2 to C1 (subtle).

I started to create a lesson plan on this but then thought … I don’t know your students. I don’t know their competences, interests, experiences, limitations, attitudes, goals, disabilities, vibes, the group versus individual differences, and so on. But YOU will. So, instead of a set lesson plan, here’s a bunch of 25 activities from which you could pick and mix (and bin those that aren’t appropriate) and build into your own lesson.

(Why 25? Well, it’s 2025; I’ve been in ELT for over 25 years, and I should have been writing my 25th Student’s Book (ESP) this week … but it was cancelled just before Christmas, outside of contract, so I am unexpectedly free and bursting with ideas!)

??BEFORE WATCHING

1.???? Teacher dictation: Teacher dictates the silent letter words (SLW) from the video, and students work individually to write/type the words. In pairs, students identify the silent letters and practice the pronunciation together. Then check and confirm spelling, silent letters and pronunciation with whole class. Drill, if necessary.

2.???? Peer dictation: Teacher puts students into pairs: ‘A’ and ‘B’. Teacher gives As a list of SLWs and Bs a different list of SLWs. (The list can be in phonemic transcript to increase challenge.) Students must not show the list to their partner. A says the first word on their list and B writes the word. Students swap roles and continue until all words are spoken and written. Pairs then check their written answers are spelt correctly and identify the silent letters.

3.???? Target language elicitation: Teacher selects some of the SLWs and presents them to the class without words, and students guess the word (and say and spell it correctly). For example, teacher shows real products (e.g. yoghurt, receipt, calendar showing months present to the class), draws pictures (e.g. cupboard, climbing, knitting), shows royalty-free photos (e.g. gnome, salmon, walking), or uses emojis (e.g. champagne, scissors, sandwiches – then have students draw what sandwiches look like in their culture).

4.???? Brainstorm: Groups have one minute (or slightly longer) to make a list of words with silent letters in one minute. The winning group has the most correctly spelt – and correctly pronounced – words.

5.???? Story mingle: Teacher gives teams five SLWs and asks teams to make a story using the words. For greater challenge, have students add three more SLWs of their owns. The class then ‘mingles’ and students have to tell at least two other teams their story. Hold a plenary feedback for teams to retell another team’s story.

6.???? Pictionary: Students work in teams of four or five. When confirming answers, have students spell and say each word.

7.???? Word puzzle: Students work individually or in pairs to complete a word puzzle (e.g. crossword, word search, word snake) containing the SLW. For mixed level classes or those who don’t enjoy timed competition (I have reservations about this as a teacher), flip the lesson and give this as homework before the lesson.

8.???? Open cloze summary completion: Give students a short, written summary of ‘Silent Letter Day’ with the SLW shown as gaps. (Do not include the missing words.) Students predict the possible words – encourage them to identify not only the type of missing word (e.g. noun), but to have fun and include silly suggestions for the gaps. Students then watch and check/correct their ideas.

??WHILST WATCHING

9.???? Open cloze summary completion: As 7 above, but students complete the gaps as they watch. Check spelling and pronunciation.

10.? Multiple-choice summary completion: As 7 above, but each gap has a choice of two or three words (the words must be grammatically correct and logically possible, but only one must be correct, i.e. the one included in the video). Students watch and choose the correct word. (Make this a little more challenging by using phonemic transcript or jumbled letters for the words.) Check spelling and pronunciation.

11.? Spell and say: Students work in teams and shout/raise a hand when they hear a SLW. Teams then need to spell the SLW correctly but… say it incorrectly as in the video.

12.? Bingo: Teacher gives students an empty bingo card and students fill each square with SLWs. Students cross off each SLW in the video. The winner is the first student to cross off all their SLWs.

13.? Reordering: teacher gives students 5/6 key phrases or events from the video, and students put them in the correct order. Include a distractor for greater challenge.

14.? ?Comprehension questions: Teacher sets 5–6 comprehension questions on the video, including the content, the context, and the speaker. (These questions could also be True/False sentences or multiple-choice, depending on the level of challenge required.)

15.? Jigsaw notes: Teacher puts students into pairs: ‘A’ and ‘B’. As listen to the audio (but do not watch the video) and take notes; Bs watch the video (and therefore also listen – and read, if you haven’t removed or overed the subtitles) and take notes. Pairs then compare notes, and discuss ‘viewing’ preferences, i.e. is it easier to watch and listen, are subtitles distracting or helpful, how useful are non-verbal cues in audience engagement, etc.

16.? Note taking and re-telling: Students take notes on the video in order to re-tell and reiterate the details of the day with their partner.

??AFTER WATCHING

17.? Open cloze summary completion: As 7 above, but students complete the gaps from memory. Check spelling and pronunciation.

18.? Freer speaking: Groups invent another language-related day (e.g. phrasal verb day, polysyllabic word day) and tell the class their ideas. The class votes on their favourite idea.

19.? Mini project: As 18 above, but students create a (paper) poster or an online post/article about the day.

20.? Mini project: As 18 above, but students make a reel or perform a simple skit.

21.? Error correction: Give students a short, written summary of with errors (e.g. factual, spelling, grammatical) to correct.?

22.? Quiz and discussion: Groups/the class take a quiz based on the history of the English language and World Englishes, then talk about the answers or other facts.

23.? Discussion: Groups talk about days that are recognised nationally and internationally e.g. Are there days of special significance to you? Are there days that annoy you? Teacher divides students into new groups to share their ideas.

24.? Discussion: Groups talk about popular figures in comedy and entertainment in their country: Who is popular? To whom? Are all groups of people represented fairly in the comedy and entertainment industry?

25.? Etymology: Teacher gives mini presentation on etymology and/or pronunciation of some of these SLWs, e.g. French roots and Latin roots of English; dark and light /l/, and how it affects the preceding vowel; the similar lip position of /w?/ and /r?/; historical elision of /k/ in /kn/ and /g/ in /gn/.