Master ten colloquial English idioms that native speakers really use, and learn exactly when they help you and when they cost you marks in a Cambridge exam.
Main objectives of this material
- Develop up-to-date vocabulary related to online culture, AI and modern life, including recent dictionary Words of the Year such as rage bait, brain rot, slop, vibe coding, parasocial and manifest, and decide which words belong in speaking and which in writing.
- Improve reading and speaking skills by analysing how English dictionaries choose their Word of the Year, decoding unfamiliar words such as situationship and sleepmaxxing from their parts, and discussing what new words reveal about attention, artificial intelligence and identity.
- Learn and practise word formation through clipping, blending, compounding, conversion and affixation, and use evaluative phrases such as it's here to stay, it's a passing fad and it fills a gap in the language to argue which new words will survive.
What students are going to cover
In this lesson, students will explore why new words enter English and how dictionaries choose their Word of the Year. They will build vocabulary related to social media, AI and modern relationships, including rizz, romantasy and AI slop, and compare how acceptable each word is in conversation and in professional writing. Students will learn five word-formation processes and use them to guess the meaning of words they have never seen before. They will discuss what these words say about life online, debate which words will last using a clear scoring rubric, and invent their own Word of the Year with a dictionary-style definition. By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to explain recent English vocabulary, decode new words from their structure and argue convincingly whether a word is here to stay.
🔒 Part of Complete · B2 · C1
Unlock this lesson with Complete
You are one step away from the full worksheet. Complete opens every lesson in the library, with new ones added every Sunday.
- Student Version PDF, print-ready, and an interactive fillable version
- Teacher Version with full answer key and teacher notes
- Presentation slides, glossary and a homework task
- Full access to every level, A1 to C2
Get Complete Start free with 10 lessons
Cancel anytime. Already a member? Log in to open this lesson.