What’s in a Name?

This activity urges students to dip their toes into the ancient world from sound alone! Well…not really, but it’s a great exercise in learning how to problem-solve putting together English words and sounds by forcing your ears to start listening to another language! Students are given a list of the Greek alphabet with the new letter shapes and the phonetic sounds. They are first challenge to translate their names, but look out! Some letters in Greek don’t appear in English, and vice versa! How can we make new sounds? Maybe by practicing the phonetic structures we’ve learned in class before! A name like “John” can’t begin with a “J” and the “h” is silent in English. How can we manage that?

If your students are particularly quick, additional sections including Greek words and phrase are included. Can they identify similar words in English that use these roots?