Learning
English With Your Children and Teens: Using Junk Mail to Practice English
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| ESL - Realia |
Iowa Reading Research Center: 3.30.2021 by Nicole DeSalle Writing Coordinator, Iowa Reading Research Center
We live in a digital world. And yet, in this age of text
messages and smartphone apps, your postal mailbox might still regularly be
stuffed with junk mail like sheets of coupons and advertisements. Although your
instinct might be to put the papers straight into the recycling bin, there are
ways to use that junk mail or other everyday objects (collectively referred to
as realia)
to support your literacy development of English as well as that of your
children and teens. Language enables us to solve problems and to socially
interact with others. Therefore, practicing with realia such as coupons and
advertisements can allow you and your children or teens to practice scenarios
and interactions that occur in everyday life. This kind of realia also can help
you and your children or teens gain cultural knowledge about the United States,
such as the kinds of products that can be found in stores and the kinds of
information often found in advertisements
Building Skills Together: Activities Using
Junk Mail to Practice English
The activities below are a few ways you can use junk mail
like coupons and advertising to practice English with your children and teens.
Create a Picture Dictionary
You can collect many coupons and advertisements. To create a
picture dictionary, organize them alphabetically in a scrapbook.
Practice Grammar: Countable and Noncountable Nouns
With your children or teens, identify the products on the
coupons that are countable and noncountable nouns.
Practice Pronunciation: Ending Consonants (s)
With your children or teens, identify products on the
coupons that end with the letter “s,” such as “eggs,” “cupcakes,” “paper
towels,” and “bananas.”
Practice Speaking Skills: Ask and Answer Questions (How
Much?)
With your children or teens, roleplay being a customer and a
cashier. Use the sentence frames below to practice asking and answering
questions about the coupons from your picture dictionary.
Editor’s note: Learning together can improve your children’s and teens’ English language skills as well as your own. This post is part of an ongoing series designed to help caregivers who are English learners find English learning opportunities for the family in their everyday lives. READ MORE ➤➤
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