Learn English through UK's number 1 sport - football!

As David (Stafford House Brighton Principal) said in his last blog entry, it’s important to practise your English as much as you can outside the classroom. Watching television, reading news paper or magazines (and of course subtitles) will really help. And if you have a particular interest, such as a sport, then you will find it easier to pick up the language if you are interested in the subject. For a lot of our students, they come to England with a lot of knowledge and interest in football.

On Saturday the England football team beat Slovenia 3-1 at Wembley in a qualification match for the 2016 European Championship in France. There was a lot of media interest before the match; in fact, there was more interest before the match than after it! This is because Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney was making his 100^th appearance. In English, to describe an international player making an appearance for their country, we say they are receiving or winning a cap. This can also be used as an adjective – for example, ‘the most capped player’. Rooney is now England’s 9^th  highest capped player of all time, behind David Beckham in 2^nd place with 115 and goalkeeper Peter Shilton in 1^st place with 125.

The wearing of a cap for international games was officially adopted back in 1886, but in the first international football match played between England and Scotland in 1872 all the England players wore their old school caps. In those days football teams did not play in distinctive colour strips as they do now. The only way to distinguish which team a player represented was the cap he wore on his head! This developed into a tradition of awarding a cap to a player each time they represented their country, which continued even after the introduction of football strips.

Caps are not the only headwear to feature in the language of sport. There is also the hat-trick. In football this is when a player scores three goals in the same game. Wayne Rooney has scored some of these too; including one in his debut appearance for Manchester United.

To celebrate winning his 100^th cap, a presentation was arranged for Wayne Rooney before kick-off. Instead of the cap being its usual blue colour, it was gold. And who presented the cap to him? Former Manchester United and England star Sir Bobby Charlton, a member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team. Sir Bobby holds 106 caps and holds the record for the most number of England goals, 49. With 100 caps and 40 goals, Wayne Rooney will probably beat both of Sir Bobby’s records, but he will find it harder to match Sir Bobby’s achievement of winning a World Cup winner’s medal!

Glossary

Cap (noun) a type of hat. Also used to describe making an appearance for your country in sport.

Hat-trick (noun) to score three goals in football. Can be used to describe other series of three, for example beating the same team three times.

Kick-off (noun) the beginning of a football match.

Strip (noun) the shirt, shorts and socks in a particular design and set of colours to represent your team.

Useful materials

If you are interested in football, here are some more ideas of how to practise your English:

1. Listen to podcasts like Languagecaster specifically designed for learners of English interested in football.

2. Read British newspapers like Telegraph and The Guardian.

3. Newspapers use a lot of expressions and sometimes vocabulary which can be very difficult to follow unless you have a high level of English. Lower level learners may find it easier to read magazines like World Soccer and Champions Matchday.

4. Browse websites like BBC and follow blogs like SoccerLens.

Good luck!

Pat O'Donoghue, Principal Stafford House Canterbury