Clothing really is a cultural artifact. Even though people in a lot of countries now wear Western style clothing in business settings, there may be very different standards to what people wear for different occasions.

Beginning Learners:

Start by learning the words for outer clothing for men and women and children. Take pictures, or use real clothing objects to do Look and Listen and Do. It might help to have a couple of dolls or action figures you could dress and undress.

Note: Don’t ask about underwear until you really know someone well and then only ask someone of your same gender about that. It could be really offensive and embarrassing to your LH.

Possible Vocabulary for this unit:

Women’s clothing:

Men’s clothing:

Children’s clothing:

…or whatever clothing you see people wearing every day. These might include items like sarongs, shalwar kameez, tunic, robe, etc.

Also learn verbs associated with clothing, such as:

Suggested Activities:

Take pictures or find pictures on the internet and use the Look and Listen and Do technique to learn the names of different clothes. You can also have the Language Helper (LH) say sentences like “One woman is wearing a red skirt and the other woman is wearing a blue skirt.” You have to point to the correct picture.

Intermediate Learners:

Learn the words associated with clothing that you haven’t already learned, such as sleeve, leg (of a pair of pants), button, zipper, pocket, and other, less-commonly used clothing, such as raincoat, formal attire. If you feel comfortable doing it at this stage, you could ask about underwear, or go shopping with someone of the same gender and ask the names of items you see for sale.

Get someone to describe pictures of two people and ask what you think they are going to do, based on their clothing. Record, and ask questions about any words you don’t know. You might take pictures of people at a wedding or funeral and ask about their attire.