Political Vocabulary (Intermediate-Advanced)

Practice on Your Own

Politics is part of communal life. It is important to be able to use the target language to speak about politics and political matters.

• Make a list of words that are used often in talking about politics. For instance:
  • Politics, political, president, prime minister, parliament, government, election, vote, democracy, power, country, state, province…
• Use the terms in simple sentences and word combinations.
  • Obama is president of the U.S. Putin is the Russian president. David Cameron is a prime minister…
  • The United States is a democracy. It has a democratic government.
  • There is an election next month.
  • Democratic countries, democratic governments, political systems, dictator/dictatorial, political parties, political life, presidential election, parliamentary election…
• Write some sentences related to the political life and system of the country/ies where the language is spoken.
• Practice describing political systems and political situations verbally. Practice giving short, but detailed descriptions of political matters.
• Extra challenge: Practice comparing and contrasting the political systems and situations of various countries with which you are familiar.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Read the list of the words you have prepared to your conversation partner to check your pronunciation. Watch out for any terms that are similar to English words but are pronounced differently.
• Use the terms in sentences similar to the ones you have already worked on. Notice if there are patterns of mistakes in your sentence structures or word combinations.
• Discuss with your conversation partner the political system, parties, etc. in the country/ies where the language is spoken. Ask questions and follow up questions.
• Practice describing in detail what you have learned about the political systems or situations of country/ies where the language you are learning is spoken.
• Extra challenge: Compare and contrast the political systems and situations of countries with which you are familiar.