A Look at a Scottish Dialect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DYtz7Mon3c&feature=related


The point of this lesson is to instruct the students on one specific dialect of English, Scottish. There are various reasons to study dialects such as: actors training, learning about culural diversity, learning about how the english language differs geographically, and of course writing fiction or drama. We are going to take a look at a Scottish dialect from Aberdeen, Scotland. Listen to the sound file and see if you can understand what he says.

Link- http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/scotland/scotland.htm (Scotland Fourteen)

Did you understand him clearly? Did you recognize any specific pronunciation differences? Here is an explanation of some of the different pronunciations that the speaker uses.

Scotland Fourteen - Text

"The area the subject comes from retains its rich, strong dialect of North-east Scots and the speaker can switch fluently between Standard Scots and his own dialect. Comma Gets a Cure is read in a more standard way, but the unscripted speech is in Scots; hence the pronunciation of Aberdeen, from, toon, over, called, do, outside; and the use of ken and wee for know and little. The vowel of man is very back; a'body means everybody, and the sound in her is very openly realized. With this speaker the initial /th/ is sometimes dropped, so that becomes 'at. One key substitution in the dialect is the traditional /f/ for word-initial /wh/, so when become fin, what becomes fit and so on. The glottal stop, as with many young Scots, is ubiquitous; and consonants, especially the /r/ sound, very muscular."

Recorded by Ros Steen, 2005; and edited June 4, 2005 by Paul Meier. Running time: 00:04:33.

Examples of Scottish words and pronunciation used throughout the sound clip:

Scottish English Pronunciation of Scottish Words

Fur for likin'- final 'g' is often omitted

Yer you/your sufferin'

Sae so struttin'

Wirsh washed strokin'

Wus was relaxin'

Lik like surprisin'

Ken know le-er (letter)- glottal stop, t is not pronounced

Wee little mirror- r is pronounced with a rolling of the tongue

Fin when hurry

U's and O's are strongly pronounced as in:

U- duke and huge

O- foot and soon

You can use this link http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/general/scots.html to browse through various Scottish words and how they pronounce various English words.

Task For Children

Have children listen to sound clip to see if they can pick up on any additional Scottish words and/or pronunciation using 'Scots Tongue'.

Link- http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/general/scots.html

Assessment

Class Discussion. Participation points awarded to entire class.

Valley Girl Dialect

The purpose of this exercise is for the students to get familiar with the California, or valley girl dialect. This is a dialect that many students have heard, probably through movies such as legally blonde or clueless. This will be an interesting way for the students to realize how different a dialect can be in the English language. This dialect has also been called Valspeak.

Emphasizing phrases: Some words are used very liberally to exaggerate a sentence.

Ex I so totally aced that test!

Oh most definitely we are gonna go to the beach after school!

Using like as a quotative particle: In Valspeak, the word like is used almost in the same was a comma. Where we might say “ umm” or pause between thoughts, Valspeak uses like.

I got out of class, and like, I was so tired.

I was like, shut up, you gotta be joking

Intonation of phrases to make a phrase sound like a question.

Your taking Todd to the prom? ( simple statement made as a question)

Girl 1: I’m going to quit my job on Saturday

Like, shut up? ( phrase used as a question. Here it is inquiring as to the seriousness of girl 1’s statement.

Students will listen to the following clip:

Exercise 1. The students will visit the following dialect translator and translate a passage into valley girl. Some interesting ideas for transfer are poems, samples from essays, etc. Show the students how different a Robert Frost poem might be if translated into valley girl. The students should be pretty familiar with this type of talk. What is important for the students to realize is how diverse our culture is, and how valley girl is obviously just one different dialect spoken in this country.

Exercise 2: Have the students watch an edited version of the following youtube video Has the dialect been played up to represent the stereotype of the typical surfer? What rules that we have covered are seen in this video? The students will write a short response 250- 300 words, about the prevalence of Valspeak in Midwestern language.

Exercise 3. For the last exercise, the students will break into pairs and will take turns interviewing each other. The interviewer will speak in a regular Midwestern accent, and the the person interviewed will use Valspeak. This will help to give the students a clear contrast of Midwestern language to Valley speak. The students will write a one page response to this, focusing on the differences in Midwestern language and Valspeak. Does the use of Valspeak make one seem less intelligent? Ask students for their opinions.

Midtrack 9th Grade Dialect Discrimination Lesson

Objective: To define the use of language as a socially controlled, normative system to a 9th grade class, and have them understand the difference between "high bred" London accents and Cockney. Once an understanding of these dialects and their link to class discrimination is achieved, the lesson will move on to their own encounters with dialect in their lives. Journaling and class discussion will lead to an understanding of what dialect is; and why it sometimes leads to unfounded discrimination.

Introduction: I will play a short clip from the film My Fair Lady, as an attention getter, with the class's attention pointed towards the ways the characters use language and subsequently treat each other. Then, the class receives a lecture on the social queues gained from language. Covered is how the gentrified Londoner immediately assumes that the speaker of the cockney accent is uneducated and indicts the woman for damaging the "true" language that only he, of course, has the education to have mastered.

The sound file here is an example of a mild London cockney accent.

Task: The students will be asked to take notes on the aspects of this dialect, including the dropped "h"s at the beginning of words, such as "happy" becoming "ah-ppy". And mark the use of intrusive "r"s, found in "sto-ry", and glottilised "t"s, as in "lots".

Now I would tell a story of my own dealings with my mother's southern dialect. She would always use the turn of phrase "ink pen" instead of pen, but I did not understand why. Then one day when I was older, she asked me for a pin, but I brought her a pen. It was then that I realized that in her southern dialect the pronunciation for "pen" and "pin" are identical, both sounding like "pen". So, she says "ink pen" so people can differentiate that she is not talking about a "pin". The students will now journal individually on their own encounters with and assumptions concerning dialects. I will then lead a discussion on the impact dialect has had on our lives, with a focus being kept on the idea that there is not platonic ideal for language.

Conclusion: After participating in the discussion the student's personal ideas will have been reshaped with this new information. They will have an understanding of the social context in which language is used and will consequently understand that discrimination based on people's speech patterns is unfounded.

Shakespearen Dialect

Introduction:
Dialect can be used to dissect grammar by delving into the drama genre of English. Grammar will be explored by focusing primarily on the Shakespearean use of language in conversation. This differs from most teachings of language in Shakespeare as studies focus solely on the text. Students will learn to explain the variations between Shakespearean dialect and their own. Students will also understand how the rules of grammar and dialect give acting verisimilitude.

Importance of learning this concept:
Learning how dialect varies helps students understand the expectations that pertain to really making their acting of the play a success. Rule governed grammar differs among languages as well as between dialects. As students gain a better understanding of this concept, the will understand some of the difficulties foreign students have with learning another language. The students will gain this understanding by virtually being put into an environment where their own use of language is forbidden.

Drama Dialectic:
Actors studying Shakespeare often use the International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A) when forming their dialects. I.P.A. uses phonetic notations based on the Latin alphabet. It serves as the standard representation of spoken speech. I.P.A. gives the guidelines for the “correct” sounds of “Standard English.” Standard English is said to be the perfect mix of American and British English sounds. We may be able to recognize Standard English on paper, but most of the time we are actually pronouncing it incorrectly. Although, Shakespeare’s works are from Great Britain, you will not hear Shakespeare plays spoken in the “Cockney” British accent that was common of many people who lived during the Elizabethan era. The phonetic alphabet is composed of numerous symbols representing the variety of sounds present in the English language. Since the teaching of I.P.A and it’s symbols can easily fill a semester of class (and because we are only teaching a short unit on drama to 9th graders) we are not going to focus on having the students memorize these symbols. Rather we want them to focus on a few simple sound rules, when performing their scenes from Romeo and Juliet.

1. Words ending in “y” will be changed to “i.”

Example: “Happy”- in normal English we pronounce the “y” in happy with a long “ee” sound. However, in proper Standard English, it will not be a long “ee” sound. Rather, it will have a short “I” sound- “happi”

2. Words ending in “r” should be pronounced softly.

Example: “Yonder”-in our everyday speech we always pronounce the “r”. However, this makes the speech more harsh. Instead, make the “r” soft and drawn out.

3. Words beginning with “re” should be changed to “ri”

Example: “Return” Instead of carrying out the “e” as in “Ree-turn” it should be short “I” sound. Instead, say “ri-turn.”

4. Most words beginning with the word “a” should be pronounced with the “awe” sound.

Example: “Answer”- “Awe”swer

Example of dialect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jas0DT-mtPA


Resources to learn dialect: http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm

Assignments:
One major assignment will be given as an overarching project that will incorporate smaller assignments to guide the students learning. The overarching assignment will be that students would get into groups and learn the words of a Romeo and Juliet and act out the scene based on their interpretation of the reading. Students would draw numbers that would govern which scene each group would act out. The smaller assignments are to reinforce the rules of grammar that students already know, while helping students understand the variations between modern American and Shakespearean dialect.

Students will be asked daily to reflect on the difficulties of using language that they are unfamiliar with inside of journal until the day of the actual production. The students will also be asked everyday to pick a line of within the scene that they are acting out and describe the rule of English that is ignored, altered, or dismissed in Shakespearean dialect. Students will then be force to recollect the actual rules of grammar in English and understand their relationship to other words in conversations or text.

Northern Irish for Acting Class

Objective: To teach an advanced class of freshmen theater students how to correctly learn to use a Northern Irish accent and dialect to enhance their acting while developing an appreciation for the Irish culture and language.

Materials Required:
Small, green top hat
Instant Irish accent mouth spray (in spearmint flavor)
Optional sheep
Pot of gold (to share with teacher)

Introduction: The students will first analyze the fundamental principles of language, including the way vowels and consonants are spoken. At first, students will be exposed to a text and attempt to read out loud with Irish accent. Then the students will listen to a few sound files of speakers native to Northern Ireland and have time to practice amongst their friends. Students will then be asked to go out into their community and speak with a Northern Irish accent. They will then report the people’s reactions, their feelings about the assignment, etc. in a one page report. By exposing students to the Northern Irish culture through teaching about their specific dialect, students will gain an appreciation to a unique culture while increasing their acting skills.

Accent Characteristics: There are many forms of accents and characteristics of the English language. English has evolved differently in many places. The Irish accent, specifically the Northern Irish for our study, has some variations that make it unique among other forms of English.
- The most basic difference in Irish English and other places where English is spoken revolves around the influence of the Gaelic language and its impact. Native Irish speakers integrated aspects of the Gaelic language into English, especially in the more rural areas of the North. For examples, Gaelic words like ludraman and amadan are used in conjunction with English words.
- The difference in Northern Irish English and its counterpart in the South can be seen more clearly through the stronger Gaelic influence that is incorporated in the North in comparison with the South.
- In general, speech in Ireland is rhotic-speakers pronounce a sound after a vowel in words like farm, first, and better.
- Further noting the distinctions between Northern and Southern Irish English, the vowel system of Northern Irish English resembles Scottish English rather than the English of Ireland. For example, boot rhymes with foot.
- Further distinctions include the noticeable tendency in Northern speakers to raise their pitch towards the end of an utterance.
Irish accent sound file: http://www.ku.edu/~idea/europe/ireland/ireland5.mp3

Task: Each student’s task is to come up with a skit utilizing what we have learned about northern Irish accents. This can be done alone or in groups up to three people. The more people in your group, however, the longer your skit must be. For one person the skit must be 3-5 minutes; two people 5-7 minutes; three people 7-9 minutes. You may choose whatever you would like to for the script. You may make one up, use a passage from a book, an excerpt from a movie or play; do whatever you wish, just be creative!

Assessment: To see how well you have mastered your northern Irish accent, you must go out into the community and start up a conversation with someone you don’t know. This can be in a restaurant, grocery store, elevator, church, or other public place. It doesn’t matter where it is; the only thing that matters is that this person does not know you. You must strike up a conversation with this person using your Irish accent, and they must be convinced that you are from Ireland. Evidence of this may be that they ask you where you are from, or some such comment. You don’t have to lie. If you are asked where you are from, tell the truth, and also tell about this assignment. You may do this in groups as well, but everyone must speak. To show me that you’ve done this, you will write me a one page, double spaced paper explaining what happened and what you thought of the assignment. You can have a lot of fun with this, don’t get overwhelmed. And don’t fake your papers, I will know.

Can an dialect/accent make someone sound ignorant?

Dialect: Long Island, NY

Now when you think of A New Yorker, what is the 1st thing that comes to your mind? the accent, the attitude, the funny pronunciation of certain words? This is all true. Some people think that NY'ers are dumb or unintelligent because of the way we speak, but being a NY'er myself, I can vouch that that is not true. It's not our fault that we pronounce words like: coffee, mall, dog, water, long, and talk a little oddly, it just comes with the territory!

Borat Clip

Objective: 9th grade students have been studying different dialects and accents of various regions of the United States. The goal of the lesson if for students to determine if some of the sounds that they hear make the readers sound ignorant and why. Students will learn that accents and dialect originated from and also that they do not determine educational status or levels of intelligence.

Assignment 1: Read the link below that discusses dialects and its orgins. After reading the article, write a small paragraph about your thoughts and feelings about dialect. Why do you think we have different languages for each, state, country, region etc.

Dialect reading

Assignment 2: Listen to the sound link below. Does the woman sound educated to you? Why or why not? Pay specific attention to the way the speaker pronounces certain words.

New York sound link

Assignment3 : Look at the "Down South" cartoon (link below). It is a cartoon depicting Southerners as ignorant, uneducated and racist. What is your opinion of the cartoon? Write a 2 paragraph paper discussing what you've learned by studying dialect and whether or not it effects a persons intelligence.


Down South Cartoon

Final assignment: (The fun one!!!): Pick one or two partners and create a dialect using typical NY accents. remember the borat clip we saw (but keep it clean please!) and the sound byte that was read by the woman. Remember the words that we discussed at the beginning of the assignment that are pronounced differently. "A"'s and "O"s are big letters that are drawn out.

British English Dialect

Objective:

A 9^th grade honors class has been learning intensely about the English they speak today versus the English spoken in Britain. They must learn about the British dialect before they can go on a class trip to Canterbury.

First you should listen to this sound sample. The person speaking is a 21-year-old female from a small town in England. Pay special attention to the differences in the way she pronounces words from the way you do.

Sound Clip

Word differences

American words with an –or suffix have an –our suffix in their British counterparts

Humor Humour

Armor Armour

Favorite Favourite

British words use the letter in the sound of the word

Ie: our offense is spelled offence

American English and British English also often have different words that mean the same thing

Here is a link to show you common words that make it confusing for Americans and British to have a simple conversation.

Link one

Now, write a short letter using American English describing your surroundings. Then, transcribe it to British English to see how different it would look if you wanted to write it to a student in Britain. For the assignment, you may use the link above or one of the two following links:

Link two

Link three

*note – you should have fun with this assignment. When you translate the letter to British English it should look funny to you!

Enjoy!

Dialect of the American South

Dialect: U.S. - Georgia

Objective: A class of actors is training for a production of "Gone with the Wind," a story set in the American South during the Civil War. They must, therefore, learn the dialect of the characters in the play, with is that of Georgia.

One of the most recognized aspects of "Gone with the Wind" is the dialect of the characters. A strong Georgia accent is one of the key elements of developing the characters in this play.

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/georgia/georgia1.mp3
When listening to this sound file, notice the drawn out vowel sounds. "Three" becomes "thray"; "Savannah" becomes "Savaynnah"; "Money" becomes "Muhnay"; "Light" becomes "Lat." In addition to the vowels, there is a very distinct lack of enunciation of the "r" sound at the end of words. For example, "for" becomes "foah". This change of letter sounds makes the dialect of the American South distinct from all others. Listen to the file, and practice the following line from the play:
Scarlett: If either of you boys says "war" just once again, I'll go in the house and slam the door.
At the end, I will ask you to perform this line with a Georgia accent and grade you based on your ability.
Hopefully, after this assignment, you will be able to mimic the dialect of Georgia. This ability will add significantly to the accuracy of your character roles.

French Dialect by Amanda and Josette

Learning about the French dialect is important for students so that they can learn about a culture other than their own. This sound clip is from a 22 year old from Paris studying at Western Maryland College.

This is our lecture:

These first four changes are all closely related to the resonance. Make sure you have them down solidly before you go on!

1. The short "i" sound in words like "chicken" and "fish" becomes a long "e," as in "meet."
   His interest in the chicken dinner was thin.

2. The short "e" sound in "egg" becomes a long "a" sound, as in "say."
   He left eggshells in every entrance.

3. The "oo" sound in words like "hook" and "sugar" becomes a long "u," as in "fool."
   The good hood was on the hook.

4. This pair of changes is pretty subtle. It's a real test of whether or not you've got the hang of the resonance. The long "o" in words like "coat" and the "aw" sound in words like "caught" are changed very subtly by the resonance. Trust me, it makes more sense when you listen to it.
   He was left alone on the boat in his coat. He ought not to be walking, leading with his jaw.

5. In English,we pronounce the "r" sound in the middle of the mouth. In French, it is all the way in the back, almost swallowed. This is the most distinctive sound in this dialect, and absolutely must be mastered. It can also be one of the most difficult to get the hang of, so practice, practice, practice!
   His racing heart beat hard against his breast.

6. We now come to a series of changes that can easily be taken too far. The more comedic your character, the farther you'll want to take them. Fist of all, the "ch" sound in words like "change" becomes an "sh" sound.
   Chickens and children should not chase one another.

7. The soft "g" sound in words like "budge" and "jaw" moves towards a "zh" sound. Be careful with this one, it is easy to lose intelligibility.
   The judges enjoyed the fudge company's jingle.

8. The soft "th" in words like "thin" becomes an "s." The hard "th" in words like "the" becomes "z." Again, this one can quickly become too strong, so you may want to merely 'clip' the sounds.
   They played around with this, that, and the other thing.

9. The "z" sound in words like "tries" and "finds" becomes an "s" sound.
   He finds her in repose, and tries to wake her with his words.

10. The French pronounciation of "-sion," "-tion," and "-able" are used, so long as intelligibility is not compromised.
    'Twas his prediction that the frost would produce a pattern most adorable.

Our Task:
Have the students write a short dialogue using the rules presented above.

In conclusion all French classes use this dialect while speaking English. From servants to Royalty.

Boston, Massachusetts dialect

When you click on the following link you can experience a Boston accent:

Objective: The world is full of different dialects. In America alone, there must be hundreds of different dialects throughout the regions. For the sake of simplicity, we have chosen to focus on the Massachusetts dialect with the emphasis on Boston. Individuals with Boston accents would not face as many problems as other individuals might face from other regions. However, they may have trouble obtaining high professional jobs because a negative stigma could be attached to their region of origin.

Introduction: Attention all English teachers! Here is a lesson plan for you. Have you ever wanted to find a way to tie history and English together in one project? Well we have found a way to make your life easier. The following lesson plan is designed for freshman level high school students and it is a mix of history and language. The main point of this lesson is to teach students about the dialects that are present in the Massachusettes area with a focus on the Boston region. Not only will students be learning about the language of this society, but they will also be learning about the history as well. They will learn about prominent cultural events that happened in Boston and how this has affected their use of language and dialect. Students will learn the difference between slang and dialect as well as how dialect affects the day to day activities of these people.

Assessment: We are reaching the end of our dialect unit. Over the past few weeks we have learned the historical importance Boston obtains. We have recently been studying how this city has evolved over time and how its past has impacted the current Massachusetts' metropolitan. As an effort to better help you understand the present culture we are going to examine the specific dialect Boston is known for. It is important you explore both the provided links to learn the basic linguistics and rules of Boston's accent and dialect. After you carefully read through the information, click on the sound link to hear what a native Bostonian sounds like. Listen to the words and try to distinguish the terms and pronunciation rules you read about. Next, the class will be divided into groups and each group will develop a dialogue. The content of the dialogue should be over something you have learned about during this unit. You will be presenting these dialogues to the class in your best Boston accent! You can also expect there to be questions over this specific dialect on the final exam which will encompass everything we have covered throughout the unit.

Conclusion: Now you know the dialect of Boston, MA. The purpose of this exercise was to show that even though we are all Americans and from the same country, we are all different and that is what makes us so great. We are able to see the differences, embrace them, and learn from them. I hope you all have learned something from this exercise and use it as a way to educate yourself on the many different dialects of this country and of the world.

Pronunciation Link
Vocabulary Link

Lindsay Buettner, Jessica Berry, Alex Gholson, Stephanie Tillery

Discrimination due to Dialect

There are many different dialects in the United States. Each dialect is unique, but having a strong dialect can cause it to be hard to find a job. For example, a job in New York is going to be harder to find if you speak in a strong southern accent like what is used in Mississippi. This is because of the large difference in enunciation of words. It makes it harder for the other person to understand and affects intelligibility. Although New York and Mississippi are both part of the United States the many miles between them causes a major difference in intonation of words. There are also geographical boundaries separating these two states. Why do you think there are many differences? Give some examples to support your findings. What types of discrimination could be caused because of having a strong dialect? Do you think that the roles could be reversed if someone from New York tries to find a job in Mississippi?

Listen to the following sound clips. Please write down the major differences between the language in New York and Mississippi.

Mississippi Dialect

New York Dialect

Now watch and listen to the following clip from the movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”.

Try to use the data you collected from the sound clips to find at least three examples of Mississippi dialect in the movie clip. Also, are there any differences in the song over the conversation in the beginning and ending of the clip? Then on the same sheet of paper explain what you feel about discrimination caused by the difference in dialect and what you thought of the lesson. We will collect the data and your responses after class.

The distance between states can cause a difference in intonation and enunciation of words. The farther the geographical boundaries are there is a larger probability of discrimination. This discrimination is caused largely by the intelligibility of the speakers. New York and Mississippi were chosen because of their vast distance and the geographical boundaries separating them. There are many other dialects found within the United States. The most prominent difference is found between the northern and southern states.

POSTED BY: Alison Romershausen and Vanessa Knepp

http://web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england33.mp3

When you click on this link you hear my sound

FOLK LINGUISTIC PERCEPTIONS AND MAPPING OF DIALECT BOUNDARIES

Folk Linguistic Perceptions and the Mapping of Dialect Boundaries is an article by Erica Benson describing folk ideas on language. Folk perceptions of dialects represent the opinions and outlooks on the way people use language. The folk understanding of dialects, which can also be called perceptual dialectology, is the average person’s belief on language’s variations. Some studies have shown that these folk perceptions on dialogues share similar geographic boundaries with linguistic data on language. However, there are many studies recognizing how folk dialects are affected by factors like “political and civil demarcations”. It is important to include folk perceptions when dialogue mapping because stigmas and people’s ideas often contribute to the impact of a dialogue.
The article studies dialogues in the state of Ohio, an ideal place because of its various dialects. First, three different dialect maps using linguistic data are given for the Linguistic Atlas of the North Central States (LANCS): LAP, DARE, and TELSUR. Then the article describes a folk study done on 12 Ohio residents from four different cities. The first survey they were given asked the participants to label areas were people speak alike or differently across the North Central States. The second survey had the participants rate how different their dialect was from twenty three different cities in and around Ohio.
The results from the surveys showed great variation depending on what region the person was from. The outcome of the first survey proved that the participants could determine differences in dialects throughout the seven states. The second survey showed that people in the southern part of Ohio believed there to be less of a distinction between their dialect and those dialects in other cities than the participants in the northern and central regions of the state. The surveys also showed that more derogatory labels were assigned to the people in the south than other regions. Southern accents and dialects were even described as “unintelligible” and it was called a “rural phenomenon”. Most participants shared the idea that the Ohio River acted as a border for southern dialect.
Folk studies on dialect exclude many factors in deciding how accents should be mapped out. These ideas are constructed on ideas rather than actual facts.

In-Class, Feb. 25th: Dialect/Accent Lesson Plans

For the following task, you need to be able to draw a clear distinction between SLANG and DIALECT/ACCENT.

Today, we are working in groups again. Time for this project: two class sessions; the rest is homework (make sure you know how to contact your group members). The people who are not in class today will make their own lesson plans if they want to make up.

PROMPT:
Create a lesson plan to instruct a 9th grade freshmen high school English class (you can choose between top track / mid track / third track) about the topic “dialects.”

You are a teacher presenting at the NCTE conference, so your audience consists of other teachers. They are interested in seeing your objective, the steps you take as a teacher, and what kind of task you give your students (age- and level-adequate!), and how effective your teaching about dialect is (that is, “what will the children learn?”)

Your group will present your lesson plan on the smartboard; it will be a blog post (a new thread; not a “comment”).

ATTENTION: These lesson plans don't have to contain any specific rubrics for assessment, etc.; you just say what kind of test you're doing, but you don't include the test. You just say what kind of task you're giving, but you don't write down all the single steps. The only thing where you have to go into detail is when you teach your students about your DIALECT: you have to type out which kind of pronunciation changes can be heard on the sound link you integrated.

TASK 1:
Get together in groups of 3-4. Select a country, and within this country a region about whose dialect you are going to talk. (See sound files further down for examples). All the dialects must be DIALECTS OF ENGLISH, although the speakers can come from different countries, and have a more or less strong accent.

TASK 2:
Invent an objective WHY you teach your class about this topic. This can be “discrimination due to dialect” (in this case, your introduction should focus on how hard it is to find a job if you speak a strong dialect, or are an immigrant with a strong accent, etc.), “dialect training for actors” (special courses that American actors have to take in order to play in a special movie, for example when playing the “bad guys” (typically the Russians) in a James Bond movie, or Hitler’s soldiers), “group bondage through dialect,” “Eskimos have many words for snow – what words do you have that I don’t have?”, and any other theme you can think of.

TASK 3:
Select one of the sound files attached further down. You will play this sound file (MP3) to your class, so your students can hear the dialect/accent.

TASK 4:
Your lesson plan should have the components 1.an introduction with an attention catcher, 2. body (containing a mini lecture with sample sound file, and a task for your students with inquiry, learning, and assessment), and 3. a conclusion.

TASK 5:
You will publish your group’s lesson plan on the blog. To make the blog entry more interesting, you have to choose one picture (can be a cartoon about dialect, etc.) as an attention grabber. Also, you need to link your sound file, and any other links you want to demonstrate to your audience.


MATERIALS you will need:

The following is a read-write-think link to lesson plans and teacher suggestions for incorporating learning about dialects in classes:

“What Did They Say? Dialect in The Color Purple”

Sample lesson plans on this website:

“Teaching about Dialects”

“Incorporating Dialect Study into the Language Arts Class”


Here are sample MP3 files of different dialects in English:

1) by different Russian native speakers
(male, female, good/poor English)

2) by different German native speakers

3) British
native speakers of English

4) French native
speakers (textbook accent,
etc.)

On the same webpage, you will find many more dialects/accents by speakers of English of different nationalities.

Have fun!

Extreme Deprivation in Early Childhood

On February 6, 1938 the New York Times reported that a six year old girl had been found tied to an old chair in a storage room on the second floor of her farm home in Pennsylvania. She had been there since she was a baby. The child, Anna, was wedged into a chair that was tilted back to rest upon a coal bucket, arms tied over her head. Anna could not talk or move and was dressed in dirty clothes. Her arms and legs were so fragile and thin, due to lack of nourishment that she could not even use them. She never grew normally and the chair that she was tied to was so small that she was forced to double her legs partly under her.
Soon after her discovery, she was moved to a children's home, where she was noted to be completely immobile and expressionless. She was believed to be deaf and possibly blind. Months following, Anna showed some improvement in a wide variety of motor and cognitive skills. After a further nine months, she was put into a private home for children with mental retardation. She began to develop speech within the next two years; however, she unfortunately died shortly after from jaundice.
Written by: D. H. Skuse

TASK: Reply to this blog by telling me what your feelings were after reading this and if you have ever heard of instances, such as this, involving exreme deprivation in children.

Mapping Boundaries of Dialect

How Hard is it to Establish Boundaries of Dialect….?

This is the link to our next blog text about the “Mapping of Dialect Boundaries,” for which the summary is due on Monday, Feb. 25th, by Alex Gholson.

You can also access this document by opening the pdf link .

PROMPT:

When you respond to the summary, focus on the question whether it is possible for lay people (not researchers) to establish “boundaries” for dialects – look at the people’s statements in the article: “we have more of a twang to our words,” “never noticed much difference,” “they speak more broken hillbilly slang,” “southern Ohio is like West Virginia but not as twangy,” “well their vocabulary is different,” “they have a different kind of drawl in their voice,” “they have their own way of saying things,” “they slur their words,” “I don’t quite get it… they just talk kind of strange,” etc…….

Could you distinguish certain areas around the place where you grew up or lived for a long time that speak a dialect different from your own? (Name them!) Do you know exactly where the demarcation line is, and what is it, an interstate?

When would you consider such boundaries to be true, so they can be made official? Is there a way at all to ascertain a border between regions where different dialects are spoken?

Synchron Eyes

Hello! Imagine you're a teacher. What do you think about Synchron Eyes? What if you're a student???

This blog response is homework for next Monday, and the topic refers back to "technology in the classroom" which we've dealt with earlier.

Speed Processing of Grammar and Tool Knowlege in Tourette's Syndrome

The article by Walenski, Mostofsky, and Ullman attempts to address a subject rarely touched by past research on Tourette's syndrome. They hope to develop an understanding of language development in children with Tourette's. To do this, they have isolated two key aspects of language: idiosyncratic and rule-governed knowlege. They approach this study from an understanding that Tourette's is an extremely complicated mental disorder, with many causes for various symptoms. For example, extremely high levels of dopamine (a basic neurotransmitter) can inhibit both cognitive and motor abilities in those with the syndrome. They first address indiosyncratic knowlege by explaining the function of the lexicon. The lexicon, they explain, primarily controls the "building block" style of knowlege, where someone uses old knowlege to gain new knowlege. On the other hand, rule-governed knowlege is more about memorization of basic rules that apply to language. Thus, in order for a person to develop effective communication skills, he/she must have both forms of knowlege in proper working order.
They go on to apply these basic concepts to TS based on procedural and declarative memory, and how TS affects those two functions. They hypothesize that declarative memory is nearly unaffected by TS, and that only procedural memory is lacking. They break this down further by dividing even procedural memory into several categories: learning implicit rules in procedural memory seems to be largely affected by TS. This likely points to an impairment of idiosyncratic knowlege and the ability to use old knowlege to gain new. Aspects of procedural learning which depend on rule-governed knowlege seem largely unaffected: reaction time, mirror tracing, and rotary pursuit all appear to be normal in TS patients.
The article points to the difficulty in fully understanding Tourette's Syndrome. The complexity of this disease makes it difficult to establish over-arching rules that apply to all TS sufferers. It takes the important step of dissecting the issue of language in TS by breaking down the two. Language is in many ways just as complex as TS, and thus it makes the process much easier to break down the concepts involved in language acquisition/comprehension.

Dialects / Accents / Intonation

After our mini lesson, we will deal with a new topic: dialects, accents, and intonation.

PROMPT 1:

Explore the following website about dialects, pick one or two partners, and translate the fairy tale "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut" that I distributed as a handout back into Standard English.

PROMPT 2: Creative Writing Task

Write your own story (can be a fairy tale, a poem, or anything you like; limit 1 page) in "dialect"! Email that to me. If you don't finish today, it will be homework with due date this Friday at class time. For an example, use the story I emailed out which was created by the grammar 300 course of last semester...

:-)

In-Class, Feb. 18: Language Development in Twins

In-Class Prompt, Feb. 18th, 2008: Language Development in Twins



Read the three pages I sent you in an email. They are excerpts (pp. 84, 85, 90) from an article by K. Mogford called “Language development in twins,” published in Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances, the textbook which also furnished us with information about Down’s syndrome and autism.

When you’re done reading, you might want to consider the following review of literature about the topic.

Get together in groups, and answer the following questions:

1) What were the astonishing results of studies as early as the 1930s about language development in twins?
2) Which reasons were given?
3) What is the “secret language” of twins?

Post the three answers, as well as a personal response (one per group) on this blog as a comment. Do you believe it? Do you know twins? Have you ever noticed it? Do you maybe have evidence against it?

P.S. 1
For those who want to know more about this striking topic, here’s the book preview with more pages about twins (for study at home).


P.S. 2
For the research project we are going to do in unit 4 at the end of the semester, we need two groups covering the topics “autism” and “twins.” It is not easy – we will do surveys, and you will have to interview / survey teachers of children with autism, maybe parents, and respectively, twins. I am asking for two volunteer groups (those who would like to work with their former WebQuest group) to sign up for these topics. If there are no volunteers, I will assign all the topics when we get to unit 4. This is your chance to sign up for your favorite topic....

Tourette, Speed Processing, and Being Different

Movie time! We'll skip autism for today, and will deal with the Tourette's Syndrome first.

TASK 1: Do a short quickwrite on this blog what you think/know about people (especially children) with Tourette -- how do they speak? How do they interact in society? Can they go to normal schools? (Take about 3 minutes to write a short entry.)

TASK 2: Look at the pdf article I emailed everyone yesterday night. Read ONLY the abstract. Answer the following questions:

1) With regard to grammar, what are children with Tourette good at?
2) With what do they have problems?

TASK 3:
Watch the movie about Tourette's Syndrome, and take notes.

HOMEWORK for the day when Michael Schloz has published his blog summary about Tourette: Include your most interesting movie notes in your blog response! This means, your blog response should be a little bit longer than usual, and go more into depth, because you have background knowledge now.

Infantile Autism

In the article "Infantile autism" by W.H. Fay focuses on many studies that have tested to gain a better understanding of autism. The article is broken down into three sections: The Syndrome, Characteristics of autistic communications, and Linguistic analysis of autistic language. To being autism is development disorder that causes problems with social interaction, communication, and behavior, which occurs during the first three years of life. Leo Kanner, a child psychiatrist defines the term infantile autism as “the earliest manifestation of childhood schizophrenia with extreme autistic aloneness from the start.” (pg 191)
The characteristics of autistic communication are mutism, echolalia, pronominal reversals and avoidance, and yes/no answer. Mutism is associated with deafness and a study says that eighty percent of autistic children were said to be deaf at one time. Echolalia is the meaningless repetition of a word or word groups just spoken by another person. Seventy-five percent of all autistic children go through and echolalia stage. Research has shown that after 29 months, this stage usually vanishes in the child. Pronominal reversal is considered to be a result of echolalia and it is when pronouns are avoided. Yes and no answers are referred to as when children are absence of the words “yes” and “no.” However, they use head gestures instead.
Next the article discusses linguistic analysis of autistic language, which includes phonology, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics. When it comes to grammar, there has not been a lot of research. Compared to normal children and mentally retarded children, some researchers have found differences in past tense words used by autistic children. Also, they were compared again, but this time with morpheme rules. The autistic children showed similarities of the rules, but they left out morphemes more than the normal group. Semantics is a fairly new development. A study was done and the results were that the overall comprehension was lower than normal children. Pragmatics deals with the social side and has started to be a major focus. Autistic children have problems with being social to others as well as other autistic children. .
The many factors that deal with autistic children like speech, language, and communication have a negative affect on these children. However, by observing and trying new strategies on these children help us gain a better understanding of the syndrome as well as provide a better life for autistic children.

J. A. Rondal "Down Syndrome"

The J. A. Rondal article takes an in depth look at the general features of Down’s syndrome. Through a myriad of topics concerning nonlinguistic deficiencies, language acquisition, and the cognitive basis for language acquisition for those affected by Down’s Syndrome; Rondal explicates the matter fully. Given the disease’s multitude of effects that act as a detriment to the development of language, Rondal feels that those afflicted by it prove the “robustness of language” in our species. Those with Down’s syndrome have to hurdle mechanical, sensory and cognitive factors to produce intelligible speech, yet they persevere still in the face of these detriments. Language acquisition is a slow and arduous endeavor for those with Down’s syndrome, both with phonological and grammatical constructs. Pragmatics, or the social aspect of conversing with another, are also seriously inhibited by the traits of the disease, and make intelligibility even more crucial to the learner. Rondal insists throughout his extensive research that our understanding of the problems that Down’s syndrome learners only raises his esteem for those who can achieve intelligibility in the face of such a myriad of detrimental physical, and developmental difficulties.

Speech, Grammar, and DS

Task for in-class work on February 11th:

1) Do a five-minute quickwrite about the topic "What do you think/know about language acquisition of children with Down's Syndrome?" Post your comment on this blog.

2) Read the following link (pp. 15-16; from "grammar" through "intelligibility"), and be able to explain what "telegraphic speech" is.

3) Homework: Write a short reaction about the film.
Pay special attention to:

- intelligibility, and the factors by which it is influenced
a) anatomical factors
b) physiological factors
c) neurological factors
d) perceptual speech (what listener hears)
e) articulation
f) resonance
g) voice
h) fluency
i) prosody
j) hearing
k) pragmatics (social conversation)
l) non-verbal factors
m) external factors.

4) The handout about DS I distributed is the new blog text (James Radice has the summary). Please read the article, and post your responses when he has published his blog summary. The responses are due on Wednesday at class time.

5) The handout about autism is the following blog text (Ashley Wetzler has the summary).