Pronunciation: Let’s Get Physical

For anyone not aware, Adrian Underhill has joined the blogosphere and will be blogging on his pronunciation chart and its uses.

While I’m not a fan of pron charts as I think they are simply another alphabet for students to learn when what they really need is the practice making and recognizing the sounds, I am a big fan of his notion of making pronunciation physical.  There are some nice videos on youtube of him giving a workshop on this here (1, 2, 3, 4).

One of Adrian’s biggest complaints is that pronunciation is the Cinderella of ELT as in nobody pays it much attention.  He is not alone in this (check out Henrick Oprea’s post on the same issue here).

In my work in Turkey I have not found much need to focus on the pronunciation of individual sounds as Turks have very little trouble in this area.  For Turkish pronunciation issues see here, here and here (hit cntrl+f to scroll down immediately to pronunciation).

Two areas where Turks do have a bit of a problem is with “th” sounds and “v” vs. “w.”  One of the first things I noticed with this issue, and where I really agree with Adrian, is that the physical nature of these sounds needs to be modeled and practiced.  Things like tongue placement, vibration, and air flow all become really important.

To make the “th” sound in English we put our tongue between our teeth.  My Turkish students absolutely hate this.  They find it very unnatural and sticking your tongue out is seen as a tad rude.  To really get my students doing this, I quickly realized I had to vastly over exaggerate the tongue placement.  I would stand in front of the class and stick my tongue half way out of my mouth and appear really silly overall.  I would then get my students to follow suit.  Regular practice in this way along with consistent reinforcement through correction in the class and students pick it up really quick.

Aside from that, my pronunciation work in Turkey tends to focus on linking words and weak forms as Turks have a habit of speaking in a staccato by separating every word out in a sentence.

Where I really learned the need to focus on pronunciation of individual sounds was when I moved to Vietnam.  Vietnamese pronunciation is some of the worst I’ve ever come across.  There are two main reasons for this:  1)  Vietnamese speakers don’t use their tongues when they speak.  They generally rest on the bottom of their mouths.  2)  There are no final consonants in Vietnamese so their brains actually never developed the ability to hear a consonant at the end of a word.  Since they can’t hear it, they can’t say it.  Since they can’t say it, they can’t hear it.  It’s a pronunciation teacher’s worst nightmare.

I quickly started introducing whole lessons on pronunciation.  This involved modeling a lot and getting students to stare at my mouth, which was strange for me.  I had to do a lot of the reverse as well – staring at students’ mouths and making sure mouth and tongue placement were correct.  I also learned to draw a lot of pictures detailing mouth position, illustrate sounds with air vs. no air (a piece of paper held in front of your mouth is good for this), and vibration vs. no vibration.

As Adrian points out, rather than just having students listen and copy the sounds you are making, really get them involved with the physical nature of the sounds.  I actually found that pronunciation lessons always ended in lots of laughter as people try really hard to make foreign sounds.

What kind of pronunciation work do you do in your classes?  Do you focus on the physical nature of pronunciation in any way?  Do you have any good activities for doing so?

Useful pronunciation activities:

Reverse dictation.  Students read out sentences and the teacher writes what they hear on the board.  This is often very enlightening to students as they don’t realize what they sound like.

Recording students saying a sentence in class and then comparing it to the recording of other English speakers.

Holding paper in front of your mouth to practice consonants with/without air (very useful for beginning “t” vs. final “t”, “v” vs. “f”, or “b” vs. “p”)

Tongue twisters are always fun.

The line game for minimal pairs – students stand in a line and the teacher says a word involving one of a set of minimal pairs.  For example “w” and “v”  If the students hear a “w” word they have to jump to the left, if they hear a “v” word they have to jump to the right.  Eventually, switch the teacher out for a student.

Minimal Pair Maze -  Draw a tree like below and label it with cities.  Then choose a minimal pair and writes words using the two to the left and right of the maze.  The teacher calls out a word and students follow along on their maze according to the direction on the maze (in this case, left for “t” and right for “th”)  In the end, students compare what city they ended up in.  Then get the students to do it.  (A side note:  I always choose cities that Turkish speakers are likely to goof up so they get some city vocab practice in as well).

Related Articles:

Orthographic Interference for Turkish L1 Speakers

Whose English Should We Teach (in Turkey)?

Adrian Underhill’s Pron Chart Blog

Recycling Pronuncation by Henrick Oprea

Teaching English Pronunciation to Vietnamese Learners via ELT World

Some Random Pron Worksheets

Tefltastic’s Top 15 Fun Pron Games

Dogme in the Mind of a Teacher: Memory Techniques

(Note on the image:  Some people tie strings on their fingers to remind them to do something)

I’m finally posting another lesson on dogme, so this is a post lesson plan again. Rather fortuitously, it ties in with Kalinago’s current dogme blogging challenge on scaffolding.  You’ll notice the sections where I used the conversations to build on the students’ vocabulary, grammar, and learning strategies.

This lesson was done a few days ago with a group of 3 private students I have who are at an intermediate/upper-intermediate level.

As we all ordered our coffee and doughnuts (yes, teaching is tough ) one of the students started talking about a training she had received that day on how to remember things better.

Decision:  Everyone seemed interested and it’s a very useful topic for language learning as well.  Let the conversation play out and see where it goes.

The other students and I were quite curious about the training so we had a nice discussion on the subject for about 10 minutes.  During the discussion we slowly built up vocabulary related to the topic like short-term/long-term memory, mnemonic device, chunking, etc.

Decision:  The student who had done the training had been doing the lion’s share of the speaking in the activity so I wanted to open it up more to the other students and the conversation was slowing down, so it seemed like a good time.  In the previous lesson we had looked at suggestions and recommendations using the present subjunctive (e.g. I recommend that you be here ten minutes before the meeting starts).

I asked, “What about you two?  Do you have any recommendations or suggestions regarding memory tricks?” hoping to prompt some language from last week.  Sure enough the students remembered the structure without further prompts.  There were a couple slip ups but one of the students who was listening always prompted a correction.

This set the discussion off for another 15 minutes as we talked about other memory tricks & tips we used along with examples our teachers had taught us as children.

Then one student chimed in, “My grandmother is always calling me and she uses a picture of the Turkcell logo because I work there.”

Decision:  “She’s calling” is a typical Turkish mistake because present continuous is used where English speakers would often use present simple.  To drive home the point of why choosing the correct tense is important and to probably introduce something new, I decided to make a small divergence here and look at the language.

I wrote 2 sentences on the paper.

She always calls me…
She’s always calling me…

I then asked the students to look at them and ask what the difference in meaning was, if any.  They responded that the 2^nd sentence was incorrect.  I said that actually both were correct.  I asked them to give some example endings for the first one.

They came up with “She always calls me on Mondays/after work/before she goes to bed.”

I then gave three examples to end the 2^nd one:  “She’s always calling me at the worst possible time/when I’m in the shower/when I’m in a meeting.”

I then asked the students to determine the meaning of these sentences.  They responded that the sentence carried a negative meaning.

We then talked a bit about the meaning of present continuous with always for annoying habits, the importance of choosing the correct tense in this instance, and came up with a number of examples from our lives.

Decision:  Include a story from my life as it builds rapport and is good for a laugh.

I included the sentence “My wife is always setting her alarm for earlier than she gets up and hitting the snooze, so she’s waking me up two or three times instead of just once in the morning.”

This prompted a whole bunch of responses on annoying habits friends, relatives, and co-workers had.  This all lasted about 10 minutes.

Decision:  That bit of the discussion was running its course and I wanted to connect the previous discussion to language learning.

I said, “Alright, going back to the memory tricks, what was some of the new language we used regarding it” so as to review and consolidate new vocabulary we’d already covered.

Then I asked how what we had discussed concerning memory connected to language learning and study techniques.  We then had a whole discussion on chunking, the importance of context, relevance and even course books . This discussion continued for about 15 minutes and we had a really good look at different study techniques, learning strategies, and how I/we tried to incorporate these ideas into my/our lessons.

The last 5 minutes we talked about the lesson and what had been learned in terms of language.

In the end, the entire lesson lasted for 55 minutes.

Reflecting on things learned/practiced:

1)  Vocabulary relating to memory

2)  Lots of listening and speaking practice in the form of a conversation, telling stories, and explaining how to do something

3)  Review of the present subjunctive with “suggest” and “recommend”

4)  Introduction of present continuous for annoying habits

5)  Discussing effective learning, study, and memory techniques

6)  Review of the methodology behind our lessons.

Related Posts:

Dogme in the Mind of a Teacher:  Banking

Unplugged Lesson Plans

Kalinago Dogme Challenge 3

D is for Dogme

The Dogme of Dogme

Sources for Teaching Unplugged

Further Dogme Links

Why the Turkish Flag?

An interesting breaking news story in Turkey came out on Monday and I’ve turned it into a lesson for all you eager teachers in Turkey here

The lesson has to do with the picture on the cover of the DVD from the above documentary – “Sacrificed Survivors” produced by the Christan Action Network.  It’s a film about the Ground Zero Mosque controversy going on in the US right now.  The big question is, “Why is the Turkish flag used on a picture of a film connected to 9/11 & Al-Qaeda?”

Something you learn while living here is that many Turks feel the world is watching them and they assume the world knows what is happening in Turkey.  A big shock for many Turks visiting the US is that, in fact, most Americans couldn’t point to Turkey on a map much less tell you what language is spoken there or what the flag looks like.

At first I thought the Turkish flag used in this picture was merely the result of a google image search for the Islamic star & crescent.  As you will see below though, it turns out that they actually had very thought-out reasoning for this choice.  The fascinating thing is that the rhetoric they use is the same exact rhetoric espoused by more secular-oriented Turks against the AKP, Gulen movement, more religious sections of society, etc.  All around a very intriguing read.  I would assume CAN has actually been reading online secular media sources in Turkey, especially on this idea of the state secretly planning to implement Sharia law and turn Turkey into something resembling post-revolution Iran.

As interesting as the whole event is, the fact remains that the choice to put a Turkish flag on a documentary cover about 9/11 is not only ignorant, but really offensive as well.  With the current rising Islamophobia in America, this only serves to fan the flames of prejudice and misconception.

Despite the negative undercurrents of the story, it makes for a enthralling lesson topic, so here we go.

Note:  The entire lesson plan can be found here with added sections for a grammar focus.

Lesson Plan

Level: Upper-Intermediate

Objective: To analyze and discuss underlying world views based on a text

Alternative:  Write a letter of complaint

Alternative:  Grammar:  Passives or Parallelism

Auxiliary Vocabulary: to single out, to alter, to reinforce, to institute, to depict, to portray, to align,  to serve as a reminder, a premiere, an insignia, a poll, an ally, staunchly

Plan:

1)  Post up the image of the cover of Sacrificed Survivors – a documentary made by the Christian Action Network (CAN).  You should cut out or fold over the title of the film so students can’t see it.  Ask if anyone knows what the image is from.  If so, have the student(s) explain the story and open up the floor for discussion.

2)  If not, hold an open discussion and slowly feed in information.  After adding new information, hold a short discussion on how that changes assumptions about the film and why.

1.  Get some guesses as to where the image is from and what it is portraying

2.  Tell them it’s from a movie.

3.  Tell them it’s a documentary

4.  Tell them it’s an American film

5.  Tell them it was created by the Christian Action Network

6.  Finally, tell them it’s about the Ground Zero Mosque

3)  Hold an open reflection on the discussion.  When and why did ideas change regarding the image.

4)  Looking at the discussion, what assumptions do students make about America and Christians.  (As this will prepare the way for the rest of the lesson, this could also be done as a short writing to really allow students to reflect and think about their own ideas as analyzing your own assumptions is not always easy).

5)  Your students will undoubtedly be quite upset with the use of the Turkish flag being connected to Al-Qaeda & 9/11.  Tell them that CAN received thousands of complaints about the image and so they wrote a public apology/defense on their website.  Students are going to read the letter.  In groups of 3, their task is to find out what assumptions CAN is making about Turkey.  They must highlight the passages that illustrate their point.

6)  Give students in each group a number from 1-3.  Now students form new groups based on their new number and share their ideas about the text.

7)  Finally open the class up for an all class discussion.  The questions for discussion below can be used to prompt further discussion if needed.

8)  For homework split the class into two groups.  One group should research CAN.  The other group should research the Ground Zero Mosque controversy in America.  The following class they will share and discuss what they found.  Alternative homework:  have them write their own letter of complaint and email it to CAN.

Alternative:

1a)  After part 2) above open up the class to discussion on their feelings and opinions regarding the image (if possible, play the trailer to the film found here ).

2a)  As most students will be upset, ask them to write a letter of complaint to the makers of the film following traditional complaint formats (i.e. state purpose of letter, reason for complaint – include feelings and counter-arguments, future action wished taken).

3a)  Continue from part 5) above.

Open Letter from CAN

The Christian Action Network has received thousands of emails about the cover of our new documentary, Sacrificed Survivors: The Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mosque. This controversy could result in protests at the premiere of the film in New York City on October 28. We regret any hurt feelings caused by the use of only the Turkish flag on the cover of the film. We did not mean to single out Turkey and therefore, the cover will be altered to include the flags of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

The decision to include these flags is being made in order to reinforce one of the themes of the film: Radical Islam seeks to bring the world under Sharia law and the U.S. is no exception. The flags that will be depicted are of countries that have instituted Sharia law in their country and/or sponsor the spread of radical Islam.

Turkey was chosen because the country serves as a reminder of what can happen if “stealth jihad” is successful. Turkey was once a staunchly pro-American ally with a secular identity. Unfortunately, it is today governed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, which has brought Turkey in the opposite direction.

Erdogan and his party’s initial 2002 election victory encouraged the Muslim Brotherhood, with its political chief saying the victory came as a result of the “exposing of the failure of the secular trend.” Turkey has become a leading provocateur of Israel and bastion of anti-Americanism. Erdogan has moved the country much closer to Iran, Syria and Sudan, going so far as to oppose U.N. sanctions on Iran for their nuclear program. He has even said, “I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

The Turkish flag was originally chosen because of the presence of the Islamic star and crescent on the flag. As the CIA World Factbook explains, “the crescent moon and star serve as insignia for the Turks, as well as being traditional symbols of Islam.” Those symbols were chosen to signify Turkey’s status as a country with a Muslim identity—and will be used in the same fashion on the American flag should the country be overtaken by radical Islamic forces.

We do not mention this to try to portray a negative image of the Turkish people. Although their votes put Erdogan’s party (and therefore, him) in power, we know not all Turks can be characterized as Islamists. Polls show the vast majority of Turks oppose Osama Bin Laden, Hamas and Hezbollah, and we hope the election next July will reflect this opposition to radical Islam and the aligning of Turkey with enemies of the West. But the fact remains—the “stealth jihad” of political Islam has been successful in Turkey. And this is something the West must learn from.

The flags of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and Sudan were chosen because their governments are using Sharia law as a basis for government and because of their support for the spread of radical Islam. The Syrian flag was chosen because, although the government is secular, it undoubtedly contributes to the spread of radical Islam by sponsoring terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

The cover of Sacrificed Survivors: The Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mosque will not single out Turkey, but the editing omission should not take away from the film’s premise and the stories of the survivors of 9/11 and the families of the victims as the Ground Zero Islamic center and mosque controversy continues.

Article found on CAN website here

Questions for discussion

1.  How much does CAN know about Turkey?

2.  How do they perceive Turkey?

3.  What similarities are there between CAN’s perception of Turkey and many Turks perception of the current government?

4.  Ultimately, why did CAN choose Turkey’s flag to put on the cover of their documentary?

5.  The letter is meant to be partly an apology and mostly a defense of their cover choice.  Do you accept the apology?  Do you agree with their reasoning?

6.  The organization decided to change the cover to include other countries’ flags. How do you feel about this decision?

7.  What do you think about the choice of the other countries’ flags to be included in the photo?

Related Articles:

Soldier Dance Lesson

Letter of Complaint from angry Turkish-American

Original Letter from the Christian Action Network

Sacrificed Survivors:  Recreated Xenophobia

South Park puts Turkish Flag on Al-Qaeda Planes

Creative Use of Music: Sing a Song

Many people shy away from singing songs with adults, but it’s actually great.  As long as you are willing to embarrass yourself and sing in front of everyone, the students will almost always follow suit.

I remember one of my first classes ever.  I had a group of beginners and we were working on body parts, so we did the Hokey Pokey.  There was a 40-year-old business man that absolutely refused to participate.  I said no problem.  I taught the song and actions and then we played it for real.  Halfway through, the business man stood up and joined us and he was the most animated and into out of the entire class, lol.

Singing is actually really good for Turkish students because it gets them to link words together, a major problem many students have here.  You can’t sing word-stop-word.  It just doesn’t work   Singing can help any group of learners with stress, rhythm, and linking words.

Songs are also just a great way to warm people up in the beginning, wake them up in the middle of a lesson, or fill the last five minutes if there’s nothing else to do.

I almost always use children’s songs because they are short, fun, and have lots of repetition.  I always have the students perform the actions as well Some of my favorites are:

Baby Bumble Bee

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar

The Hokey Pokey

Related Links:

Pictures Painted in Sound

Music in the Background

Song Stories

Abortion & Extremisim – A Lesson Plan

Continuing with my religious theme this week, I’ve got a lesson for you

Preface:  There are a number of reasons I like to use lessons including religious subjects.

1)  I personally find religion to be a fascinating topic, so I often try to bring it into the classroom.  We talk a lot about keeping the students interested, but we also have to keep ourselves interested.

2)  Religion is often controversial and always thought-provoking.  It’s great for debates, critical thinking skills, cross-cultural thinking skills, empathy and much more.

3)  You can easily do lesson connected to the students’ culture as their is a wealth of material both in ancient texts and modern newspapers.

4)  Religion often has a huge impact on culture and helping students to understand religion in the locations they expect to use English in can help a lot.

So on to the lesson.

I like this lesson a lot, but only use it with classes rarely as it has some very strong themes and class where trust has been built up over a long time.   There are a lot of skills practiced, but the main thing for me is that it provokes a need to understand the Other.  Both in the context of the material in the lesson and in the context of the subject matter, in this case abortion.  Abortion is not a contentious issue in Turkey, especially not to the degree it is in the US, so a debate lesson on abortion simply falls flat.  Throwing in some really controversial material spices things up and gets students interested in a topic they might not otherwise care about.

Lesson Part 1:

Level: Upper-Intermediate

Objective:
Inferring meaning
Looking at the world through another’s eyes
Drawing conclusions from spoken and written texts
Analytical skills
Examining rhetoric through vocabulary

Materials: Internet Access or downloaded copy of The Execution of Paul Hill (also found here http://www.mercyseat.net/sermons.html, then search for the title).

Procedure:

Note:  You should familiarize yourself with Paul Hill & the Army of God before the lesson.

Show the picture of Paul Hill to the class.  Ask the class to take a minute and guess information about the man.  They should probably be able to identify that he is associated with a church, went to jail, and is a hero to some people.  Now ask the class in small groups to brainstorm how all this information is connected.

After you get some ideas, tell them Paul Hill was a former minister who was given the death penalty for killing an abortion doctor (you’ll probably have to pre-teach “minister” “death penalty” and “abortion.”)

Now tell them that he believed his actions were justified.  In the same groups, have the class try to come up with ideas as to how he could feel murder was justified.  Write their ideas up on the board.

Pre-teach vocabulary for the sermon:  a deed, a verse, the Bible, evil, oppression, Scripture, a pew, and offering plate, Sunday school, lethal, righteousness, legitimate, sane, to execute, to condemn, to intervene, to slaughter, to obliterate, to repudiate, “To Kill a Mockingbird” & Boo Radley.
The verse – “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all.”

Hand out the question sheet for the sermon.

Now play the designated parts of the sermon (Minutes 4:19 – 8:08, 10:07 – 11:18, 13:09 – 15:30, 41:20 – 42:30).   [Note:  This sermon is given by Pastor Matt Trewhella of Mercy Seat Church in Milwaukee, WI.  He is the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn.  He is a very intense and opinionated man both in his sermons and in everyday life.]

The listening always gets strong and interested reactions from the students.  You should just be able to open the class up to debate and see where it goes.  There are a number of themes that can be discussed following the listening such as:

The use of violence (in law, in religion, by small groups, when it’s justified, etc.)

Abortion

The death penalty

The right to free speech

Alternative:  Ask the class to come up with some questions they have about the people involved, the movement, etc.  For homework or in the computer lab (if you have access to one) students can then do further research.  Here are some useful sites:

Mercy Seat Christian Church

The Army of God Manual

One Soldier’s Story – Shelly Shannon

The Brutal Truth: Part 1 & 2 (Movement’s documentary on police brutality against protests)

Walk for Life March & Counter-Protest

Lesson Part 2:

Level: Upper-Intermediate

Objective: Inferring meaning
Looking at the world through another’s eyes
Drawing conclusions from spoken and written texts
Analytical skills
Examining rhetoric through vocabulary

Materials: The Fetus Focus Fallacy

http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/fetus-focus-fallacy.shtml

Procedure:

By now the class has taken a look at part of the pro-life debate.  Tell them they’ll now be looking at the other side of the equation.

Split the class into two groups.  Group 1 will state any reasons against abortion they can remember and add any more they can think of.  Group 2 will try to come up with reasons for supporting Pro-Choice.

From the article mentioned in materials, I cut out this portion and hand it out.

Write 2 questions on the board:

1)  How is the language used in this article different from that used in the sermon from the first lesson?

2)  What are some key reasons used to defend the pro-choice argument?

Follow-Up:

Students choose sides and debate abortion.

Building Relationships: Circle of Trust

Another quick and fun trust building activity.

Everyone in the class needs to stand in a circle.  They should put their hands on the shoulders of the person on their right.  This way everybody should be linked.

The goal is to sit down all at the same time.  Everyone will end up sitting on the knees of the person behind them.  Believe it or not, the pressure will be distributed equally throughout the circle and nobody will fall over (actually it may take a try or two as sometimes somone won’t sit down at the same time as everyone else and upset the balance ).

Related Posts:

Trust Falls

Human Knot

Tank Game

Creative Use of Music: Pictures Painted in Sound

Jeremy Harmer’s wonderful “How to Teach Writing” has some great ideas on writing activities.  One of my favorites is using instrumental music as the basis for a creative writing project.  Jeremy says to play a song for the students.  While they listen, they should write down any vocabulary that they associate with the music.  Pool the vocabulary together as a class and then have the students write a story based on it or, better yet, imagine the music to be the introductory scene of a movie.  Students then write out how the movie begins.  This could easily be built into an extended drama activity.

I love this idea and it has always worked very well in my classes.  Some pieces of music are just so evocative and immediately bring stories to life.  They can be a real spur to get the creative juices flowing.

The song I like to use is War of the Last Wolves from the Rurouni Kenshin soundtrack.  There is an excellent video on YouTube set to the music titled  “rurouni kenshin OVA the war of the last wolves.” Unfortunately, the government attempts to ban access to YouTube have gotten stronger recently and previous access avenues are being blocked.  There is a shorter version via DailyMotion here.

You can then use the video to offer as a comparison to your students’ stories.  Maybe even have the class vote on favorites and explain why.

Other good songs are anything by Yoko Kanno.  Most will also have videos done for them as well.

Related Posts:

Music in the Background

Song Stories

Sing a Song

Creative Use of Music: Song Stories

After sickness, a major workload, and a much needed holiday, we’re back

Often in the classroom I see music only used for the odd gapfill, but there are lots of other ways to use music and I’d like to showcase a few in this series.

One thing I really like to do is use stories in the classroom – stories about my life, interesting stories, collaborative stories, ghost stories, stories from the students, etc.  There are a lot of songs out there that tell stories as well. The music really adds depth to the story and allows for a lot of extensions.

One that I really like to use in class is “Long Black Veil” sung by Dave Matthews Band (but which is originally a Johnny Cash song).

Note: You can always use Grooveshark for free streaming music if you have an Internet connection.

Long Black Veil

Level: Int & Up

Objective: 3rd conditional
I wish/If only for regrets
Extended speaking in monologue form

Song: Long Black Veil by Johnny Cash or Dave Matthews Band.  Cash’s version is easier to
understand but Dave’s version is sadder and gives the idea of a love story better.

Plan: Tell the students that they are going to listen to a story.  Do auxiliary vocabulary (Auxiliary Vocabulary – a slayer, a scene, a grave, a scaffold, eternity, a veil, an alibi, to wail, to moan). Ask students to guess the content of the story using the words.  The words are quite evocative and students often come up with some good murder stories.

Play the song once.  Ask the students to identify the mood.  Then, ask the students to compare their
original ideas about the content to the mood and what they understood from the song.

Give the students the lyrics and let them read and follow along with the song.

Do the comprehension questions quick with the class to make sure everyone is on the same page.  I’ve found that generally about half the class won’t realize the condemned man wasn’t the killer or how you know this unless the questions are done.  Afterwards, ask them what they think about the story.  In Turkey, students will often bring up Ask-i Memnu and make comparisons, so you might want to add that into your lesson plan somehow.

Ask the students to think about how the man felt before his execution and the woman afterwards (try to elicit “regretful”).  Tell them to choose the man or the woman.  If possible show them a clip of the famous scene from Hamlet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsrOXAY1arg&feature=fvst.  If not possible, explain the concept of a monologue and demonstrate.  Tell the students that they will need to write a monologue and perform it in small groups or for the class from the perspective of one of the lovers.  Review “S+wish+past perfect”, “If only+ S + past perfect”, “S + regret + v-ing” if necessary.

Alternative:

Ask them to explain to their partner what they would have done if they had been in that person’s position.  Their partner then needs to relate their partner’s opinion to the class.

Hand out the cut up of other famous lovers.  Have the students prepare and perform a monologue for the class based on these new situations.

Long Black Veil

Ten years ago on a cold dark night,
someone was killed ‘neath the town hall lights.
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed,
that the slayer who ran looked a lot like me.

Chorus ~ She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
She visits my grave, when the night winds wail.
Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows, but me

The judge said, “son, what is your alibi,
if you were somewhere else, then you won’t have to die.”
Well, I said not a word, though it meant my life,
for I’d been in the arms of my best friend’s wife.

Chorus*

Now the scaffold is high, and eternity is near.
She stood in the crowd, and shed not a tear.
Oh sometimes at night, when the cold wind moans
In a long black veil, she cries over my bones

Chorus ~ She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
When the cold winds blow, and the night winds wail.
Nobody knows, nobody sees.
Nobody knows, but me.

Comprehension Questions:

1)      Where and when does the song take place?

2)     Why is the singer on trial?

3)     Was the singer actually the killer?

4)     Why didn’t he say he was innocent?

5)      Who is the woman in the long black veil?

Famous Lovers

Romeo and Juliet – Madly in love, but their families are feuding and hate each other, so they are forbidden to be together.

Antony and Cleopatra – Powerful rulers of countries.  They are in love, but Rome is scandalized by Antony’s marriage to Cleopatra.  Rome does not trust Egypt and does not want them to be united.

Scarlett O’Hara & Rhett Butler – Scarlett realizes she loves Rhett, but it is too late.  Rhett no longer loves her.

Lancelot & Guinevere – Guinevere is King Arthur’s wife, but falls deeply in love with his best friend, Lancelot.

Bonnie & Clyde – Two bank robbers and murderers that were constantly running from the law.

Sheherezade & King Shahryar – King Shahryar married a women and then killed her the morning after the wedding, but Sheherezade told the king a story every night, but would not finish it until the next night.  The king always wanted to hear the end, so he let her live.

Samson & Delilah – Samson loved Delilah, but he was attacking her land.  Her people wanted her to find the secret of his power, so they could kill him.

Here is the downloadable lesson plan.

Here is a list of other songs that tell a story.  There are tons more out there, but I tend to like something with a bit of a bite .

Related Posts:

Music in the Background

Pictures Painted in Sound

Sing a Song

Soldier Dance – Analysis of a Video

This video appeared on the news in Turkey and around the world on Tuesday evening.  It’s a short clip of a troupe of Israeli soldiers performing a dance while on duty in the West Bank.

Israel has been a major focal point of much discussion recently in Turkey due to the attack on the primarily Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, during the Gaza Flotilla incident a couple weeks ago.  This is on top of the major outcry that went up in Turkey a while back when Israel made some extremely violent and heavy-handed incursions into Gaza.

The comical nature of soldiers dancing on duty contrasts sharply with the context of the Occupation and recent events in which it was done.

Needless to say, it provides a great basis for a lesson.

I brought the video into both my upper-intermediate classes on Wednesday although it could easily be done with Intermediates as well.

Step 1 – Start the lesson by showing the clip.  Before showing the clip, make sure to ask any students that have seen it already to remain silent about it.

Step 2 – After the clip is shown ask the students to write a reaction response to it about how they felt while watching it.

Step 3 - Now invite students to share their reactions to the video. Let the conversation run.  The initial conversation took about an hour in both classes that I did it with and could have gone on longer.

At least one person will have seen the clip already and it will come out that it was performed by Israeli soldiers.  If the conversation doesn’t move in this direction, you might want to open up a debate on how their opinions changed once they knew where the video came from and why that might be.

Step 4 - During the last five minutes of the lesson, have the students write at least three questions they would like answered about the video.  Most of my students came up with pretty much the same questions, which were:

Were the soldiers real soldiers or actors?

Who made the video (i.e. was it actors, the soldiers, the military, an outside group)?

Who uploaded the video?

What was the message that’s trying to be sent?

Why was the call to prayer played in the beginning?

Step 5 - The second hour I ask the students to try to answer their own questions.  To do this they are given access a short newspaper article from the Herald Sun and YNet.

The students do a good job of then debating the article amongst themselves and calling on you for help with any unknown words or questions they have about the texts.

Step 6 - Finally I play the clip made by American soldiers in April (Soldiers remaking music videos is a meme going back to at least 2006).

I also make them aware of a number of other videos that I let them watch on break if interested. (Note that almost all these videos can be found in better quality on YouTube, but, since Turkey doesn’t have access to it, I didn’t link them unless I couldn’t find it elsewhere.)

American Soldiers in Iraq – Electric Avenue (This one is the most well made, but it has a short seen of blind-folded Iraqis taken prisoner, which might not be something you want to show as it’s a bit sensitive).

American Navy – Pump It (One of the earliest from 2006) & Move Along (Incredibly well made)

American Soldiers – This is Why I’m Hot (YouTube, This one is %100 original as far as I can tell.  Very well made in the UAE)

American Soldiers – Ridin Dirty (YouTube)

American Soldier – Vanilla Ice (YouTube)

Russian Soldier – Techno

Israeli Soldiers – Girlfriend

Swiss Soldier – Michael Jackson (YouTube)

Australian Navy – I’m on a Boat (YouTube, very funny)

British SAS – This is the Way to Amarillo

There are a ton more on YouTube as well if you have a look.

Step 7 - After having read the material and seen some previous videos, I next have the class write up a report on the video that attempts to answer all the questions they came up with in the first hour.  This could also be done as homework if you only have 2-hour classes.

Step 8+ - Finally I do some peer-editing, correction work, and final reflection.

All in all, this lesson turned out incredibly well and I was extremely pleased with the result.  The debates were varied, lively, and thoughtful.  Coming up with questions to be answered, finding the answers to those questions, and then reporting on the information was also a great way to collaborate, research and analyze information, and then synthesize said information from a variety of sources.

Finally, a note of caution, a lot of sensitive issues are raised with this topic relating to Israel and Palestine and, as I’m American, conversation also often spilled over into America’s relationship with Israel and the war in Iraq.  Be prepared to discuss these issues.

Related Posts:

Keepin It Real – A Today’s Zaman commercial

An Imaginary Holiday

It’s holiday season here in Turkey.  As a result, a large number of students and teachers take off for a month or more to various places. The vacation area of choice for most students is the Southwest coasts of Turkey on the Aegean or the Mediterranean. As a teacher here you quickly become familiar with places like Bodrum, Antalya, and Fethiye.

I just returned from my own holiday on the beach last night. It was my first holiday done in true Turkish fashion, which means a lot of R & R.

As teachers, we often get excited when our students come back from holiday because we think they’ll have some interesting stories to tell. In Turkey, you quickly find out that, by and large, this isn’t the case. When students are asked what they did on holiday, more often than not the reply is either “nothing” or “I slept.” When I first started teaching here, I thought that this was just a case of students not wanting to speak about their holidays in English. I later learned that they actually meant it.

Compared to many places in the US or Europe, Turkish people have to work really hard. They work longer hours and for between 2 to 10 times less what the person in the same job would make in another country. There are also a lot more stressors in general living here. So, for many, the ideal holiday is going somewhere where you can relax, forget about the hardships of life, and do as little as possible.

So what’s a poor teacher to do during the summer slump when everyone would rather be outside and there doesn’t seem to be much to talk about? Here is a nice task-based project on vacations (what’s a task you say? Check out this fabulous guest post by Marcos Benevides over at Six Things).

Level: Pre-Intermediate and Up

Objective:  Presentation Skills
                     Research Skills
                     Unreal structures with ”would”
                     Holiday Vocabulary                   

Materials: Some big, poster-sized paper, scissors, colored markers, access to a computer lab with Internet connection or travel magazines.

Procedure: This lesson can easily be modified to last over several class periods or cut down to just one.  For instance, you can do large skills focus lessons on researching or presenting.  It can also be adapted as a short presentation follow up to the Create a Country lesson.

Step 1)  Write “Dream Vacation” up on the board.  Give a student the board marker and have the class brainstorm words associated with that topic.

Step 2)  Looking at the board, ask if everyone seems to have the same idea about what a dream vacation is like.  Now tell the students that they are going to plan a dream vacation, but that they need to go on this vacation with a partner. Have them prepare some questions to ask people to determine if they have the same ideas about what a perfect vacation entails. (For example, Do you like adventurous vacations or quite ones? Would you prefer the beach or the mountains? Would you like to go abroad or stay in Turkey? Etc.)

Step 3)  Do a mingle where the class needs to discuss their ideas of a perfect vacation and decide who would be the best person in the class for them to go with.

Step 4)  Once they’ve found someone they think they’d like to travel with, have them sit down as a pair. Once everyone is finished, students need to explain who they chose for a partner and why. This is a good place to review agreement language as Turkish students tend to have trouble remembering this language point, especially in the negative. Encourage sentences like “Seda likes relaxing on the beach and so do I“, “Burak doesn’t like swimming and neither do I.” Correlative conjunctions also work (both…and, neither….nor, either…or).

Step 5)  Now write “Money is no object” on the board. Explain the meaning of the phrase if necessary. Tell students that they are going to imagine that money was no object and that they are going to plan an ideal vacation with their partner ( If the class has access to a computer lab with Internet, then they can choose anywhere. If not, they’ll be limited to destinations in the travel magazines). The catch is that the holiday has to be abroad and it can‘t be somewhere they‘ve already been. Making it outside the students’ own country facilitates the need for more research and makes it more likely that web sites will be in English.

With the class, brainstorm what they’ll have to plan.

-Where to go
-What to bring
-How long to stay
-Where to stay
-What sights to see
-What to do there
-How to travel
-What money to use
-Visa requirements
-Language issues
-Safety and health
-Etc.

Step 6)  Show students the poster paper. Explain that they will need to plan their ideal vacation and find out all the details by researching it. After researching it, they will have to draw out a map of their travel plan and include any relevant images. Students can cut out images from magazines, print them out, or draw them.  I usually give one to one and a half class periods to research and then prepare the poster.

Step 7)  The pairs then present the imaginary holiday to the class. Make sure to emphasize that this is not a real holiday and of course money is always a factor, so they will need to use a lot of 2nd conditional type structures. This is good practice for students as they often have trouble with this. They’ll often use unreal would for the first sentence and then revert back to present simple or something. This is also a good presentation project because students will have to switch back and forth between present simple for facts about things like visas and historical sights and unreal sentences for their plans.

I usually give the students 15-30 minutes to divide up who will talk about what, prepare the presentation, and practice it before they do it for real.  Also make it clear that each person in the pair will have to speak for half the time.  Before starting the presentations, it’s a good idea to collect the posters and split groups members up as they often will chat about the upcoming presentation rather than listen to the presenters.

During the presentation, listeners need to pay attention to fill out an focus form.  Also encourage them to ask questions at the end of the presentation.  The listening focus questions are here (FYI:  I’m having some problems with MS Office at the moment, so these are rtf files for now).  Note that the listening focus forms should be anonymous and then handed to the group who presented them.

Step 8 )  The final stage of the project involves reflection. The reflection form is here. Students should fill it out and then discuss it with a partner.  I usually tell the students to keep the reflection forms anonymous as well.

Step 9)  Take the forms home and go over them for the next day.  Discuss the feedback as a class, possibly presenting a selection of it on the board and go over any major language issues that came up.