Unit 11: Language Comparison Poster

Here is a link to my Language Comparison Poster: 

http://prezi.com/3aumaa49-ncb/unit-11-language-comparison/

Unit 11 Mind Map by Frank Barbrie and Caitlin Tramontozzi

Click here:  http://www.slideshare.net/CaitlinTramontozzi/unit11mindmap to view the Unit 11 Mind Map.

u10a2 Topic Activities

Activity Topic 1:

Activity 1: Language Variation in the US

It was interesting to read this chapter on Language in Social Contexts...the information discussed in this chapter is what attracts me to the subject of language. I've always been fascinated with a certain communities lingo/slang, even the funny accents or dialects used by people from other parts of the U.S. and around the world. Comedians have made a living on breaking down how humans use language or members of a particular community use subsets of the same language. You must admit that language variations are funny:)

According to O'Grady details of word choice, syntax, and pronunciation reveal us to be members of a particular speech community, a group of people who share social conventions, or sociolinguistic norms, about language (p.485). I feel that mutual intelligibility is the ultimate goal of communication, unfortunately for some NS subgroups, language variation and social distinctions pose a problem, that can lead to discrimination and stereotypes regardless of a persons education or finical background.

I know because I've seen it happen first hand when I taught in the state of Alabama. The first week of being on the job I was coined by some teachers as the "Yankee"...simply based on my accent. Now the term Yankee is defined as a person native to the north, which is true, I am from the north, however I couldn't help but feel that others attached a negative connotation to the term with-out even getting to know me...needless to say it was sad to think that others in the teaching profession felt this way. I had students in my classroom that had really thick southern accents, but I never once judged their intelligence level based on speech speed, accent or financial situation. In fact some of my brightest students where minority groups from socioeconomically challenged backgrounds.

Activity Topic 2

Activity 1: What would you do?

2.) After watching the video I wasn't surprised to see this type of discrimination, needless to say, I was disgusted by it. I'm sure that other ESL teachers who share the same sentiments as I do will help in the fight to advocate for ESL education reform and policy change for the betterment of our students, however I'm not so sure that non-ESL teachers will take the same approach. The common argument I've heard in the past is that time and money shouldn't be wasted on immigrant students...rather the focus should be our native English speaking students. This type of narrow minded approach to education does exist in smaller more rural areas and stubborn mindsets are hard to change. When the time comes, I don't look forward to those types of discussions with colleagues and administrators, but eventually they are going to happen. So when the time comes, I believe that one has to stand by their convictions, even if that means being the outcast of poker flat.

Activity 2: Do you speak American?

Do you speak American?..."we" the class may find this question funny, however I cringed when I hear people ask this question. English is a language that is constantly changing overtime, everything from the GREAT VOWEL shift to new words annually inducted into the Websters dictionary. The http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/sociolinguistics/ is an excellent website that synthesises the information concerning the topic of Sociolinguistics. Topics covered are accents, dialect, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, slang, and Socio-situational variation to name a few. This information can be useful for teachers, by giving them insight as to why a students writes or speaks a certain way, then the teacher can use that information to help their students become more effective communicators.

FUNNY COMIC

Since we just finished a unit on semantics... I found this comic to be timely, appropriate and blog post worthy.

u09a1_Mini grammar lesson on irregular verbs

Please click on the link below to view my mini grammar lesson on irregular verbs.

http://www.slideshare.net/frankbarbrie/irregular-verb-presentation-10113727

u09a2_The Fisherman Story and Timeline

Topic 1:

Part 2 - Re-written

#1    John wanted to be a farmer, but didn't have the money to buy land. His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves fishing, but longs to be more successful.  When he was sad, he painted his boat, "Troubled Waters," blue and shined it up. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, "You're always fishing for compliments."

John had no energy so he did not argue with his brother. Instead, he made more nets and hoped to increase the amount of fish he caught the next day.

___________________________________________________________________________

#2    Comment on what other parts of the story might be confusing to the students and how you would address it?

Written in the paragraph below…you will notice the words or phrases that might be confusing to students. The words are written in italic print and underlined, for your convenience.

I change the verb tense in the opening sentence to simple past tense and took out the conditionals because they are too confusing to Ells. I replaced the verb crash, because a non-native speaker may take the literal meaning of the word and have trouble making sense of the sentence. I replaced it with the word: declined.  The verb long(s) could be confusing to a non-native speaker so I replaced it with the word: wants. I changed the expression shine-up to simply shine and dropped the (up) so that it isn't mistaken as a separate preposition. I changed the expression "new look" to "appearance" because most non-native English speakers may not understand that expression. Lastly, I changed the idiomatic expression fishing for complements to the verb asking for complements.

l  His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy declined. John loves fishing, but wants to be more successful. When he was sad, he painted his boat, "Troubled Waters," blue and shined it. John asked his brother what he thought of the appearance, but his brother just laughed and said, "You're always asking for compliments."

John had no energy so he did not argue with his brother. Instead, he made more nets and hoped to increase the amount of fish he caught the next day.

Topic 2:

#3 
        
Timeline:

John is a fisherman. His brother bought land last summer, but he will sell it because the economy crashed this year. John shines his boat when he feels sad…poor John.

_______________X____________________I___________________I_________

                   (Simple past)                  (Simple present)          (Simple future)

                   bought, crashed           is, shines, feels,sell                  will

#4         

Consider whether you think grammar can be acquired through immersion or if you think it must be taught?

“Hooray…my original thought process has been vindicated…excellent video!”

I stated in my very first discussion in this class, that there is no perfect or “right” way to teach ESL…Mrs. Azar, Mr Folse, and Mr. Swan reconfirmed my thought process. I always believed that a communicative approach is a key approach to teaching ESL; however I didn’t believe that the rules of grammar would automatically manifest themselves in learners L2 simply through comprehensible input. I truly believe that the hybrid approach is the best way to teach English to Ells, given the infancy of the facts that exist about L2 acquisition.

I will now frequent Mrs. Azar’s website for research and add it to my accumulated knowledge of teaching experience for a source of enlightenment…thanks to Mrs. Azar, Mr. Folse and Mr. Swan.

u08a3 Application questions

Barbrie_u08a3

Application questions:

Conversation #1, the miscommunication occurs in the response by Mrs. Rashid, “There are many lovely people in the neighborhood.” In this response we see a violation of Grice’s Maxim of Relevance. Mrs. Thomas will most likely think that Mrs. Rashid is indeed not happy with the school district since she is thinking that avoided answering the question directly, and changed the topic to talk about the neighborhood. However Mrs., Rashid misunderstood the word district to mean area of town where the school is located, and to her, she answered the question perfectly.

Explaination of the cultural factors that contribute to the miscommunication in the conversation:

I chose Conversation # 1. I believe that Mrs. Rashid was not a native English speaker and when Mrs. Thomas asked, “Are you happy with the school district?”Mrs. Rashid misunderstood the word “district” to mean the area of town where the school was located instead of the intended meaning by Mrs. Thomas: The school system.

GRICE'S CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS

Barbrieu08a2

Grice’s Conversational Maxims

The Maxim of Relevance – Violation of this signaled that I wanted to change the topic of conversation.
It was accompanied by a slight change of intonation, bodylanguage, and the reason was to avoid answering an embarrassing question. ( My Friend) Question: "Hey Frank, how was your date with Debbie?" (Me) Answer: "Hey man, where are we going to eat tonight?"

The Maxim of Quality – Violation of this was used as a way to express sarcasm. I used it just to add humor to the answer and changed my intonation/accent to a more sarcastic, funny tone.
 (My Mother on the phone) Question: "Hello, Frank...is that you?" (Me) Answer: "No...it is  Mr.Miyagi...can I help you?"  (changed accent)

The Maxim of Quantity – Violation of this Maxim was done as to not hurt the person's feelings and supplied the person with insufficient information. (My student) Question: "Mr. Barbrie...how do you like the picture I made for you?" (ME) Answer: "Nice"...(said with a huge Cheshire smile on my face).

The Maxim of Manner – Violation of this Maxim was used to be polite and avoid giving the wrong information. (My Dad) Question: Frank...who is that sitting at our table with your brother?" Answer: (Me) "You know...Nicky's new lady friend." (I did not know her name at the time, and my brother  had just met the girl).

Tingo the Puppet used by Sesame English to teach ESL

Barbrieu06a2 Application questions

Barbrieu06a2 

Application questions

a.    #3 (minimum 10 words)

WORD                                            ORGIN                                 HISTORY/MEANING 

Kamikaze	Japanese	The word Kamikaze means  Divine Wind - A long time ago an invading country attacked Japan by ship, but a strong wind blew across the coastline, and tipped all of the ships over, thus protecting Japan and its people.
Booze	Dutch	The word booze has been around since the fourteenth century. It comes from the Middle Dutch verb busen, meaning to drink heavily (wordorigins.org)
Karaoke	Japanese	The word Karaoke means empty orchestra, which translates to music with no with words.
Karate	Japanese	The word Karate means empty hand, which translates to defend with no weapon.
Cracker	American(southern region)	This contemptuous name for a poor, white resident of the southern United States comes from a 16th century term for a braggart or liar, one who makes cracks. (wordorigins.org)
Crapper	British	Thomas Crapper - Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. He did, however, do much to increase the popularity of the toilet, and developed some important related inventions. He was noted for the quality of his products. (wikipedia.com)
Halloween	Scottish	The word Halloween is a Scottish contraction of All Hallow’s Even or All Hallow’s Eve, a reference to All Saint’s Day which falls on the first of November. October 31st is the day before, or eve of, this church holiday. The contraction dates to the 18th century when it is first recorded in the Scottish folk ballad Young Tamlane: (wordorigins.org)
Iowa	French/Sioux Tribe	The name means “sleepy ones.” The tribe bequeathed its name to the Iowa River and the river in turn gave its name to the territory. (wordorigins.org)
Rope-a-dope	American	Rope-a-dope is a term for a boxing strategy whereby the fighter spends the early rounds in a defensive posture against the ropes, allowing the opponent to tire by hitting him. The term was coined by Muhammad Ali. (wordorigins.org)
Mate	German	The word mate comes to us from the Middle Low German māt, meaning comrade or fellow.

b.

#4 (minimum 5 words)

Phonetic Demand                       Semantic Demand               Etymological Demand

sit	partial partially	angel
hit	practical practically	Easter
pin	minimum minimal	Lent
tap	max maximum	quiz
pat	politics political	United Nations

b.    #8

                             /c/                                                                        /j/

catch	badge
pitch	budge
watch	luggage
punch	judge
lunch	fudge
munch	cottage

I did notice a pattern with both sounds. Words with the /ch/ sound usually had a vowel precede the /tch/, but words that ended in /ch/ were preceded by a consonant.  A Similar pattern existed in words with the /j/ sound.  Words that ended in /ge/ were preceded by a consonant and words that ended /dge/ are preceded with a vowel.

This is something I saw on tv the other night and thought that the class would appreciate.

This is a skit from SNL/nbc.com website. I felt that it is classroom related and very funny...click on the link below and enjoy...comic genius.  If you have time...let me know if you liked it and how it relates to what we are learning in our ESL classes, by posting a comment to my blog site.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/j-pop-talk-show/1362560

Minimal Pairs Lesson

Minimal Pairs Lesson

To start my lesson on Minimal Pairs, I would identify two or three pronunciation problem areas my Ells are having and use that as my target language for the lesson. In order to keep this lesson under 5 minutes, but produce results, I believe the students need to be active and correspond with each other to check for errors with-out the teacher looming over them as they work.

In this particular lesson I focus on the vowel sound minimal pairs, since they seem to give most L2 learners the most problems. I have the students break-up into groups of three or four per group. A list of 16 vowel sound minimal pairs will already be listed and numbered on the board (1-32) in order to save time. The vowel sound minimal pairs are written on the board into a T-chart format that shows the vowel sounds written in IPA with example words written underneath the corresponding vowel sound field…like in the example below.

The /i/ Sound

The /ɪ/ Sound

1.SLEEP                                                                                                                 9.SLIP

2.PEACH                                                                                                              10.PITCH

3.BEAT                                                                                                                 11.BIT

4.HEEL                                                                                                                 12.HILL

5.SKIED                                                                                                               13.SKID   

6.SCENE                                                                                                              14.SIN

7.REACH                                                                                                             15.RIDGE

8.LEAVING                                                                                                         16.LIVING

Step 1

The students will start with repeating the following words as the teacher says them aloud. For example…the teacher will start off by saying SLEEP/SLIP, PEACH/ PITCH…thus stressing the vowel sound for students to hear the distinction between the two words.

Step 2

After repeating the words, I will then tell the students that I am going to say five words from the group. It is their job to write the # of the word I say aloud on a piece of paper. I will only say the word only once. The word is said at natural speaking speed.

Step 3

The students will then write the word on their piece of paper. They will be asked to compare answers. Any answers that are different are to be discussed with-in the group.

Step 4

This process is repeated for the other 16 words for the following vowel sound minimal pairs.

The /e/ Sound

The / ɛ/ Sound

1.      CHASE                                                                                                            9.CHESS

2.      WAIT                                                                                                              10.WET

3.      BLADE                                                                                                           11.BLED

4.      FAIL                                                                                                               12.FELL

5.      GATE                                                                                                              13.GET

6.      RACED                                                                                                           14.REST

7.      WASTE                                                                                                           15.WEST

8.      RAID                                                                                                               16.RED

Step 5

Repeat steps #2 and #3.

The teacher will then give the correct answers to both groups of words.