Monday, July 17, 2006

The Dialectizer

I think that this blog has been getting a tad high-brow for some readers liking. So with the aid of the Dialectizer I've decided to reach out to the masses, starting with North America. Here is my previous post in redneck.

Usin' songs in yer EFL/ESL lessons


ah knows ah said I'd leave off th' ideas fo' a spell but this hyar came t'me on th' bus ride back fum th' centre of Thessaloniki an' it seemed too fine t'waste. This hyar exercise is a fine way fo' students t'express opinions an' express diffrunt degrees of sartinty an' unsartinty, i.e. modal vahbs etc.

Lesson plan

1 Explain t'th' students thet yer a-gonna play a song an' all yer hankerin' them t'do is write down ten wo'ds thet come t'mind when they hear it.

2 Play Yer Purdy by James Blunt. (Yo' c'd try To'rentspy, but yo' didn't hear thet fum me, ok?)

3 Students then wawk togither in pairs o' groups, explainin' which wo'ds they choose an' whuffo'.

4 Han' out th' lyrics t'th' song an' explain t'th' students thet they is a-gonna write down four columns;

-Whut in tarnation we knows fo' sho'nuff about him
-Whut in tarnation we kin guess about him
-Whut in tarnation we knows fo' sho'nuff about her
-Whut in tarnation we kin guess about her

JAMES BLUNT LYRICS

"Yer Purdy"

Mah life is brilliant.

Mah life is brilliant.
Mah love is pure.
ah sar an angel, ah reckon.
Of thet ah's sho'nuff.
She smiled at me on th' subway.
She was wif t'other man, as enny fool kin plainly see.
But ah won't lose no sleep on thet,
'Cause I've got a plan, as enny fool kin plainly see.

Yer right purdy. Yer right purdy.
Yer right purdy, it's true.
ah sar yer face in a crowded place,
An' ah doesn't knows whut t'do,
'Cause I'll nevah be wif yo'.

Yeah, she caught mah eye,
As we walked on by.
She c'd see fum mah face thet ah was,
Flyin' high, [ - video/radio edited vahshun]
F##kin' high, [ - CD vahshun]
An' ah doesn't reckon thet I'll see her agin,
But we shared a moment thet will last till th' end, cuss it all t' tarnation.

Yer right purdy. Yer right purdy.
Yer right purdy, it's true.
ah sar yer face in a crowded place,
An' ah doesn't knows whut t'do,
'Cause I'll nevah be wif yo'.

Yer right purdy. Yer right purdy.
Yer right purdy, it's true.
Thar muss be an angel wif a smile on her face,
When she thunk up thet ah sh'd be wif yo'.
But it's time t'face th' truth,
ah will nevah be wif yo'


This hyar might be a fine point t'go on over modal vahbs sech as might be, c'd be, etc. an' other ways of expressin' sartinty/unsartinty sech as perhaps, it seems thet etc.

5 Play th' song agin an' student.

6 Etch student fills in their four columns an' then compares their answers wif their partner.

7 Elicit answers fum th' whole class.

8 As a foller up exercise, student write a sho't dialogue, imagin' thet th' two varmints meet gain in a cafe of bar. Yo' c'd even ax them t'ack it out an' reco'd it usin' a video camera. Th' class c'd then vote on th' bess perfo'mance.

3 comments:

melusina said...

Ok, that was too hard to read. And not all rednecks are Southerners, by the way, although this particular form of redneck speak is more along the Southern variety. There are rednecks in all parts of the U.S. and they all have their own dialects, which is actually kind of interesting in a way.

Theodora Papapanagiotou said...

If somebody wrote like that at a Cambridge exam, would they actually pass??!!

teacher dude said...

I didn't know that about rednecks, Melusina, I thought it was exclusively a southern thing.

As for the exams, Dora, the person would pass, well, the interview at least for speaking English with a perfect native speaker accent.