ESL speaking Rhythm Videos

This is a collection of youtube videos on Enlgish speaking ehythm for ESL students.I hope to edit this and add more comments and value judgements on these videos in thie future.

ESL --speaking slowly videos

These are some random videos on speaking slowly that have some use in ESL teaching either for students or teachers. I hope to sort through them more carefully in the future, 

Cyberpunk

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CyberPunk

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/WriteACyberpunkStory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathlok

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Future_Past




https://www.google.com/search?q=american+flagg+chaykin&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS769US769&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwianqCVv_vXAhXKlOAKHS_bCqsQ_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=903

William Gibson

Bruce Sterling

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bruce+sterling+



Afrofuturism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdylle_hPgQ





My Stories



http://www.nthzine.com/literary-legacy-of-a-vampire/

http://www.nthzine.com/the-brothers-of-the-golden-tiger-slam-hong-kong-four-trained-fists-of-blazing-fury-meet-kang-the-puppetmasters-minions-in-a-1970s-kung-fu-fantasy-guaranteed-to-make-your-chi-flow-l/

http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/tensions-rise-as-chinese-governments-influence-infiltrates-aussie-universities/news-story/e7768b0bb1f5953a7608884527387372





https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/08/you-should-consider-our-feelings-for-chinese-students-the-state-is-an-extension-of-family



https://www.thoughtco.com/is-taiwan-a-country-1435437


http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86011850/2001-09-20/ed-1/seq-16.pdf

APA format

Here are some introductory materials to help teach the APA format. The APA format is a standard format used in academic writing.

http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/resources/handouts_apa/Citing1.pdf

Some well liked Public Speaking Videos

Introduction to cause and effect essay and paragraph writing

Here are a few videos that help teach writing about cause and effect.

This one is on how to write a cause and effect paragraph.

These are on how to write cause and effect essays. There are many others on the web as well, but they tend to be long.

Writing a Five Paragraph Essay

Here are some materials I've collected for help in learning to write five paragraph essays. I used these when teaching English 101 at the proprietary college.

http://www.edb.utexas.edu/minliu/pbl/ESOL/index.htm



https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/05/

Simple cause and effect videos

 These are a few videos I've collected to help explain cause and effect. Many are designed for children, but they do a good job of getting the basic idea of what one is talking about before moving on to more advanced vocabulary. 

1970s Science Fiction --Dangerous Visions and the New Wave

Films

ROLLERBALL

Clockwork Orange

ZARDOZ

DEATHRACE 2000

Start at 15:30 and play until 19:30

The 1996 film of JG Ballard's "Crash" based on the novel from 1973. 

 

good paragraphs

When teaching paragraph structure and writing, it is often a good idea to have some sample paragraphs that one can use as examples. Here are a few that I have found. For better or worse, the reading level of the paragraphs is not high. When I taught at the proprietary college, the students, although native English speakers in most cases, were often not able to read them well enough to understand them. And with English language learners, they also are quite likely to have difficulty in understanding the sentences. Nevertheless, here are a few good paragraphs written by a few of my favorite writers or media personalities.

GOOD PARAGRAPHS

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you.”

― Anthony Bourdain

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“I don't mind exercise but it's a private activity. Joggers should run in a wheel - like hamsters - because I don't want to look at them. And I really hate people who go on an airplane in jogging outfits. That's a major offense today, even bigger than Spandex bicycle pants. You see eighty-year-old women coming on the plane in jogging outfits for comfort. Well my comfort - my mental comfort - is completely ruined when I see them coming. You're on an airplane, not in your bedroom, so please! And I really hate walkathons: blocking traffic, people patting themselves on the back. The whole attitude offends me. They have this smug look on their faces as they hold you up in traffic so that they can give two cents to some charity.”

― John Waters

“You don’t need fashion designers when you are young. Have faith in your own bad taste. Buy the cheapest thing in your local thrift shop - the clothes that are freshly out of style with even the hippest people a few years older than you. Get on the fashion nerves of your peers, not your parents - that is the key to fashion leadership. Ill-fitting is always stylish. But be more creative - wear your clothes inside out, backward, upside down. Throw bleach in a load of colored laundry. Follow the exact opposite of the dry cleaning instructions inside the clothes that cost the most in your thrift shop. Don’t wear jewelry - stick Band-Aids on your wrists or make a necklace out of them. Wear Scotch tape on the side of your face like a bad face-lift attempt. Mismatch your shoes. Best yet, do as Mink Stole used to do: go to the thrift store the day after Halloween, when the children’s trick-or-treat costumes are on sale, buy one, and wear it as your uniform of defiance.”

― John Waters, Role Models

Philip K. Dick      

"Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing."

— Philip K. Dick

Seagal is looking wider and moving slower than ever, and part of the joy of his pictures these days is seeing how they will try to convince the audience that he is some sort of an action hero. Early on it looks like all the action will be vehicle related, driving jeeps around splashing in puddles or a hilarious scene where he commandeers a small plane to scare its pilot into giving him information. (The pilot says his nickname is Crash “because I never have” – like that’s something to brag about. Shouldn’t most pilots be nicknamed Crash then?) But hang in there because there are some fight scenes that really deliver the laughs. Seagal has apparently thrown out the girdle and lets it all hang for some of his most Dolemite-esque fights to date.

VERN --  http://outlawvern.com/2003/07/04/out-for-a-kill/

“I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone.”

― Charles Bukowski

“We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”

― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Vonnegut

http://www.vrdiscovery.com/scifimed/MonkStry.pdf

http://wordfight.org/bnw/bnw-unit_packet.pdf

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/10/24/post-fiction/classic-fiction/miss-temptation.html

Resources for learning the simple past tense in English

Over the years, I've found that there are certain handouts I give to almost every class of students.

These are some of the most useful for learning the simple past tense in English.

Like most things in English the actual grammar rules for making the past tense are very simple.

            Take the verb stem and put "ed" on the end.

            For example:              "jump" +  "ed"  = "jumped" -----------Past Tense!!

            Simple (especially when compared to most European languages).

However, also like most things in English, the exceptions to the rules (the "irregular" verbs) are countless and usually outnumber the "regular" verbs that follow the rules. Therefore the key to learning to use the past tense in English is just to memorize not just a lot of irregular verbs but to also remember which ones actually do follow the verbs.

The follow lists have proven themselves useful to me and my students again and again.

First, we have a list of the most common English verbs that are regular in the past tense: 
https://www.linguasorb.com/english/verbs/regular-verbs/

Second, we have a list of the most common English verbs that are irregular in the past tense.: http://www.esl-lounge.com/reference/grammar-reference-most-common-irregular-verb-list.php


Once students have learned and become proficient in using those, they can move on to this longer list of regular verbs.:  https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/regular-verbs-list.htm and this longer list of irregular verbs,: https://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html


If students want a past tense grammar review, there's one here: https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepastforms.htm

paraphrasing, quotation, and citation -an excellent video

Not much here to share, but the little I do have is quite good. At some point, it seems, most of my writing classes do get the opportunity to watch this video.

It's got one of the best explanations I've seen on how to teach students to write original work without plagiarizing while still using the necessary key words that are required to share the ideas in the source.

writing paragraphs

More than once I've been required to teach students, both ESL students and students at the proprietary college who lacked basic academic fundamentals.  Here are some of the resources I've found useful. 

This is a useful article and with a little bit of copy and paste and appropriate accreditation (giving credit where credit is due is always important) it can make a good hand out.

https://www.eslwriting.org/esl-writing-lessons-learn-english-writing-structure-a-paragraph/

Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein -Three Classic Science Fiction Writers of the Golden Age

Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein are three of the most prolific science fiction writers of the golden age of science fiction.

Arthur C Clarke lived from December 16, 1917 until March 19, 2008. He was a prolific writer and is known for many classic short stories and novels as well as a strong interest in technology, particularly communications technology, and space flight. He was British but spent most of his adult life living in Sri Lanka. 

For a quick, entertaining, and not terribly serious introduction to his work and appeal the TV Tropes wiki is a great start: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/ArthurCClarke

One of his most famous stories is called The Nine Billion Names of God.
http://downlode.org/Etext/nine_billion_names_of_god.html 

Robert A Heinlein is another classic science fiction writer. 

It's difficult to find his work online but one of his classic stories, The Menace from Earth is including in the online pdf of this classic magazine. http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/FSF.htm  (August 1957 ) 

For a quick, entertaining, and not terribly serious introduction to his work and appeal the TV Tropes wiki is a great start: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/RobertAHeinlein

To many Libertarian types, Heinlein is seen as an important thinker and philosopher. The following quote is typical of his ideas and the beliefs of his characters, self reliant, independent, survivors. 

Isaac Asimov is well known for not just his science fiction but also his popular science articles and ablity to explain complex ideas smoothly and simple to the interested public.  

 For a quick, entertaining, and not terribly serious introduction to his work and appeal the TV Tropes wiki is a great start:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/IsaacAsimov 

It can be difficult to find Asimov's fiction online but if you use this index you can find where it was first published. Often you can then find a copy of the original magazine shared online and read it there. : http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/short_fiction_guide.html

English speaking Rhythm --English sounds without meaning. Right on!! -And that crazy Italian song that sounds like English but isn't.

In the last two posts, I spoke about teaching English rhythm to students in order to improve their spoken English pronunciation.

To help get this concept across even further, I offer this --one of the greatest things on the internet!! (At least to an English as a Second Language teacher.)

Adriano Celantano is an Italian comedian who created a song that sounds like an American English song but consists of nothing but nonsense words with English sounds and rhythm. I've included two versions of the video of the song. The first has just the song. The second has the Italian language set up that frames the joke and explains the song. Basically, if you can understand the Italian, students in an Italian music class ask their teacher how one can sing a foreign, English language song if you forget the words. Is it possible? He assures them that it is and then demonstrates.

English speaking rhythm and Hip Hop

Language has rhythm and different languages have different natural rhythms.

When students (or other humans) learn a new language, to speak it well, they need to learn to speak it with the appropriate rhythm. Each language, and often different dialects of the same language, have distinct stress patterns. People who wish to learn to speak a second or addtional language need to learn to speak it with an appropriate rhythm.

But before they can do this, they must become familiar with the concept of language rhythm and how to recognize it in different languages.

Hip Hop is a form of music where people speak in rhythm. Therefore it seems a natural tool for exposing students to the idea that different languages have different rhythm.

Therefore, for that purpose, I have collected a wide variety of hip hop videos in different languages to use in class.

The students should be told that American hip-hop videos often contain bad or impolite language and non-standard or poor grammar as well as sometimes offensive subject matter. It is not always a good tool to teach English but it is a good tool to teach rhythm.

PLEASE NOTE --I HAVE NOT WATCHED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE VIDEOS FROM BEGINNING TO END. ALSO I DO NOT SPEAK ALL THESE LANGUAGES. THEREFORE IF YOU FIND OR HEAR SOMETHING THAT IS OFFENSIVE IN ONE OF THESE VIDEOS OR THAT YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ON ONE OR MORE OF THESE VIDEOS, PLEASE MESSAGE ME AND LET ME KNOW OR PUT SOMETHING IN THE COMMENTS BELOW IF YOU PREFER. I WILL TRY TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE WHEN IT HAPPENS.

Although they are primarilly in other languages, often there are parts where the rappers rap in English. This is useful because it can be used to show the different accents and how the sounds and rhythm of their first language carries over into the second language, English. (The Burmese and Karen one are particularly good for this.)

On the other hand, the English sections, in standard hip hop fashion, often include offensive Engish language and students should be warned (it's best not to play some of these videos if your students will be offended by "the F word" or other offensive words.) So be warned.

Also, and an additional warning, it is the nature of hip-hop videos that they often contain sexy young women dressed in skimpy clothes who are objectified and treated as prizes. Although I've tried to minimize such images, it is the nature of hip-hop videos that such depictions of women will be found here. Now, honestly, I would prefer it if the videos showed depictions of brainy women (who are also healthy and nice to look at) doing impressive things that are beneficial for society but I did not make these videos I just collected them. If the usual depictions of women as often depicted in hip-hop offend you or your students, consider playing these videos without the images.

As stated above, if you find something that is considerably offensive, please let me know either by private message of in the comments below and I will do my best to attend to it.

English

First, Mr Wendall by Arrested Development, a clean video with a nice message.

If you listen to the rhythm of the words, there is sort of a "one TWO one TWO one TWO one TWO DAP DAP DAP" rhythm to much of the speech.


Queen Latifah is another example of English language with a hip-hop that has a good message.

(And for the record, yes, they are both old. I am NOT using hip-hop in the classroom to show how cool and "with it" I am. I gave up on that long ago. I am using hip-hop to teach the concept of rhythm in language and to stress that when a language student learns to speak a new language they should strive to change their speaking rhythm to match the rhythm of the new language, not the old language.)

This video shows samples from hip hop videos in Mandarin and Vietnamese, two very different but "isolationist" languages where the rhythm is more monosyllabic and does not change to the same extent as in English.

Although they switch back and from English to their own language, making the contrast in rhythm particularly noticeable, the rhythm is more of repetitive "bop-bop-bop-bop-bop" as they speak . *

Japanese and Korean 

Japanese and Korean have their own rhythm that is distinctly different from Chinese or Vietnamese. Even if you don't know a single word of the languages then you can easily learn to distinguish them through the rhythm.

This one is in Russian

Russian 

This one is in Mexican Spanish.

By comparing these two, students who do not know either Spanish or Russian should be able to learn to distinguish between the two -And be able to do so without knowing a single word of the language.

Punjabi 

Swahili 

Turkish 

Cambodian hip hop (starts about 1:15pm) 

Burmese 

I thought this one was particularly good for explaining the concepts.

Notice how his English sounds like his Burmese. 

Karen song

The Karen are a hill tribe that lives primarilly on the Thai-Burmese border. There is a lot of fighting in the region as many Karen wish to split off and form an independent state and the Burmese government resists this. Therefore many Karen have come to the USA and other Western nations as refugees. I have several Karen friends and acquaintances which is one reason I included this video which was made in the USA.

Navajo

I went to youtube looking for Navajo language hip-hop. Lo and behold, I found some. 

Lest the students become confused about whether or not Native American Indians speak English or not, here's some English language Native American hip hop from the Navajo reservation (although the rapper is half Sioux by ethnicity/)   

    

Tibetan 

I enjoy the Taiwanese rapper MC Hot Dog. He was big at one point when I lived on the island, so of course, I had to include him here.

English speaking rhythm videos

Languages have a thythm, each and every one of them. And this rhythm varies from one language to the next. When people learn a second (or additional) language, they have a tendency to speak with the rhythm of the first language. For this reason, it's a good to teach them not only that spoken American English has a distinct  rhythm and stress pattern, but what that rhythm is.

Fortunately, like so much else, Youtube has a wealth of videos on how English should be spoken. 

The following are some of my favorites.  I offer them without other comment.

FANBOYS and compound sentences

This is  fun video that teaches about compound sentences.

It also teaches the useful acronym FANBOYS

For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So

This also teaches the FANBOYS acronym and compound sentences.

Grammar Rock --Conjunction Junction --same thing, different era.

writing good sentences

More than once I've been hired to teach writing to students who often needed help with the basics.

This is a collection of materials I've found on the basics of writing good sentences.

This second one is good too, but it's worth mentioning that Mark Roberts is Canadian and pronounces the word "pasta" differently than most Americans would. (We would say PAH-sta,  with an "a" like in "taco" but he says PA-sta with an "a" like in "cat.")

Sentence fragments are a big problem with many students, both foreign and native speakers.

Run on sentences are another big problem.

If you'd like to practice corrrecting sentences and check your understanding of grammar, here is a collection of sample quizzes and practice sheets you can use.

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Sentence-Correction.htm



This video teaches types of sentences.

This is a video on how to write better sentences. It assumes a good command of grammar.

Not so great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpoZBnXHg3E

Golden Age of Science Fiction -Knight and Corwainer Smith

Please consider this a rough draft

Golden Age of Science Fiction 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Science_Fiction 

Cordwainer Smith

http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/

Works under his real name: 

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34034

https://biblio.wiki/wiki/The_Best_of_Cordwainer_Smith

https://biblio.wiki/wiki/Scanners_Live_In_Vain

http://fadedpage.com/books/20170826/html.php

Alpha Ralpha Boulevard p 154

Sci Fi Radio has several Cordwainer Smith stories.


https://archive.org/details/Sci-fiRadio

To Serve Man 

1950 

https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1950-11/Galaxy_1950_11#page/n91/mode/2up

Science Fiction 5B

Buck Rogers Radio show

http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/hear-vintage-episodes-of-buck-rogers-the-sci-fi-radio-show-that-first-aired-on-this-day-in-1932.html

Buck Rogers movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU5mdp4TXdM



Buck Rogers TV show



Flash Gordon TV show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5MD9cwpyqY&list=PL_8Ul4SR6bIdhgi1SCH-rnKDkk1uRTXv7

Pete Teaches Science Fiction --HP Lovecraft

Second, here's the material on HP Lovecraft. There's a lot here but I just want to expose you the variety and enthusiasm of HP Lovecraft fandom ) 

Biographical materials 

(Please try to ,look over or read The Atlantic article. It's well written and has some interesting and important points in there. )

http://www.hplovecraft.com/ 

http://www.hplovecraft.com/life/biograph.aspx

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/08/hp-lovecraft-125/401471/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft 

If you want some idea of his influence you may look at the very informative and amusing website, "TV Tropes.com" 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/HPLovecraft 

Stories 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Short_stories_by_H._P._Lovecraft

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/

Or there's a particualrly good collection of on-line HP Lovecraft writings at Project Gutenberg Australia. (Just scroll down to find him under the authors with the last name "L.") 

http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterL

There's been an incredible amount of fan work devoted to HP Lovecraft and his creation, the Cthulhu Mythos.

Literally thousands of youtube videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=HP+Lovecraft+

This one looks particularly good although I confess I have not had time to watch the whole thing yet. 

RPG 

http://geekandsundry.com/the-best-rpg-of-all-time-is-call-of-cthulhu/



 Films 

https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/07/the-six-best-adaptations-of-hp-lovecraft.html 

Silly stuff 

https://www.google.com/search?q=stuffed+cthulhu&newwindow=1&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXht7jzPfWAhUDOCYKHSXOAXIQ_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=904

http://www.thelovecraftsman.com/2011/04/10-beloved-cartoon-characters.html

Even a Metallica song (thanks Liz!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1RTgznup5c

Pete Teaches Science Fiction -Reading assigments for Class #5 A

Greetings, I hope to polish this up and add color and explanation later.

Here's what I hope we will read for class #5


Buck Rogers in print.

Buck Rogers is one of the classic science fiction heroes. This is his first appearance and dates from 1928.

https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_08-1928_Buck_Rogers_Armageddon_2419_AD_




HP Lovecraft is normally classified as a weird horror writer but I think a good argument could be made that often he could be classified as a science fiction writer. I think this story is one example. It's a bit long but it is a classic. It dates from 1931.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness

More has been written about him in a later post.

(As an aside, I mentioned that I wrote my MA Thesis on the search for Peking Man, a colloquial term for some specimens of Homo Erecti found in China in 1927. Let me suggest, it's never a bad idea to check and verify when people make claims of lofty education, etc. Although I strongly believe most people are honest and good --if you lose your wallet it usually gets returned-- it only takes one dishonest or predatory person to complicate and change your life, so in that spirit:
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/8399

This is my MA Thesis. There is no obligation whatsoever to read any of it. Really.



Damon Runyon

Since we are discussing pulp and magazine fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, I'd like to introduce you to Damon Runyon. Damon Runyon is not a science fiction writer and has absolutely no business being mentioned in this class. On the other hand, he's great. He's very, very funny and often considered one of the masters of the craft of short story writing.

So check him out. I have found his story "A Piece of Pie" and if you look at it, I think you will enjoy it.

http://www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1937aug21-00009

Here's a radio series from the time based on his stories. A Piece of Pie is story number 21.  

https://archive.org/details/DamonRunyonTheater

Here's a youtube presentation of the radio play. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mWjydUg2wA