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.
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.
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.
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.
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.")
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.
(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.
Next week in honor of the release of Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to Blade Runner which is based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K Dick, we'll skip ahead and talk about Philip K Dick.
We plan to read "Beyond lies the wub" which is in the book.
If you prefer to read it online, it's easily available online.
Please be aware that the movies tend to slide away from the philosphical aspects of the work and more into action but that's the nature of movies.
There are a lot of good documentaries and biographical materials available on Philip K Dick. The challenge for this class was to find one that was short ehough so that it did not take up all our class time.
Here's some more biographical material on Philip K Dick.
This is an interesting discussion of the film adaptations of Philip K Dick
However, this is the best documentary I have seen yet on Philirp K Dick. Unfortunately, it's an hour long so we won't be watching it in class, but I definitely recommend you take a look at it if you have the time.
Philip K Dick is a very interesting and controversial writer. In class, I will very quickly share some thoughts on Philip K Dick that came from Stephen Miller, a science fiction writer. Miller and his wife, Sharon Lee, are very nice people who write a space opera series set in what they call "The Liaden Universe." Their website is here: http://korval.com/ Their work is very, very different from Philip K Dick's. In the above documentary, "Phiiip K Dick, A Day in the Afterlife," Thomas Disch is featured prominently. He is a science fiction writer who also wrote an interesting book on science fiction called The DREAMS OUR STUFF IS MADE OF: How Science Fiction Conquered the World. Although the book is far reaching and discusses many things, Philip K Dick is often discussed in it and in many contexts https://www.amazon.com/DREAMS-OUR-STUFF-MADE-Conquered/dp/0684859785/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507927248&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=disch+stuff+our+dreams+are+made+of
We will also continue our discussion of pulp stories and early magazine stories with Leslie F Stones "Conquest of Gola" --this is in the book but if you wish to see the actual magazine it came in (with editorials and other stories, as well as fascinating ads, you may look here:
Finally, I'd be curious to get your take on the issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs and sexism or lack thereof.
There are ten and a half books in ERB's "Barsoom" (Mars) series, easily his most popular series after Tarzan and his most popular SF series.
This is the fourth one and dates from 1916. In the first three books, John Carter, a master swordsman and civil war veteran comes to Mars (Barsoom) through mysterious means where he discovers that due to the low gravity he has super strength. Skipping ahead, he makes friends with the savage four armed green martians who soon capture him and then rescues Dejah Thoris, a proud Barsoomian princess from a nation called Helium. They get married and have a son named Carthoris (should you wonder, Tarzan and Jane got married and had a son name Korak).
In this book, Carthoris, now an adult, meets Thuvia, a proud Martian princess who has the power to control the Martian lions called "Banths" and well . . . problems happen and he sets out to rescue her.
Just read as much as you want but please try to read at least the first scene of the book. (It starts much faster than the first three. I think in the first one, it takes a couple chapters before John Carter gets to Mars, chapters in which ERB carefully explains how he met John Carter and acquired the manuscript and in which John Carter explains how he wound up on Mars after going to Arizona where he was chased by Apaches into some mysterious ruins that transported him to the red planet.
Jules Verne 1828-1905 "Voyage Extroadinaire" / Extraordinary Voyages French adventure writer who enjoyed writing stories that include a technological wonder
Because students often did not attend class, and the text book was not appropriate to their reading level, I made an effort to provide the materials required in a way that the students could access them any time and any place they might wish. Fortunately youtube offers a wealth of such materials.
Since part of learning to do academic writing, or any sort of writing for that matter, is to choose an appropriate topic and develop it in an appropriate way, I devoted a class to that topic.
When it comes to research paper topics, there's a lot of fine materials out there and here are some of my favorities.
As with most writing topic, the Purdue Owl contains useful materials:
