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Major Regional Dialects
What does your dialect sound like? Examine variation in English as it relates to geographic regions with your class. They recognize some of the major differences between regional dialects and determine that everyone speaks a dialect....
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Express Yourself Lesson Seed 5
Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...
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6th Grade: Express Yourself, Lesson 1: Poem
While originally created to accompany The Cay, this poetry lesson could be used on it's own, especially if you are working on dialect. Class members conduct a close reading of "When Malindy Sings" by Paul Laurence Dunbar and listen to an...
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Lyric Analysis: Reflection
The Woody Guthrie song,"I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore" invites upper graders to engage in lyric analysis. They use the lyrics to answer five analysis questions to determine a social meaning to the song. A suggested answer...
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Language Variation: Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Sociolect? Jargon? Morphosyntactic? Labov? Ebonics? The fifteen slides in this presentation serve to introduce terms and concepts used in the discussion of how ethnicity, age, social class, education, religion, and gender influence...
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Language and Dialect
Practice listening skills while studying oral story tellers from different parts of Louisiana. Consider the regional dialects and insider language of folk groups with your class. Identify language as part of folk life and recognize that...
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Reading a Dialect
Reading a dialect can be difficult; show readers that it can also reveal fascinating details! They read two extracts from Jane Gardam's The Hollow Land, which is written in a British dialect. Readers answer comprehension questions,...
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The Harlem Renaissance Births a Black Culture
Students examine the men and women who were a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Individually, they recreate their favorite pieces of art from the time period and create their own original works after reading poem from the movement. In...
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"Lawd! Lawd! Lawd!"
From British accents to Texan drawls, a character's dialect can be an important part of the reading experience. A Six-Trait writing activity guides learners through the analysis of a character's dialect (Daniel Keyes's Flowers for...
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Regional and Social Dialects
Both humorous and fascinating, dialects of the English language are a never-ending source of cultural studies in America. This presentation details characteristics and vocabulary of Eastern U.S. dialects, Southern dialects, and Western...
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Semantic Feature Analysis
Racist, independent, conflicted? Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn brainstorm words that describe the traits of characters in Twain’s novel and then rate these qualities in several of their favorite characters. Individuals...
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Literary Techniques
Need to review literary terms/techniques with your class? The slides in this presentation define and give examples of 22 common literary terms. The PowerPoint could be used for AP test prep.
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Language and Social Culture
"Language and culture are so related that you cannot understand one without a knowledge of the other." The 37 slides in this presentation are meant to reinforce the points made in a lecture about language, language vareities, language...
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Dialect Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Explore different dialects with your English class. This handout contains four poems from Paul Laurence Dunbar. Use the poems to introduce your class to a new dialect. No exercises or activities are included.
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Derbyshire Accent Project 1
Compare the Derbyshire accent to Standard English. There are eight common differences between the two languages for learners to discover. A great learning exercise to start a discussion on the various forms and conventions of Standard...
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Transport and Dialect
Cultivating an interest in native dialects and how they differ from Standard English is an excellent introduction to the study of language. This resource looks at the dialectic words of the British Isles that are used for methods of...
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Food and Dialect
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...
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Weather and Dialect
What's the difference between an accent and a dialect? Examine the difference between the two with your scholars. In groups, they compile a dialect dictionary. They interview adults to gather information about accents and ethnic words....
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Mini Beasts and Dialect
Discover the differences in dialect. Inquisitive minds read poems and discuss how words or phrases are different in standard English and other dialects. Using a dictionary, class members locate the definition of each word, find...
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Dialect
With a list of popular British slang words, this instructional activity prompts pupils to define their colloquialisms as if they were in the dictionary. Because the words are so specifically regional, American students might not...
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Poet James Whitcomb Riley: Famous in His Own Day
An engaging biography of "Hoosier" poet James Whitcomb Riley serves as a springboard for study of his unique dialect-based verse. Several activities illuminate differences between spoken vernacular and formal language. Learners record...
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Pragmatics
Discover the differences in dialect when teaching linguistics. Many examples from Creole, Pidgin, slang, and the UK are used. The slides are black and white and mostly consist of various examples.
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Eng 312: Midsemester Exam
Using the text Language Awareness by Eschholz, Rosa and Clark, as well as previous lectures from the class, this slideshow presents students with a midterm addressing key terms and concepts. While teachers might have a hard time using...
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The Power of Dialect
Students explore the power of dialect in poetry. In this poetry lesson, students listen to a reading of "In-a Brixtan Markit" while viewing the poem. Students rewrite the poem in English or using another dialect; or write another poem...