Dialects grades 9-12

Educational Objective:  The students will demonstrate their ability to comprehend and use dialects by creating their own and performing it in front of the class.

Materials Needed:  Vowel sheet and Consonant sheet (attached), Slips of paper.

Hook:  Have the students get into groups of five.  Each group must have a sheet of paper and a pencil.  Have the first person in the group write one sentence to begin a story and then pass it on to the next person who adds one more sentence to the story.  He then folds the paper over so that the first sentence cannot be seen and only the one he wrote is visible and then he passes it to the next person who continues in like manner until the last person who must write the concluding sentence.  Have one person read their story to the class.

Step 1:  Hand out copies of the vowel sheet (or draw it on the board).  Explain that these are the vowel sounds that exist in language throughout the world.  There is no language in the world that has any vowels other than these but most languages do not use all of these.  Go through the pronunciation of each vowel (see sheet for pronunciation).  Let them feel and explore where the sounds are coming from (the front or back of the mouth)

Step 2:  Hand out copies of the consonant sheet (or draw it on the board).  Explain that these are the consonant sounds in languages just as the vowels.  Go through the pronunciations (see sheet).  Again let them explore.  Have them put their hand on their throat to feel the glottal stop by saying "Uh-oh" and tell them to note the vibration in their throat and how it stops between the words "Uh" and "oh".  This is because the glottal passage closes and will not let air through to make the vibration.

Step 3:  Explain that to master a dialect they do not need to learn the language but they must understand how that language uses their vowels and consonants.  An easy dialect to start with is the Spanish accent.  Of course, since different Spanish speaking countries speak a bit differently from each other there are many different dialects of the Spanish accent of English.  But  Spanish is easy to start with because it generally uses the same consonants as English and some of the same vowels.  Explain the Spanish vowels to the class (See vowel sheet).  Have them repeat them with you.  NOTE:  Unlike English, Spanish only uses one sound per vowel (so that makes it easy).

Step 4:  Have everyone write down a word with at least three vowels on a slip of paper.  Have them exchange them with someone.  Now have them examine the vowels and have them change the English vowel sound to a Spanish Vowel sound making notes on the slip if they need to.  Have each of them pronounce the word for the class.  Correct as needed.

Step 5:  Have each student make up their own vowel sounds.  They can be any kinds of sounds at all.  They must make up five sounds, one for each vowel a, e, i, o, u, and y=i.  By doing so they have each invented their own dialect.  Make sure that they write them down so not to forget.

Step 6:  Put them back in their groups of five from the "hook" activity.  Each student will take one sentence from their "hook" story as their own.  They will modify it with their new dialect.  They will replace all the vowels in the sentence with their own new sounds.  They may have to rewrite it for pronunciation purposes.

Step 7:  Give them about 10 minutes to practice their story.  The groups must perform their stories, each person using his made up dialect.

Step 8:  Groups perform their stories.

Step 9:  Discuss.  How can we learn dialects.  Can anyone dialect that changes consonants?  How much practice is involved?  How many dialects are there.  A German accent is a dialect of English just as a southern accent is.  An English accent in German is a dialect of German.

Spanish Vowels
 
 

A (box)
E (eight)
I (eel)
O (bow)
U(do)

continues in like manner until the last person who must write the concluding sentence