Aaron Backlin Instructional Activity 2 FL 665 Spring 2012 Activity: Dialect an Speec!

! "o##unities Audience: Spanish 2A (High School Sophomores) Goals: Students will: 1 Identify and define dialect and speech community (in road! general terms) 2 "redict and test local dialect mar#ers within local speech community (group of friends$peers$staff of school)% & "redict and test dialects and speech communities within Hispanic societies (again in road! general terms) A'()* Standards: (his acti+ity meets standards 2%1! &%1! ,%1! ,%2 "lace in 'urriculum: (his acti+ity would e included near the eginning of the year when nati+e$heritage spea#ers tend to start pointing out le-ical +ariation from the te-t oo# +oca ulary ased in their own e-perience% (he +oca ulary lists in the te-t tend to e +ery Spain.centric! and as such! most of the nati+e$heritage spea#ers in my classes ha+e significant le-ical differences with the te-t at certain points% /aturally! the concepts of dialect and speech community will need to e distilled and presented in somewhat simplified terms for an audience of fresh high school sophomores% Howe+er! the meaning and import of these terms can e preser+ed despite these necessary modifications to terminology% Students at this point will ha+e a functional asic understanding and control of the present indicati+e and a wor#ing Spanish +oca ulary of appro-imately &00 words% As such! the initial part of this acti+ity! as it reflects language as a whole rather than Spanish! specifically! will

e presented in 1nglish! and will gradually turn ac# to loo# directly at Spanish% 2e will measure our predictions a out speech communities and dialect in Hispanic cultures against a series of +ideo clips included with our curriculum that demonstrate dialect within groups of friends in different Spanish.spea#ing nations% (eacher Instructions: (his will e a two.day acti+ity designed to e-plore the concepts of dialect and speech community for the first time% As such! we will a+oid any grand e-planation of these concepts and instead focus on directed in3uiry to gi+e students a first.hand understanding of the asics of these two ideas% (hrough discussion! the teacher will e a le to lead students in the right direction all the while allowing for discussion and interaction among students% (he acti+ity is designed in part to help students understand the multifaceted nature of any single language and its many dialects and forms of speech! and in part to help e-plain to any nati+e$heritage spea#ers that may e enrolled in the class% (his second part is necessary to help alle+iate frustration and any ideas that these students may ha+e that they are not spea#ing 4correctly5 in their Spanish6 a pro lem that is ine+ita le so long as we do not offer classes specifically geared to this audience% "re.Acti+ity )irst! students and teacher will use forum discussion to define the terms dialect and speech community in road terms% Students will then compare words within 1nglish (with teacher assistance as necessary) comparing 7%S% 1nglish with that of the 7%8% and Australia% (hen we will loo# more closely into 7%S% 1nglish (again with teacher assistance as necessary) and compare speech patterns we hear from one region to another% I will then show students some sample results from the Har+ard 9ialect Sur+ey (H9S)! which can e found at (http:$$www,%uwm%edu$)**$linguistics$dialect$maps%html)% I will show

some clear.cut e-amples of north$south differences! east$west differences! and some general differences% (hen! as a large group we will discuss some things people say locally that differ (teacher will e prepared to suggest soda +s% pop! curling iron +s% curling wand! and others)% Acti+ity 9ay :ne Students will e placed into groups of three and will select three of the dialect +ariances noted in the H9S to test in the local speech community (school)! as well as one of the items from the class discussion a out local +ariances% Students will then e gi+en time to +isit study halls$centers to conduct their research among students and staff% (he groups will collect their num ers and put the data together for presentation the following day% Students will conduct any additional research on their own time efore the ne-t class% 9ay (wo Groups will share their results group y group! and we will use the H9S maps as a ac#drop to see if local data matches the results of that sur+ey% 2e will #eep trac# of the local +ariances on the oard and after all groups ha+e presented! we will discuss our local speech community ased on the data we ha+e gathered% 2e will then discuss two 3uestions: 1) How do we! as a group! compare to others; 2) How do student results compare to teacher results; 2hy (if any) is there a difference; 2e will then turn our attention to the Spanish language and discuss what +ariation we ha+e seen to this point% (Here we will gi+e any heritage$nati+e spea#ers the floor to note differences they<+e seen%) I will as# students to predict indi+idually how and why these +ariations e-ist% 2e will then watch se+eral +ideo clips that accompanied the curriculum which demonstrate students spea#ing with one another inside a group of friends% 2e will o ser+e how their mannerisms are similar and different! and also pay special attention to how they address one another% :ur final discussion for the day will e on two 3uestions:

1) (hey<re all spea#ing Spanish ut using different words$tones% 2hy; And then the main 3uestion: 2) 2hich Spanish is the real Spanish; ((eacher will help to guide con+ersation) =e3uirements . *'9$>ideo pro?ector for +ideo presentation . Internet 'onnection . http:$$www,%uwm%edu$)**$linguistics$dialect$maps%html Assessment Students will largely e assessed here on participation in the discussion% (he point at hand is an important one to understand! and students that add to the discussion will recei+e a passing mar# for the acti+ity% If indi+idual students are not contri uting! their opinions and thoughts will e acti+ely sought out y the teacher% Students will also e o ser+ed during group wor# for participation% )ollow.7p Students will continue to e as#ed a out differences in speech community and dialect as the year progresses and we highlight +arious Hispanic cultures%