Students will demonstrate their understanding of Accents and Dialects by presenting a dialect to the class.
Materials Needed:
None
Lesson Prep:
Choose a dialect and find a video to teach it. Do the same activity that you’re asking the class to do later.
Hook:
Bell ringer question: What’s your favorite accent?
Vocabulary: Accent: refers to how words are pronounced. Dialect: includes both accent and the words used, the grammar and sentence structure, etc.
Accents vs. Dialects
After the students have written down the vocab for accents and dialects, have someone try to explain the difference. Help them out if they’re struggling to put it into words. Have a student provide you with an example of an accent vs. a dialect. For example, a British accent pronounces the u in stupid as “ew” instead of “oo” to make “Stewpid”. A British dialect would include British slang like quid (pound is to dollar as quid is to buck), chap, trousers, cheeky, fancy (instead of want), etc. Since accents are included in dialects, we’re going to focus on dialects for the rest of the class.
Dialect Research
Return to the bell ringer question and ask the students to call out their favorite dialects. Put them on the whiteboard as they call out. Divide the class into several small groups and have each group choose a dialect. (It will be easier to focus on dialects that are already spoken in English, rather than a different language). Each group is to use their phones to find a video that teaches us about that dialect. It can either be someone speaking in that dialect or someone teaching you how to speak in that dialect. The goal is to find the BEST videos? What does best look like? After getting a few responses, model the activity by showing them the video you found on a dialect you choose. Give them time to look for their videos.
Dialect Presentations
After the students have found a video for their dialect, have them come up with a creative way to introduce the dialect to the rest of the class. They need to show the video to the class and then think of a way that we can practice it a little bit. After giving the students time to decide how they will present their dialect, have the groups present their dialects to the class and have the class practice each dialect.
Dialect discussion
What was your favorite dialect to practice?
Where in your Podcast might you be able to include a dialect?
What kinds of character have dialects?
Where do you see dialects in daily life?
Working on podcasts
Have the class work on their podcasts for the rest of the class period. Ask them to think about how they might include dialects in their podcast. By the end of this class period, students should have completed all of their preparation for their podcast so that they can be ready to record their podcast next class period (if they haven’t already started).
Assessment:
Students can be assessed on their dialect presentations.
