Introduction:
This lesson combines listening and speaking activities focused around TV commercials to teach the suprasegmentals such as intonation and sentence stress in effective speech. TV commercials were chosen as a tool as they often have exaggerated word stress, which is easy for the students to hear, and represents authentic material which helps students with real life language (Tuzi n.d).
The lesson utilizes a variety of scaffolded activities, first with listening and then speaking, to allow the student to hear differences in sentence stress and intonation and understand why they are important. Non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expression will also be discussed. They will then apply this in their own short commercial which they write and then perform using appropriate word stress, intonation and non-verbal cues.
Context:
The learners are from a variety of L1 backgrounds in a government funded program using a task-based PBLA program. There are 20 students at CLB 6 and 7 levels. The class length is 2 1/2 hours.
Objectives:
Students will:
1) identify intonation and word stress in speech using TV commercials.
2) transfer this listening knowledge into speaking skills, by creating their own commercials with appropriate intonation and word stress.
3) recognize and use other non-verbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions from authentic language materials.
Materials: Computer, projector and screen, TV commercial script worksheets, assessment rubric, student cell phone (optional), whiteboard.
Lesson Sequence:
Part 1: Listening (60 min) Identifying stressed word and intonation in a commercial
1) Pre-listening:
· Talk about how we make our speech interesting and get people to listen to what we really want to say.
· Use the following example on the board: “Today, I will go to Superstore to buy apples.”
· Say the sentence first in a monotone (no sentence stress) and then with stress on different words in the sentence (eg. Today, will go, Superstore, apples) and with a different intonation at the end (rising pitch, or falling pitch).
· Ask how the sentence sounds different and how the meaning of what the speaker is saying changes.
· Write another example sentence on the board and ask for different ways to say the sentence: “My car has a flat tire”.
· Ask students to think of other example sentences.
2) While-listening:
· Read the script (Appendix A) from a TV commercial for Tide Pods (Tide 2020) (https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ZjhL/tide-power-pods-large-laundry-loads-with-cat-and-nat#)
· Use as little sentence stress or intonation as possible in a monotone voice. Ask the students how this sounds? Would they want to buy this product? What’s wrong with the way I’m reading it? How could I make it sound better?
· As a large group, listen to the sound of the actual commercial a few times with no video yet. Ask how it is different from the reading. Do you hear stress on different words?
· Give the students a copy of the script and ask the students in pairs to underline words that are stressed and note changes in intonation as they listen to the commercial (no video yet). Repeat the recording a few times.
· As a large group, on the overhead, mark on the script which words they think are stressed, and any changes in intonation.
· Have the class group the words on the board into stressed words (eg. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, negatives, wh- words, quantifiers, modals) and non-stressed words (eg. articles, prepositions, conjunctions, personal pronouns, verb to be, auxiliary verbs) (Trusler 2015). Note : the students don’t need to know the group names of all of these, but can be grouped by examples.
Corrective feedback: ensure that the students have correctly identified the stressed words and intonation. If they make an error, listen to the commercial again to help them hear the stress or non-stress.
3) Post-listening:
· In small groups watch the video of the commercial a few times and discuss if there are additional things they notice.
· How does sentence stress and intonation make the commercial more interesting, and wanting to buy the product? What is the body language and facial expression of the speaker? Does this help sell the product? Are there any other ways the speaker uses language in the commercial to help sell the product?
· Return to large group and have a class discussion. Write key points on the board.
Part 2: Speaking (120 min) Writing and presenting a commercial
1) Activating:
· Review the key points that the class has created on the board which are important in creating an interesting and attention-grabbing commercial.
· Show a few more commercials as examples (Appendix B). Can you hear the sentence stress and intonation?
2) Acquiring:
· Explain that in groups of two they will write their own short commercial and present it to the class, either in person or through a video from their cell phone.
· Brainstorm about good topics and ideas for commercials and write on the board. Remind the students of the lists of words that are commonly stressed (on the board), and that they are often overstressed in commercials.
· Ask the students to answer the ‘what, where, when, why and how’ in their commercials, and having at least 4 of these points about their chosen item, in less than 30 seconds.
· Handout and explain the rubric (Appendix C) to ensure they have all the elements they need.
· Provide a number of different realia that they can use (eg. beverages, food, toys, electronics, pictures of new cars).
· Talk about using facial expressions and body language in commercials.
· Suggest groups practice their commercial and record it with their cell phone, play it back to do a self-evaluation, and then try to improve sentence stress and intonation, and body language and facial expression.
· Tech savvy students who have an appropriate app can use pictures and do a voice-over in a video recording.
· Preferably, both students will take turns speaking lines of the commercial, but they can also present it individually.
3) Applying:
· Allow 20 min to write the commercial, and 20 min to practice the commercial.
· Have the students perform their commercial in front of the class or through a video from their cell phone, through the projector.
· After each performance, ask the class for verbal peer feedback, stressing the positive. Have them pick out words that were stressed to help sell the product. Was intonation used? How were their body language and facial expressions?
Corrective feedback: while the students are writing and producing their commercials circle the room, listening and providing suggestions for content, grammar, pronunciation, body language, facial expression, sentence stress and intonation.
4) Review:
· Group discussion: How did the activities help you identify words to stress in your everyday language? Can you use questions and changes in intonation to express yourself? Do you think word stress is important when you speak in your everyday language? Ask for examples.
Assessment:
The rubric (Appendix C) is used by the teacher to assess each group for a formative assessment, by giving one mark for accomplishing each point for a total of 10 and also by written comments. Any peer feedback comments can be written by the teacher on this form as well. (As an alternative, students could be given a simple assessment form to give peer feedback for each group.)
References:
Downey (2013) Downy Unstopables TV Commercial Featuring Amy Sedaris [Video]
iSpot.tv. Retrieved from https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7tDB/downy-unstopables-featuring-amy-sedaris
Enterprise, Bell, K. (2017) Enterprise Commercial 2017 Kristen Bell If Only. [Video]
Lipton (2020) Lipton TV Commercial Sun [Video] iSpot.tv. Retrieved from
Pronamel (2013) ProNamel Rinse TV Commercial, 'MediFacts' [Video] iSpot.tv.
Retrieved from https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7nFc/pronamel-rinse-medifacts
Tide (2020, Jan 8) Tide POWER PODS for Large Laundry Loads with Cat & Nat [Video]
Trusler, T. (2015) Sentence stress. ESL Library. Retrieved from
Tuzi, F., Young, A. & Mori, K. (n.d.) Go to commercial: using television commercials in
multilevel EFL classrooms. Retrieved from https://www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_cp_multileveldiverseclassrooms_653
Appendices:
Appendix A: Script from Tide Power Pods TV commercial
Introducing Tide Power Pods with Cat and Nat
“Love how much I can stuff into these machines”
“But that is such a large load. Don’t the stains sneak through?”
“Please, new Tide Power Pods can clean that whole situation”
“Toss it in before the clothes.”
“It’s like two Tide Pods, and then some power, and then even more power”
“With 50 percent more power, even your large load got clean.”
“How many kids do you have?”
“Girl, I lost track. There’s a lot of kids. And then there’s a husband. Then there’s me.”
“That’s a lot of clothes”
Appendix B: Examples of other TV commercials for viewing.
1.Downy Unstopables TV Commercial Featuring Amy Sedaris
2. Lipton Tea Commercial, ‘Sun’
3. Enterprise Commercial 2017 Kristen Bell If Only
4. ProNamel Rinse TV Commercial, 'MediFacts'
Appendix C:
Rubric for Assessment of Student Commercials
Student Name: ___________________________ Date: ____________________
Yes/No
(1 point for yes)
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Teacher Comments
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Loud, clear voice(s)
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Use of sentence stress
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Use of intonation
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Use of body language
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Use of facial expression
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Good grammar
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Peer Comments
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Good pronunciation
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4 things about the product
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Would I buy this product?
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Overall Score and Comments
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/10
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