Week 14

Week 14 was devoted to the presentation of your speeches. I have little to report on this other than most of you did a great job. I did see an effort to integrate rhetorical elements in your speeches and an improvement on your delivery. There was also a lot of creativity in the contexts and situations chosen and the topics dealt with. On the other hand, many of you still have to deal with your shyness and fear of public speaking. Too much reading and looking at the page instead of the audience and little gesture was present in many of the presentations.

Next week we will work on documentaries.

Week 13

This week we finished watching the film "A Clockwork Orange". What it is important to highlight from this movie is the way in which visual and media elements are all combined to produce specific meanings beyond language and how a aesthetic of violence is created. 

Some of you might have disliked the movie. That's normal since the sequences of violences and the sarcastic view of society the film portrays are hard to watch for many viewers.

Here are some reviews and viewers comments about this film. I hope this comments can serve as model for your own comments when you present a film review in two weeks. 

Agent10 wrote in IMDB: Even after 34 years, this film still speaks volumes about our current culture, which many ideals are ringing true today. The younger generations are out of control due to lack of parental control, junk culture is becoming commonplace, violence is desensitizing the masses, and we all seem to be enjoying the ride on the way down. It's very difficult to find movies which can make such startling commentary, yet hold on to such accusations for an extended period of time.

 Christian Jahnsen wrote in IMDB: with all the perversity bursting out of this film, you will probably NOT like this film the first time you see it. I know I didn't. Fortunately, I gave it a second chance, and thought: Hey, it was actually not bad at all. After the third time, I was lost for words.

After the fourth time, there was little doubt in my mind, that this was the finest film ever made, and regardless of how many great masterpieces I see, A Clockwork Orange still towers above them. I'm sure you'll agree, if you give it the chance it deserves, although it may require for you to see it more than once.

Ikcytang wrote in IMDB: The first viewing left me speechless, unable to describe how weird and terrible I felt. I thought it was the film that left me in this mood, so of course that was the easy target to blame. It was just a bad movie, overrated and stupid and a waste of time. But upon further thought, I realised the film did exactly what it was supposed to. It showed how the world can be a weird and horrible place, and how this young man who goes around torturing people and being a wicked person ultimately doesn't have to pay for what he does. And it's funny too. So this film brilliantly satirises this world, showcasing pure evil and people who ordinarily do not perform such evil are forced to laugh and observe what we all hate to admit is the truth. It's sick, but at the same time brilliant. And when one gets down to the core, you can't really explain it. It just is what it is. It's real. 

varun_iitian wrote in IMDB: Another glorifying feature is the central idea of the movie. If a human is striped of the choice to choose from good and evil, he no longer remains a human, he becomes a clockwork. When Alex is brain-washed and "programmed" to choose only good, he wasn't accepted by the society and this shows the irony in the objectives of the British Government. The word Orange from the title presumably comes from the word "Ourange" that loosely means man. And hence the title is so appropriate to the movie.

The artificiality in dialogues and sets give the movie a unique feature and enhance the grip on it. This also means that the viewer has to get more involved. This is definitely one of the best technically shot movies, another masterpiece of Kubrick like the Space Oddessey. 

Lastly, I would like to say that you may be compelled to leave the movie in between, but if you are watching it for art and cinematic experience, I recommend you to sit through. 

 Reviews were taken from: "A Clockwork Orange" at the Internet Movie Database.

Week 12

Are there some common characteristics to great speakers and presenters? What is it that makes them so compelling? Is there a common pattern to great speeches and communications? According to Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design in Silicon Valley the answer is “Yes”.

Nancy Duarte says that the best spoken genre, the one that resonates in audiences and lingers in time, is story. She claims that great communications (either speeches or presentations) follow patterns that are similar to the patterns of great stories. After making her point, she comes with a “shape” of great speeches and she walks us through this shape using two great models of American speakers and some of their most famous public addresses. Here’s her presentation at TED:



Remember, effective speeches mimic the pattern of great stories, but you, the speaker, are not the hero, but the mentor and you have to try to convince the audience they are the heroes. At the level of structure you have to come back and forward between the status quo and the ideal and better future. This applies for commercial presentation (competitors vs. your product) as well as political speeches (the author candidate vs. “me”).

Then we proceeded with the next genre in our syllabus: movies. Movies can be defined in different ways. We can say that a movie is a sequence of pictures in motion that narrates a story or that a movie is an audiovisual text that present a piece of fiction (these definitions were given by you in class). Movies can be classified by genres (action, horror, comedy, etc.) or by the age of the intended audience (PG, PG-13, R) or even by the kind of producers (commercial movies vs. independent movies). As other narrative, movies have a main character with a desire or problem, there is a climax or a crucial event that turns the character’s world upside-down and then a resolution, after which the character is transformed. We also looked at some of the ways in which meanings and emotions are conveyed in movies through music, lighting, cinematography and other visual elements.

Friday. we started watching the movie assigned for this semester: Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange . Although this movie is quite old, I think you will notice the validity of many of the points it makes and how current its topic and technical style is. I leave you with its trailer:

Week 11

In this week we closed the topic of humor with an example of a classic American joke (who's on first?) and with some smaple clips from two very popular sitcoms that Katie brought to class.

Then we moved to speeches as another genre of oral texts. We discussed the different types and purposes of speeches and its main characteristics. Speeches are usually example of public speaking, they are planned and are related to the special social event in which they are produced. For example, a commencement address occurs in a graduation act at college; while a political speech might occur in the context of an election campaign. Some speeches have the aim of being inspirational, others are intended to thank people, but most have a persuasive purpose. Some may have more than one purpose.

In class we studied and discussed two speeches that are considered exemplary in English rhetoric: Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stratford University and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech”. Here’s the video of the “I have a dream” speech.

                              
Next week, we will took a more analitic view of speeches and close this topic. After that, we will start our next genre, movies.

See you next class.

Week 10

Another week gone by. This week we finished the activities and contents related to humor and stand up comedy. here's the last clip we watched in class about euphemisms:





On Wednesday and Friday we continued with your class presentations and finally on Friday we started a new topic on telephone fraud, which we will finish on Monday. On Monday, Katie will be back to visit our classroom and she will bring an activity to review and close the subject of American humor. 

On course management, here is the update of the entries recorded in the extensive listening form. With this list you can keep track of which and how many videos you have already done. I'd like to highlight that by this date you should have, on average, around 12 to 14 entries on record. This is not always the case. 

Finally, I have already updated the options for the speech assignment. You can check the updated guidelines here. 

Week 8 & 9

Week 8 we basically had the presentations from the first and second round of “The music of one generation”. I was very pleased to see the diversity of songs selected and the effort put by each presenter to do a great job.

Week 9 was a holiday, Easter, so we did not have class. This is a good time for some of you to catch up with the extensive listening activities. It is also a good time to remind you that along the semester you have to reflect on three of thesuggested topics, record and upload your reflection as a podcast and send it to me. Very few people have started this and from those who have already submitted a reflection, most have just done the first. We are in the middle of the semester. Don’t wait till the last weeks.

Week 7

This was a short week and so will be the next. We started working with the topic of humor, discussing the main characteristics of humor in the USA and the different genres that are available.  Our first activity, after reading an discussing the article from the group of readings, was watching and discussing Ellen Degeneres monologue on "let's be honest". Here it is for those who miss class or just those who would like to watch it again. 





This monologue is part f a variety show hosted by Ellen. During the show, there are different sections (varieties) such as a musical performance, interviews, brief sketches. The monologue itself shares many characteristics with stand-up comedy routines. Some people might object the term monologue because this genre is unlike the monologue in a theater play (which is longer, dramatic and scripted) while the former is more spontaneous and humorous.

Next week, the second round of presentations on the music of a generation. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and the holiday tomorrow.   

Week 6

 On Monday, we finished the topic of advertising by watching a campaign that supported the rights of the LGBT community. What was curious is that the campaign was launched by Burger King, a company whose ads had traditionally been linked to chauvinism and manliness. We discuss the impact and implications of such a campaign. Then Katie showed us some traditional stereotypes that ads usually exploited: how gender roles are identified and transmitted since childhood in toys ads; how white skin and light hair is construed as ideal beauty and contrasted to dark skin and how husbands are displayed as useless and wives still portrayed in the traditional role of the house maker.

Wednesday and Friday we only had time for your first presentations. I am glad to see that most of you incorporated the things we discussed in class. I am sure each time we all see the improvements.

Next Monday, we will not have class because of the Colloquium the School of Language Studies will be celebrating. Wednesday, we will listen to the last presenters. Two classes were not enough for all to present. I think we will need to plan three classes (or two and a half) for presentation 2.

If you started working on the extensive listening, you should have already completed 4 forms. Click here to see the record on who has started and what has been done. This record contains the information up to Friday March 13th.

Have a nice weekend and see you on Wednesday.

Week 5

Last week we covered persuasive techniques in advertising. Advertisers use different strategies and method to convince people to buy their products and brands. Most strategies fall in one or more of these domains: a) establishing credibility (ethos); b) appealing to emotion (pathos); or c) appealing to reason (logos).

Within these three broad appeal, there are sub-techniques such as the use of loaded language, the use of celebrities, the bandwagon effect, transfer of feelings and so on. These are some examples of very persuasive ads we watched in class.




This one used a celebrity, bribery, appeals to credibility (Stratford experts) and ego.



This one appeals to chauvinism and manliness (real men eat meat), humor and uses a catchy song.

This Monday we will have a brief review activity on advertising with Katie and a some final comments on the topic. Remember that this Wednesday you will start with your first in class presentations.

Week 4

This week we finished our previous work on interviews and started the next oral genre: songs. We studied different things regarding songs. Many times songs have a narrative structure with characters and a plot, a series of events that are narrated or described. We also learned that songs have many literary elements such as metaphors and analogies and that in some of the best songs, the musical arrangements and the singing style obeys to the intended meaning and message the song aims at conveying. We saw a good example of this in the some classic rock songs from the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Pink Floyd.

We also studied a little bit about the history of rock. We learned that rock has evolved from the merge of different genres such as country music and blues. We also learned that, although rock was born in the USA, soon the UK also adopted it and contributed many of the greatest stars of this genre and many of its distinctive features. For those who could not come to class, here's one of the documentaries of the history of rock we watched and one of the songs we worked on:






Next week we will move into advertising as a genre and some of its distinctive features. Particularly on Monday, we will work on the last song that we have in our schedule, discuss some of the elements of the song reviews. We will also have Katie Kingsella as a guest to the class. She will tell you about her experience creating a short video, a video some of you participated in and most are probably familiar with.

See you next week.

Week 3

This week we moved from listening to speaking. We reviewed some points to bear in mind to prepare and deliver and effective oral presentation. First, we read and discussed some general advice on the whole process (planning, practicing, delivering and evaluating). Follow this link to view some of the materials we used in class regarding the whole process.

We also focus on some aspects on the delivery stage. Most tips on effective presentations emphasize: showing a relaxed attitude, establishing a strong link with your audience, controlling gestures, and adjusting your speech to effectively communicate (voice, prosody, pace, etc.) As for the last aspect, I'd like to share with you Julian Treasure's TED talk on how to speak so that people want to listen.




A last important aspects in delivering presentations is the visual aids to use. Again there are plenty of materials giving you tips and pieces of advice on ow to produce effective visual ais. Although ost concentrate on powerpoint, many of the ideas they convey can be equally effective when using other slideware (such as prezi). Here is Death by Powerpoint, one of the most cited resources on creating great visual aids to support oral presentations.


 

Death by PowerPoint from Alexei Kapterev

We closed the week by discussing interviews in the media. Although the classification of interviews is usually based on how structured (planned) the questions are, we came to the conclusion that many other elements may lead to variations. For example, the topic, the interviewee, the show, the potential audience are all elements that influence the levels of formality, orality and naturalness in different interviews on the media. Here's one of the interviews we watched in class:


In a final activity we did about this topic, you were distributed in pairs and small groups and assigned a text on a topic. Your task was to write an interview based on the information on the text (or you could say you had to rewrite that information in the form of an interview). We ran out of time, but on Monday we will be seeing this interviews conducted in class.

Following our calendar, we will close the topic of interviews and news on Monday and we will start with songs on Wednesday (or maybe Monday depending on time).

See you next week.

Week 2

On our second week, we discussed the differences between spoken and written language. Generally, spoken language is ephemeral, fast-paced, spontaneous, redundant, and grammatically less complex. Other characteristics include implicit reference (things that are not told because they are known by both speaker and listener); additive coordination (more use of and, or and incomplete clauses instead of elaborate subordination) and vagueness (stuff like that, you know what I mean, the thing.... etc.). However, these differences are clear when we compared formal writing to everyday conversation.

Spoken texts differ in typologies and genres. While some genres can be described by the above-mentioned characteristics, some others lie at middle point between written and spoken language. For example, a news report on radio and TV is planned, rather than spontaneous. In academic presentation, the speaker might use grammar that is closer to the grammar of a written text. Therefore, the intentions and communicative purposes of texts will determine many of its linguistics features and it is pointless to think of oral and written language in terms of two separate extremes.

The second point we covered in this week was news report, the first of the oral genres in our course. We discussed the typical structure of news reports and the different aims they cover. We practice by watching different reports from different section of different news channels on line. Here is just one example of the reports we watched and discussed in class.

Week 1

This week we started with an introduction to the course. I discussed listening as a cognitive process and discussed the elements that can make ease or interfere comprehension. We took a diagnostic test and then review the resultsin class. Listening involves making meaning from incoming oral language. However, it is not merely an acustic process and neither is it a mere linguistic process. Previous knowledge, expectations and perceptions all influence the way we go about that meaning-making process.

Another aspect we covered was note-taking. As college students you are exposed to lectures, movies, videos and many other oral (spoken) sources of information. Naturally, our memory is limitted and we cannot rely on it completely to keep and retrieve all that information. Therefore, we need some method to register that information in a channel that can be later consulted. Most of us usually take notes, but often those notes are disorganizde and difficult to make sense of. On the other hand, we usually take notes that we rarely go back to. Considering this, we studied some systematic techniques for note-taking. In case you missed that class, or in case you just would like to review, here are two of the videos we watched in class:







You can also search for your own videos and proposals. You will probably be surprised to find there are plenty of videos, tips, methods and techniques for effective note-taking.


Next week we will discuss the differences between written and spoken language and some general scheme to classify oral text typologies. Also, we will start studying the first genre, that is, news reports.