Pop Culture Speaking

Facilitator: Sarah Coutts

Objectives: This presentation aims to provide trainees with ideas on how

to use pop culture as a tool to promote English speaking in lessons as well

as how to decrease student anxiety when speaking English.

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I

understand. – Chinese Proverb

Introduction

You may feel silly or out of place bringing pop culture into the classroom,

but the benefits of its educational use are too great to ignore. Pop culture

is more than entertainment; it’s a useful tool for connecting with students,

improving engagement, and deepening understanding. And of course, it’s

fun to turn students from uninterested zombies into students interested in

zombies.

Create lessons that will linger in students’ minds.

Use popular culture as a conversation starter.

Examine popular culture as a model for studying educational

materials.

Make ideas more relatable and easy to understand.

Encourage students to create their own media.

Become familiar with what students enjoy.

Pop culture offers an opportunity for educators to meet students where

they are. Students spend much of their time interacting with popular

culture, and using it as an educational tool allows teachers to make that

time more productive.1

1 http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2013/03/cool-teachers-guide-pop-culture-classroom/ Date

Accessed: 9 May 2015

The materials that we use in lessons should always be something to which

students can relate and that which is within their level of interest.

Similarly, successful lessons are the ones in which students “buy in” to the

lesson because they can see that the content or particular activity is useful

and relevant to them. Therefore, using pop culture in the language

classroom can only aid in accomplishing these goals while, most

importantly, showing students that the target language is definitely useful

to them beyond the classroom.

What is Pop Culture?2

Popular culture is everywhere. You know it when you come to the

Internet, listen to music, watch television or go to a movie, concert or

stage show. You know the artists, the actors and actresses, sports

personalities and the games they play. Today, anything with a buzz is

deemed pop culture. The book definition says pop culture is a collection of

thoughts, ideas, attitudes, perspectives, images (you name it) preferred by

the mainstream population. A sort of common denominator.

Types of Pop Culture3

The most common pop culture categories are: entertainment (movies,

music, TV),sports, news (as in people/places in news), politics,

fashion/clothes and technology. Slang, has also become popular in our

culture as each year seems to have its own slang signature, especially with

tweens and teens. Terms such as "going viral" are new pop culture - not

only the term, but the viral product itself.

Each one of us has our own pop culture menu. Look at your apps, your

bookmarks, your songs playlist, TV shows, movies: what you 're saying on

your favorite social net. Smartphones today are the center of your pop

culture.

2 http://www.mrpopculture.com/what-is-pop-culture Date Accessed: 11 May 2015

3 Ibid.

Other examples of pop culture include:

Adverts Movie Trailers Animated Shorts Movies Billboard Charts Music Videos Books Oscar Awards Celebrities Radio Shows Computer Games Reality TV Fashion Slang How to Social Networking Magazines Theatre Plays & Musicals

How to Use Pop Culture in Your Classroom

Pop culture is a versatile theme with many categories that make it suitable

for speaking, listening, reading and writing activities. Many forms of pop

culture can be used in their raw state for a lesson. However, you can also

use images from pop culture when focusing on other content simply as a

means to keep your students’ attention. Naturally, finding a way to use

pop culture itself rather than just images will be more successful in

engaging your students.

Adverts

Adverts are a great way to stimulate students’ creativity while exposing

them to the culture of a language. There are a couple of ways to use

adverts for speaking activities:

- Show students an advert with no sound and have them guess

what is being advertised. For more advanced students, choose a

slightly ambiguous advert for this activity.

- Show students an advert with sound turned down and have

students create the dialogue for the advert in pairs/groups.

- Have students create their own advert for a particular product.

- Show students a clip on home shopping and talk about common

features of the advert. Then have them create their own

commercial for a home shopping channel.

Feedback Form: Creating an Advertisement

Give feedback on your own and/or a classmates’ performance by circling the appropriate number. Not all items are relevant for every performance.

Needs

improvement Satisfactory Good

Ideas and Organization

1 The advertisement is original. 1 2 3

2 The advertisement is persuasive. 1 2 3

3 The advertisement is memorable. 1 2 3

4 The advertisement is visually attractive. 1 2 3

Language

1 Words/expressions used are effective in highlighting the message.

1 2 3

2 Language used is appropriate for the target audience.

1 2 3

3 Grammar is accurate. 1 2 3

4 Spelling and punctuation are correct. 1 2 3

Overall Comments:

Feedback Form: Creating an Advertisement

Give feedback on your own and/or a classmates’ performance by circling the appropriate number. Not all items are relevant for every performance.

Needs

improvement Satisfactory Good

Content

1 The advertisement is original. 1 2 3

2 The advertisement is persuasive. 1 2 3

3 The advertisement is memorable. 1 2 3

4 The advertisement is attractive. 1 2 3

Performance

1 Lines are memorized. 1 2 3

2 Pace of speech is appropriate. 1 2 3

3 Speaking is clear. 1 2 3

4 Timing of lines creates a good flow of action.

1 2 3

5 Eye contact with one another is appropriate.

1 2 3

6 Body language is used to convey meaning. 1 2 3

7 Stress and intonation are used appropriately to convey meaning.

1 2 3

8 Props/costumes create the desired effect. 1 2 3

Overall Comments:

Animated Shorts

Animated shorts are video clips that are 10 minutes or less and may or

may not have speaking involved. Two fantastic series to use for speaking

prompts are Miniscules and Shaun the Sheep – neither of which use

speaking; instead, they rely on contextual sounds and a lot of action.

Minuscule: The Private Life of Insects is a French-made series of short

video animations giving "a bird's eye view of insects' day-to-day existence,

distorted through a burlesque, yet poetic lens." The characters are

computer-modelled in 3D and set against natural scenery. Each animation

has a self-contained and usually humorous storyline. The audio is a

combination of genuine insect and ambient recordings with artificial

sound effects. The background settings are generally of rural France, and

include farm houses, fences, cars, road surfaces, drains, gutters and

garbage bins. In Season 1 episodes, humans appeared only peripherally

(e.g., as mute drivers of intrusive vehicles) and large farm animals are the

main reluctant witnesses to the activities of the various insects. Season 1

has 78 episodes.

Shaun the Sheep

Shaun the Sheep thinks and acts like a person in a barnyard, which usually

gets him into trouble. The farmer's sheepdog, Bitzer, tries to keep Shaun

and his friends out of trouble. The farmer is oblivious to the humanlike

features of his flock, which are like one big, happy family.

Billboard Charts

Why Use Songs in the EFL Classroom

Songs can be a useful tool when teaching ESL

because they give students the opportunity to listen

to someone other than the teacher. Often students

become familiar with how one person sounds and

may have difficulties understanding others. Songs

can be a challenge for students because they are

often faster than an instructor’s speech, but they can also be enjoyable

and serve to teach and reinforce language concepts in English.

Songs are grammar disguised as a break. There are numerous studies and

research that support the use of music and songs in the EFL Classroom. For

example, research at the University of Edinburgh “found that adults who

sang words or short phrases from a foreign language while learning were

twice as good at speaking it later. It is thought that by listening to words

that are sung, and by singing them back, the technique takes advantage of

the strong links between music and memory” (The Daily Telegraph,

Accessed: 23 October 2014).

“Pop songs [also] provide learners with repetitive, focused (yet open-

ended) lyrics that allow for a myriad of teaching opportunities for teaching

grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and listening comprehension”4.

For most students, singing songs and listening to music are enjoyable

experiences. In Korea, singing is a popular activity for students and one

that they find very relaxing. Therefore, it makes sense to bring this into the

language classroom. According to Chris Brewer, "Music stabilizes mental,

physical and emotional rhythms to attain a state of deep concentration

and focus in which large amounts of content information can be processed

and learned."

Another reason to use songs in English learning is that the confidence of

students increases as they repeat songs. This transfers to their confidence

in speaking later on. Also, they’re more relaxed and have fewer inhibitions

in language acquisition because singing is a pleasurable experience for

them. This relaxed state also makes them more attentive and receptive to

learning. Thus, songs are real lessons, and authentic materials,

masquerading as relaxation. This means that vocabulary, grammar,

routines, culture, patterns, and more are all modeled in a context to which

the students are more receptive in general.

4 Murphey, T. (1992). The discourse of pop songs. TESOL Quarterly: 26, 4. 770-774

14 Reasons to Use Songs in the Language Classroom

1. Most students are highly motivated by song-based activities,

which they perceive to be fun.

2. You can create lessons around songs that can be used to practise

any of the main language skills.

3. Grammar can be surreptitiously presented or practised through

songs!

4. Music can relax, disinhibit and simultaneously stimulate students.

These affective responses to music are optimum for learning.

5. There is often a lot of repetition in songs, which can aid long-term

memory. Just think about all those lyrics that get stuck in your

head!

6. The rhythmical aspect of music also aids rote memorization.

7. Research shows that students may retain more vocabulary when

presented through a song.

8. Pop music is a highly accessible source of authentic language.

Music isn't scary; it's part of students' lives outside the classroom.

Even your beginner level students probably listen to music with

lyrics in English.

9. Bringing pop music to class can help break down barriers,

enabling students to better relate to their teacher and classmates.

10. Using music to teach a second language is consistent with

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.

11. A range of colloquial language can easily be introduced through

songs.

12. Most lyrics need to be interpreted, and regular practise of this can

improve prediction and comprehension skills.

13. Pop songs cover a wide variety of general interest topics so are

perfect for theme-based lessons.

14. References in lyrics provide a means to integrate cultural

dimensions in a lesson.

Songs to Use for Different Themes/Topics

APPEARANCE

That Don’t Impress Me Much – Shania Twain

I Feel Pretty/Unpretty – Glee Cast

I Ain’t Got No, I Got Life – Nina Simone

Little Things – One Direction

Moonshadow – Cat Stevens

BRITISH vs AMERICAN ENGLISH

An Englishman in New York – Sting

A Day in the Life – The Beatles

One Way or Another – Blondie; One Direction

BUSINESS AND MONEY

Nine to Five – Dolly Parton; The Kinks

Not Just a Pretty Face – Shania Twain

Billionaire – Travie McCoy

If I Had $1,000,000 – Barenaked Ladies

Rich Girl – Gwen Stefani

Two Princes – Spin Doctors

COLOURS

Grace Kelly – Mika

What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong

Red – Taylor Swift

EDUCATION

Hero – Superchick

What I Go to School for – Busted

School’s Out – Alice Cooper

ENVIRONMENT

Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell

Earth Song – Michael Jackson

Apeman – The Kinks

A Gallon of Gas – The Kinks

Let it Snow – Bing Crosby

Rain – Madonna

Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles

Why Does it Always Rain on Me? – Travis

FASHION AND BEAUTY

Ugliest Girl in the World – Bob Dylan

Beautiful – Christina Aguilera

I’m Too Sexy – Right Said Fred

Ugly – Sugababes

New Shoes – Paolo Nutini

Dedicated Follower of Fashion – The Kinks

FOOD AND DRINK

Vegetables – Beach Boys

Food Glorious Food – Oliver (Musical)

Have a Cuppa Tea – The Kinks

Maximum Consumption – The Kinks

TV Dinners – ZZ Top

Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic

Queen of the Supermarket – Bruce Springsteen

I am a Grocery Bag – They Might Be Giants

HEALTH AND FITNESS

I Got Life – Nina Simone

Bad Medicine – Bon Jovi

Spiderbite Song – Flaming Lips

HISTORY

Summer of ’69 – Bryan Adams

Bloody Sunday – U2

Weeping – Josh Groban and Herbie Hancock

LIFE AND RELATIONSHIPS

Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys

Shut Up – Black Eyed Peas

The Spanish Archer – Deep Purple

Family Portrait – Pink

Papers – Usher

Don’t Worry Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin

Stop Crying Your Heart Out – Oasis

Honesty – Beyonce

White Lies – Mr Hudson

Jealous Guy – John Lennon

Who’s David? – Busted

All I Want is You – Barry Louis Polisar

Something Stupid – Robbie Williams

Hold On – Good Charlotte

The River – Missy Higgins

You’re Beautiful – James Blunt

Creep – Radiohead

Romeo – Lucky Dube

Wrecking Ball – Miley Cyrus

MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT

Real to Me – Brian McFadden

Piece of Me – Britney Spears

Jenny from the Block – Jennifer Lopez

The Fear – Lily Allen

Paparazzi – Lady Gaga

Don McLean – Vincent

Starry, Starry Night – Josh Groban

Painter Song – Norah Jones

PLACES

Empire State of Mind – Alicia Keys

Belfast – Elton John

Nice to be Out – Stereophonics

Englishman in New York – Sting

Amarillo – Tony Christie

Miami – Will Smith

POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Silent Running – Mike and the Mechanics

Rule by Secrecy – Muse

Man on the Moon – REM

Man on the Corner – Genesis

Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins

Lying in the Sun – Stereophonics

Where is the Love? – Black Eyed Peas

Blowing in the Wind – Bob Dylan

Holiday – Green Day

Long Black Veil – Don Williams

RACISM/XENOPHOBIA

Where is the Love – The Black Eyed Peas

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Rocket Man – Elton John

Spaceman – The Killers

Radio Ga Ga – Queen

Fitter Happier – Radiohead

Video Killed the Radio Star – The Buggles

SOCIAL ISSUES

Rehab – Amy Winehouse

Same Love - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Little Boxes – Marina Reynolds (Walk Off Earth)

I Wish I Could Fly – Nina Simone

Group Oral Presentations on English Songs Time Limit: 6 minutes

Objectives

Vocabulary: Your lexical knowledge of English will be broadened and deepened. Computer Literacy: You will learn how to find information online and how to make a PowerPoint presentation in English.

Meaningful Communication: You will effectively present your findings and thoughts in English.

Creativity: You will exercise your creativity while working on this assignment.

Collaboration: You will enhance your ability to work with others.

Procedure 1. Form a group of four. 2. Decide on an English song and get your teacher’s approval. 3. Share the work load equally in your group:

Presenting the origin of the song/poem;

Teaching the song lyrics/poem;

Expressing your thoughts of the lyrics/poem;

Making changes to the lyrics/poem. 4. Create a Power-Point document and email it to your teacher two days

before the presentation date. 5. Rehearse your oral presentation. 6. You and your group members take turns reporting your share of work.

Criteria Content (50%)

Organization (15%)

Accuracy (15%)

Creativity (10%) Pronunciation (10%)

Books

For most teachers, using books in lessons means using them for

comprehension, general reading lessons, grammar or book clubs. While

these are all good ideas and uses for books, books can also be used

effectively in speaking lessons.

1. Read in Different Personalities: If you choose a book that has very

diverse characters, you can assign different characters to different

students and have them read their character’s parts aloud in

different voices. The only difficulty with this approach is that there

are long sections in books where no character talks. Of course, a

play would be a good alternative as it involves more dialogue, but it

also involves fewer students.

Another approach is to assign students a “personality” (such as shy,

enthusiastic, happy, sad, angry, etc.) and have students do popcorn

reading in the style of their assigned personality.

2. Nominees for Best Book: Help students practice persuasive

speaking as they passionately nominate a favorite book for the “Best

Book of the Year” awards. Ask students to select a book they read

this year to nominate for the award. Create categories such as

comedy, science fiction, biography, mystery, and so on.

Next, discuss the key features of persuasive speaking while watching

a selection of online speeches (try blog.ted.com and search for

“talks for kids,” or go to kids.learnoutloud.com). Explain how

effective speakers appeal to both the audience’s emotions and logic

while also establishing their credibility as someone the audience can

trust.

Ask students to think about specific examples in their selected book

that demonstrate why it’s truly great. Have students write out their

nomination speeches and present them to the class. To keep

students on their toes while others are presenting, randomly select

a student to provide an “instant retell,” where he or she summarizes

the speaker’s key points. Wrap up the activity by holding a vote and

celebrating the best books in each category.

Fashion

Whether you teach boys, girls or both, many students are interested in

fashion and trends – especially in Korea. Therefore, using fashion as a topic

for speaking practice could be fun for the students while giving them an

opportunity to practice various forms of speech. For example:

1. Interviews: Assign students roles as celebrities, designers, models,

and reporters and have them do interviews at a mock fashion show.

You can scaffold this with examples of interviews done during

Fashion Weeks around the world and combine it with a writing task.

2. MCs and Hosts: During the fashion show, assign different students

the role of MC. They can say anything they want about the fashion

show, but they need to comment on each model’s outfit.

How to

Even your shyest students will enjoy showing off their unique talents by

presenting short “how-to” lessons to the class.

1. Begin with a brainstorming session about skills students are proud

of, such as counting in a foreign language, learning spelling-list

words, fixing a bike tire, or making banana pancakes. (They should

select something that can be completed in about 10 steps.)

2. Next, share a few how to videos from YouTube or cooking

demonstrations from a site like marthastewart.com. Ask students to

identify common elements in this type of public speaking. What

kind of language is used? How is the presentation structured? What

types of visuals are used?

3. Have students outline the steps of their speech and create visuals

illustrating key points. Encourage them to pair up and take turns

practicing before presenting to the whole class.

4. Once students are ready, gather the class and start the video

camera!

Magazines

Survey projects are always a favourite because it means the students can

leave the class to go out and find their data. There are infinite topics for

surveys and questionnaires so put the class into groups and let them

decide what they would like to survey. Give them some examples such as

restaurants, entertainment, local people, and foreigners' perception of the

country.

Ensure that your students have discussed and written out their questions

(usually at least 10) relevant to their survey. Once they have been

corrected send them out for an hour to research their topic or to ask

people.

When they are happy with the material they have collected, they can then

decide how to present their information, as graphs, paragraphs, pamphlet

or poster. At the end of the activity, all groups will have to present their

findings to the class and discussions can be started according to the topics.

Movie Trailers

Movie trailers are another excellent way for students practice intonation.

Students can create the script for their favourite movies—or even movies

that they want to see—and record them with the images from the movie

trailer. You’ll find numerous examples of movie trailers available online.

Oscar Awards

This is a good activity for the end of a

semester or school year. Show students

examples of award shows like the Oscars.

Talk about different awards categories and

then show them examples of acceptance

speeches. Since students have spent a lot

of time together and (hopefully) are

comfortable with one another, have

students create award categories as a class. Encourage them to make the

award as unique as possible. For example: “Slept Through the Most

Lessons” or “Most Colourful Socks.” Students then get nomination forms

to nominate up to three of their peers for each award. Students take turns

acting as MC and announcing the winners of each award. As a student

“wins” an award, let them make a short (30 second to one minute)

acceptance speech.

Radio Shows

The Sound of a Decade: What if each decade

was a radio channel? Divide students into

teams and assign each team a different

decade as the focus of a radio show they will

create.

Ask students to research important events from that decade, as well as

highlights in politics, science, entertainment, and popular culture. If

possible, have them find a key speech from the era to include in their

“broadcast,” as well as a popular song from the time.

Once students have compiled their information, encourage them to run

through their entire radio show a couple of times before recording it. As

they practice, ask them to think about how they will bring energy and

excitement to their voices to keep their listeners’ interest. (If you can get

some early radio-show recordings, or even something current, play these

for your students.)

Once students are ready to record, provide digital voice recorders, iPods

with microphones, iPhones (look for the voice memo app), or computers

with GarageBand or Audacity (a free audio-editing program is available

online). When the recordings are complete, set up a listening station in

your classroom where students can listen to the decade channel of their

choice.

Reality TV

Reality TV has taken off around the world since the late 1990s when there

were only a handful of shows available. Now, almost every country seems

to have some form of reality TV with shows like “The Real Housewives…”,

“Big Brother”, “The Amazing Race” and more leading the pack.

Students can have fun making their own show using the basic format of

existing and popular reality TV programmes that they watch or have heard

about. For example, students could do “The Real Second Graders

of_________ School.” Not only is there minimal preparation involved in

such an activity as it focuses on day-to-day life, but it encourages the

students to use more English and will provide them with a unique

keepsake of their school days.