Advanced Search: Resources

1. The Cotton Club

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text, Image / Poster / Maps

   This one-page piece details The Cotton Club, one of the most glamorous dance and music clubs in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. The Cotton Club was located in Harlem, which in the 1920s was an African-American residential and cultural business center in New York. The club had 30 to 50 chorus girls who danced and sang and were only hired if they were beautiful and very tall. Although the singers and dancers were almost all black, the audience was almost all white, which was a sign of the racial American society at the time.

2. Great Nicknames of Jazz

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The last of a three-piece article describes many of the nicknames that leading American Jazz musicians had. A nickname is a name that a person earns in addition to their given name. For example, Edward Ellington was called “Duke” by his friends and family when he was a child because he acted like a member of a royal family. Musicians like Lady Day, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie were leaders in the Jazz music culture.

3. Poetry Corner: Reading and Reacting to a Michigan Poem

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   “Poetry Corner: Reading and Reacting to a Michigan Poem” consists of activities targeting reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills using a Michigan poem called “How Is It That the Snow,” written by poet Robert Haight, who lives in Michigan.

4. The Lighter Side

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This "Lighter Side" begins with a contest to name a Jazz song. The answer is "Georgia On My Mind." Although there is an American state called Georgia, Georgia is the name of a girl for whom the song was written in 1930. In the second section of "The Lighter Side," definitions and uses of the word Jazz are given.

5. In the Mood: Introducing Pragmatic Awareness at Low Levels

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Website

   This lesson in Teaching Pragmatics focuses on raising pragmatic awareness in students using the concept of "mood."

6. Promoting Solidarity in Short Interactions

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson in Teaching Pragmatics aims to raise awareness of and give practice in using strategies of relexicalisation for descriptive accounts and for promoting solidarity in short interactions. A sub-goal is to provide students with interesting and natural vehicles for vocabulary development, recycling and revision.

7. A Postcard from America

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

   This feature article for learner use is by author Robert Olen Butler. It briefly describes the history and cultural aspects of postcards. The author provides detail about several postcards in his personal collection. He values the images and the glimpses into people’s lives as written on the postcards. A glossary of terms and images of postcards accompany the article. Appropriate for high intermediate to advanced students.

8. Polite Ways of Correcting or Contradicting our Conversation's Partner's Assumptions

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims to raise learners' pragmatic awareness towards an important conversational function and to help them to be aware of the negative impression brought about by the non-use of actually (or other softeners of contradiction or correction) and for students to learn to produce corrections or contradictions prefaced by actually.

9. Are You Listening? (Backchannel Behaviors)

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims to promote awareness of short responses during conversations such as uh-huh and yeah known as backchannel behaviors; to increase awareness of cultural differences in backchannel behaviors; to allow students to practice behaviors that indicate active listening.

10. Talking on a Second Channel Using Parentheticals in English Discourse

    In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

    This lesson in Teaching Pragmatics aims to help students learn to pronounce a range of parentheticals appropriately.

Pages