Meet Venera. She’s from Tajikistan. In fact, this is a great way to meet Tajikistan itself, a country that few people know about. You can learn some of Tajikistan’s recent history from Venera’s talk.

Some words you should investigate before you listen to the audio below:

civil strife, break out, freelance, shooting, skirmishes, take care of

1. Listen and decide which of these sentences are true.

Tajikistan was not a part of the USSR
It was always safe to go outside.
There was shooting on the streets.
Teachers were paid decent wages.
Life was simple and easy during these years.

2. Do the following gap-fill. (Sometimes you have to fit two words into a blank; that’s because the words form strong partnerships).

My name is Venera. I (1)________ be a high school English teacher. But then the (2)________ (3)________ broke out, so we had to (4)________ at home for a couple of years ’cause there was much shooting, (5)________. It was very dangerous to go (6)________.

When we were not paid any (7)________ I had to take care of my sons, so I (8)________ that and started giving (9)________ English lessons, and now I’m a (10)________ English interpreter/translator. My name is Venera. I’m from Dushanbe, Tajikistan. I like my place, my country.

Answers: (1) used to  (2) civil (3) strife (4) stay (5) skirmishes (6) outside (7) salaries (8) quit (9) private (10) freelance

 Venera, Other Voices [0:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (206)

Teacher Halima Bobokhonova (School #1, Isfara, Sughd, Tajikistan) shows a PowerPoint game created by her students.

One student, Kombiz Sahobi, developed this PowerPoint show about the workshop we had in Isfara, in the north of Tajikistan.

An excellent project activity for students. Check it out…

 Material Development PowerPoint Project: Download (316)

At the 2007 CATEC Conference (Central Asian Teachers of English Conference) I attended a workshop in haiku writing by Ludmila Shirmina from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

First Ludmila had us brainstorm in groups. We wrote down anything we wanted on the topic of spring. (See the photo). Then we put together our 3-line haikus following the pattern:

Line 1: 5 syllables

Line 2: 7 syllables

Line 3: 5 syllables

What’s cool about haiku is that they can just be images, or small little thoughts. They don’t have to be complete sentences even.

Here is the poem I wrote with my partner, Natalya Shiripova from Turkmenistan.

Under night’s white stars
such a delicate theme
two crickets kissing

I turned this into a 27-second song. (I added the article “the” in the first line. But, hey, haikus don’t have to be so exact.) 

Check out the video.

 Two Crickets (McCaughey, Shiripova) [0:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (156)

Here’s how to do a Rotation Dictation. It’s a lot of fun.

1. Put students in teams of three or four. One person will be a Writer. The others will be Runners.

2. Explain about the audio they will hear. A Rotation Dictation is a short piece of audio—in this case 45 words. When it reaches the end, it begins again. The audio features a woman named Venera from Tajikistan, and she talks about herself. The audio will repeat several times, for a total of about 2 minutes.

Play the audio quietly in a corner of the room, or even a bit outside of the room. A single Runner from each team will approach the audio player and listen.

They shouldn’t listen too long. Their job is to take a piece of this audio—several words or a whole sentence—and bring it back to their team. The Runner then tells the Writer what she heard.

Meanwhile the next Runner can go to the audio player and listen. Only one Runner per team can leave home base to listen.

The team will try to rebuild and reproduce the enitre audio text, writing it down.

At the end of two minutes, or more if necessary, teams will compare to see who has written the text most accurately.

Beforehand, or during (by writing them on the board) you could introduce  students to these terms they might not get aurally: “shooting,” “skirmishes,” “civil strife,” “break out.”
Text: My name is Venera.  I used to be a high school English teacher.   But then the civil strife broke out, so we had to stay at home for a couple of years ’cause there was much shooting, skirmishes.  It was very dangerous to go outside. 

 Rotation Dictation "Venera" [1:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (179)

I interviewed ten people at CATEC (the Central Asian Teachers of English Conference) in Issyk-Kuhl, Kyrgyzstan, and asked them to give me one adjective to describe the conference. In the brief audio you’ll hear 10 adjectives.

See if your students can write them all down. It’s just a 16-second audio.

Answers: impressive, large, incredible, riveting, awesome, creative, useful, international, effective, perfect

 Adjectives to Describe the CATEC Conference [0:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (211)

Here is another really short poem by William Carlos Williams, which I have set to music. In this 40-second song, the entire poem is repeated twice.

1. Play the song and ask students to write down all the words. You may want to give them the title “The Red Wheelbarrow” and the word “glazed” ahead of time. Play the song a couple of times.

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

2. Once students learn the poem, ask them to draw what they see. They don’t have to draw well. But the words of the poem form strong images. Most people see a slightly different image. Look at the picture I drew…

Next they can compare their images. Ask them to create sentences. Things to compare: How many chickens in each picture? Where are? Is anything else in the drawing? etc.

3. Finally, students can write their own words based on this model.

so much depends
upon
[name a thing--an adjective and a noun]

[describe how it looks]

[describe where it is]

And voila, you are done. A simple imagistic poem.

 The Red Wheelbarrow: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (725)

In this very rockin’ song, a guy asks a waitress for a capuccino.  And he requests a few other things, not all of which make much sense.

I can’t imagine why a teacher would play this song in class.  That’s why it’s in the “Strange & Silly” section.  However, if you do use it, let me know.

words and music:  Bilby Lighthouse   |    drums:  Sir Nedrick    |   2600:  Kevin

“Capuccino, if you would. Light on the cinammon… etc.

 Capuccino [1:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (354)

Yep, this song lists 32 adjectives to describe personality or behavior types. Give it a listen and see if students can write down all the adjectives. Stop the song after each verse for lower levels. Repeat as necessary.

Activities to go with the song will appear here later.

 The 32-Adjective Song [1:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1061)

“Sound Pile” is a simply activity–so small and easy and quick that it’s practically a crime.

Play the audio file. Students will hear 10 sounds, more or less piled on top of each other, within the space of about 12-16 seconds. You might hear a bat squeaking, doors slamming, cows mooing, a child laughing.

In pairs or groups students will attempt identify and write down as many of the sounds as possible. Make it a competition. See which group can correctly identify the most sounds. Play the file several times. And give students a lot of leeway in their answers.
The beauty is that students will hear all sorts of things that are NOT in the sound pile. Or they will interpret sounds wrong. This is great, because they will write these things down, thus creating more language practice and stepping stones into real conversation: You heard what?

Below you’ll find audios for 2 different Sound Piles, and for each there are audio of two different speeds.

Answers to Sound Pile 1: kiss, coining spinning and coming to a stop, person whistling (an eerie tune!) dog barking, drink being poured, applause, motorbikes rumbling, train crossing bells, crow cawing, someone sawing wood

Answers to Sound Pile 2: tennis ball hit with racquet, elephant trumpeting, harp, siren wailing, churchbells, rifle shot, alarming clock ringing, women (Kevin’s mum) screaming, birds singing, toilet flushing

 Sound Pile 1 [0:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (640)

 Sound Pile 1, slower [0:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (355)

 Sound Pile 2 [0:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (267)

 Sound Pile 2, slower [0:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here’s the procedure for this fun activity…

1. Understand the Language of Sound
Hand out the list of the 25 sounds (see below). Give students a few minutes to look it over. One easy way to proceed is to ask students to produce the sounds described, as best as they can. What is the sound of a chair creaking, of a crowd applauding, of glass breaking, etc.?
2. Bingo Card
Next each student will draw a Bingo card on a piece of paper. The card is always a square. It can have 3 rows by 3 columns, 4X4, or 5X5. I recommend 4 X 4 (for sixteen total squares) for intermediate groups. Here’s a sample:

Now each student will choose sounds from the list of 25. (Again, the activity is adjustable; if a teacher thinks 25 sounds are too many, he/she need only list—and play—the first 10 or 12.) Each student can place any of the 25 sounds in any of the squares. Each square should have a different sound. (The sounds need not be written exactly as typed; students can abbreviate).

4. Listen
Now play the entire list of 25 sounds. When students hear the sound corresponding to what they have written in a square, they can mark that square with an X. (Sometimes students will be unsure about sounds; that’s okay. They can be discussed and reviewed later).

5. The Winner
State the goal. The first student who Xs out an entire row, whether up, down, or diagonal, yells, “Bingo!” Ask the student to read back the sound descriptions to make sure all the sounds have been played.

6. Another Winner
Because we want to play more, let’s find a second winner. If the first winner’s line was ACROSS, ask for an UP/DOWN or DIAGONAL winner. The first students to complete a complete line of these will shout Bingo too.

7. One More Winner
Our last winner will be the first to Black out his whole card. The first person to write an X over all his sounds will call out “Bingo.”

The 25 Sounds
The mp3 audios below have 25 sounds on them. “Sound Effect Bingo 1″ has the same sounds as “Sound Effect Bingo 2″ but they are in a different order. That is so that you can do the activity 2 times with the same group.

 Sound Effect Bingo 1 [3:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (639)

 Sound Effect Bingo 2 [3:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (336)