www.matthewgoldman.com/spoon/tales.html
There are many sites detailing odd distortions of the English language, such as malapropisms and spoonerisms, which can be used to make entertaining lessons. A spoonerism is a phrase in which the initial letter sound (phoneme or sound blend) of the words is transposed creating a nonsensical phrase – or a fonsensical nase. Sometimes the spoonerism creates new words which have a meaning - although obviously not the one originally intended. For example, a well-oiled bicycle becomes a well-boiled icicle. Spoonerisms were named after the Reverend Spooner who apparently was prone to making this mistake.
Level:
Intermediate + (with a fair knowledge of phonemic symbols)
Objectives:
Preparation:
Download the audio file www.matthewgoldman.com/ - a very funny "spoonerized" version of the story of Cinderella.
Activities:
1. Use the spoonerisms on www.matthewgoldman.com/spoon/ or think of your own to introduce the concept to the students. Ask students to identify the correct phrase and sounds that have been transposed; they can do this with phonemic symbols if they are aware of them. (drain bamage = brain damage, /d/ and /b/)
2. As a whole class activity, ask students to retell the story of Cinderella and get a nominated student to write the key elements on the board as you go along (e.g. Cinderella, ugly sisters, Prince Charming, glass slipper, six white mice). Try to get at least ten of these.
3. Demonstrate a spoonerism with one of the phrases (Cinderella/Rindercella) and then challenge students, again as a whole class, to spoonerize the other elements (e.g. Prince Charming/Chintz Prarming).
4. Play the mp3 file in short segments, or read the transcript yourself –www.matthewgoldman.com/spoon/rindercella_2.html – and get students, in pairs or groups, to identify the spoonerisms they hear and which sounds have been transposed. (coreign fountry = foreign country, /k/ and /f/). You can get feedback after each segment.
5. Students work in their pairs or groups to retell a fairy tale or folk story which would be familiar to the class. They can then rewrite it containing a series of spoonerisms and perform it for the rest of the class.
Disclaimer: These are ideas for websites to use in the classroom. All sites were active and working as of February 2006, but do check them beforehand. EF is not responsible for the contents on any of these websites. Websites should be quoted as any other outside reference source with a title, author and publication/download date.
800-992-1892
