EFS 693B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Listening and Communication
EFS 693B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Listening and Communication
EFS 693B
Week 9 Notes
I. Opening: Friends: The One with all the Thanksgivings (Season 5, Episode 8)
II. Comments on FlashACE: www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/efs/FlashACE/ and discussion of dramas. Use them semi-intensively if you like them.
III. Small group discussion: prep for this week's report
1. What three specific strategies and techniques (parts of procedures) have you found most useful this quarter?
2. What types of online materials have you personally found most useful? Why?
3. Besides what you mention in (1) and (2) above, how has your use of the computer/Internet for learning English changed as a result of this course?
IV Friends: The One with all the Thanksgivings (Season 5, Episode 8).
A. First part with captions on
B. Second part with captions off
C. Try to interact with the material, especially after the first time through
V. Watching TV comedies:
Comedy shows are very popular on American television. There are dozens of them on during the week, and they provide us with a way of laughing at ourselves and our culture. Being able to understand a comedy show in another culture is an impressive feat. It takes time and keen observation skills to note which parts are supposed to be funny before you hear the laughter from the studio audience.
Comedy shows tend to fall into groups. Most programs can be divided into one of three types: friend shows, family shows and work shows. A few cut across two or all three types. Common themes are friend/friend, boy/girl, husband/wife, and parent/child relationships. Some shows have an ethnic basis to their humor, some have regional humor, and some have humor based on social class. There are also animated forms of these shows, such as The Simpsons.
Traditionally, a comedy episode revolves around a single problem or theme which is set in the first few minutes of the show. Attempts to resolve the problem may be unsuccessful at first, which is often where the humor comes in. Increasingly, shows have multiple problems or themes which evolve more or less in parallel, making a more complex plot to follow.
Besides their general value for practice in listening to casual conversation, comedies are useful to watch for enjoyment just to get some additional insight into aspects of American culture. To get the most out of listening to comedy shows, there are a few points you should keep in mind.
1) Because a lot of the humor in the show is cultural, be prepared not to understand why something is funny. If you can, take notes and try to think about them. If possible, ask a native speaker why something was supposed to be funny.
2) Many of the jokes depend on understanding the characters, both their individual personalities and their patterns of interaction with other characters. In order to appreciate this part of the humor, you need to watch a number of different episodes. A good strategy is to find an older show that is rerun every day instead of only once a week (like Friends: see below). Alternatively, look for shows that are available online (e.g., www.hulu.com) or DVD.
3) Although commercials can be fun and useful practice themselves, they are meant to be distracting. You can mute the TV (turn off the sound) during commercials, reflect on what you’ve just watched, and predict what you think will happen next. If someone else is there with you, you can talk about the show at this time (preferably in English). Of course if you are working from recordings, commercials are not an issue.
4) Finally, there is a lot of variation in the language difficulty among comedy shows. Try to find one or two that you enjoy but can follow best. If you have to have the captioning on to understand much of it, then the show is of questionable value for language learning.
One of the most useful shows for improving listening is Friends--the language is easier than many other comedies, and the stories are often more universal. It's on every weeknight twice on KTVU Channel 2, at 6:30 and 7:00. You can get the transcripts for Friends at http://www.friendscafe.org/scripts/ and a number of other TV shows at www.script-o-rama.com. The scripts will be particularly helpful if you can record the shows and listen to them using some of the techniques we've discussed in class.
If you like British humor (though the accents can be challenging), British comedy shows can be found on Channels 9 and 54. And if you like other types of comedy, including “standup”, there’s a whole channel on cable called Comedy Central. You can see some clips at www.comedycentral.com.
Note: You can find free comedies on Hulu by searching here http://www.hulu.com/genres/Comedy?type=tv and selecting "TV Full episodes" and clicking the "free" and "captions" boxes.
Finally, EFS has two relevant courses if you want to pursue this more formally: EFS 696, Understanding American Humor, in the spring, and EFS 689H, American Humor, in the summer.
VI. Friends: The One with all the Thanksgivings (Season 5, Episode 8) -- Continued
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Homework:
1) This is your final week for the independent project, again for a total of three hours minimum, divided in whatever way you think would be best. You can try a TV comedy if you want in addition to whatever else you're doing. Get the report form here and be sure to answer all the additional questions on it. Your reports are due Tuesday May 31 at 8:00 pm (Monday is a holiday).
2) Go to www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/efs/FlashACE/. Go through FlashACE Advanced Lessons 3-5, simulating the test conditions (i.e., listen just once, and answer within 10 seconds--if you get the answer wrong, go on to the next item anyway. Don't look at the text). After you finish, go back and check your answers carefully, listening multiple times and checking the text for each.
Final Class: There will be a 50-item picture identification test at the final class next week. Please be sure to arrive on time.