Tremble, half the world apart.

Трепещут, а между ними половина мира

Далее учащиеся прочитали стихотворение вслух (приходилось исправлять произношение некоторых слов), дали подстрочный

перевод (по очереди, каждый – по одной строке) и ответили на следующие вопросы:

1. Сап you tell what country the poet describes?

Of course, Stevenson describes his native Scotland. He depicts not only the valleys and hills of his beloved Fatherland but conveys his nostalgia:

Something kindred greets us still;

Something seen on vale or hilt

Falls familiar on the heart.

 

2. Point out the lines where the poet refers to the beauty of his country.

Towered clouds forever ply,

Dew and rain fall everywhere,

Harvests ripen, flowers are fair,

And the whole round earth is bare

To the moonshine and the sun;

 

3. What is the mood of the poem?

P1 - The mood is made up of nostalgia, sadness and the deep love for his Fatherland.

P2 - This poem symbolizes loneliness: "Severed souls", "half the world apart".

 

4. Which words would you call the key-words of the poem and why?

PI - The author longs to be with his nearest and dear­est that's why the line: "brings Into contact distant things"» very important.

P2 - Because of the health problems the author has to stay so far from Scotland, but in his dreams he wanders around “Vale or hill" and wants to be there, so I think that the words "makes all the countries one" are the key-words of the poem.

 

5. What is it that creates the atmosphere of  

• rapid motion;

• nostalgia?

PI - the words breezes, winds, swallows, to and fro, come and go convey the feeling of rapid motion.

Р 2 - some lines have already been mentioned however, you feel nostalgic when you read: "Let us wander where we will" because you cannot do it just now.

6. How do you understand the lines:

• the live air, fanned with wings;

PI – fragrant air moving because of the birds flying.

• severed souls;

Р 2 - souls or persons who cannot be together.

• falls familiar on the heart;

P3 - deep in your heart you realize that it is well-known but forgotten thing that you see and it arouses happy memories.

• tremble, half the world apart.

P4 - there is a long distance between two lonely people nevertheless they experience the same feelings.

7.Which lines do you like best and why?

(great variety of answers)

Завершающим этапом урока была оценка ответов учащихся. Домашнее задание – художественный перевод стихотворения.

The Role of Rhymes

In Language Teaching

Irina Karkhina, a Teacher of English

  At any stage teachers of English as a second language may find the class is having difficulty with particular sounds and structures. If you need some material for remedial work in all aspects of pronunciation or practice different language skills, I would advise you to start with a restricted area of English rhymes.

   My own experience shows that rhymes can readily be absorbed by the learners of all ages. Perhaps because of the appeal of rhythm, rhymes are memorable. If rhymes are well taught, they are seldom forgotten. Besides not all language material is so easily retained and evoked. Moreover, for most learners reciting a rhyme is much easier than talk. This makes rhymes particularly useful for practicing not only the sound system of the language, but learning the vocabulary and structures, which provides an enjoyable change from drills, dialogues or other activities.

  Whatever benefit you expect the students to get from the rhyme, you must remember that their interest derives solely from the pleasure it gives them. Therefore, you should not spend more than ten minutes or quarter of an hour in any one lesson on rhymes. If you work systematically through all difficult points and students recite rhymes meaningfully, they will master the sound system of English and a wide selection of its vocabulary and structures.

  What kind of material to present depends on whether you are concerned with teaching all the language skills, or only certain of them. I regularly use rhymes in class for teaching skills involved in good pronunciation and intonation. Most books on English pronunciation list twenty-four consonant and twenty vowel sounds commonly used in acceptable English speech. Many of these sounds are unfamiliar to Russian pupils, who often use sounds from their own language, until they have mastered the English system.

  There are several different ways of practicing sounds. First, I draw students’ attention to the position of their own lips and tongue. Then they recite rhymes on all the individual sounds of English. I never introduce more than one rhyme at a lesson. Rhymes can also be graded according to the difficulty of content.

 

[ p ]           Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

[ ∫ ]          She sells seashells on the seashore

[ t∫ ]          If a white chalk chalks on a black blackboard,

               Will a black chalk chalk on a white blackboard?

       [ t∫ ], [ r ]   Never travel by train in a dry country like Trinidad

    [ w ], [ð]    Whenever the weather is cold.

               Whenever the weather is hot.

               We’ll weather the weather,

               Whatever the weather ,

               Whether we like it or not.

 

  Appropriate rhymes can be used to practise stress and intonation patterns. The sounds of English occur in syllables. Syllables themselves may be stressed and unstressed. In their turn the latter are organized into feet. The number of feet in the line sets the rhythm. I usually make the rhythm apparent by clapping hands or tapping out the beat on the desk.

  The students have also to use the right tune. The meaning of a sentence is equally depends on the tune which it carries. The most usual tune in the rhyme is the falling tune. Some of the rhymes make excellent practice material for work on the rising and falling tunes. I often help the class to hear the tune by using gestures.

  The pupils may be having trouble in distinguishing between the vowels in words ‘work’ and ‘cork’, ‘plough’ and ‘dough’, and consonants in ‘goose’ and ‘choose’. Here is the rhyme which practises sounds and contrasts them.

           You probably already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough.

Some may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, plough and through.

Beware of heard, an awkward word:

        It looks like beard but sounds like ‘bird’ !

Watch out for meat and great and threat;

They rhyme like suit and straight and debt.

And here is not a match for there

Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there’s dose and rose and lose,

But watch that “s” in goose and chose!

It’s cork but work, and card but ward;

And font but front, and word but sword.

 

To sum up, appropriate rhymes can be used to practise:

(1) individual sounds

(2) stress and rhythmic patterns

(3) intonation

(4) vocabulary

(5) grammatical structures

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