Great Vowel Shift Podcast for ESL Teens

Most of my colleagues and friends know how passionate I am about the Great Vowel Shift, or GVS, as it is known in many circles. As a high school teacher I would say most of my students dont have a clue to the progression American English has made and continues to make. It is my civil servant duty to demonstrate (and possibly overload them) with this information. If one has been living under a rock for the last 400 years, GVS can be explained best as "a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in the south of England between 1200 and 1600"(WIKIPEDI). That time span includes Olde English, Middle English, and Modern English. Oh what glazed joy I can envision on my students faces as I explain this to them....


Linguists who are equally passionate about GVS have created some exciting podcasts that contrast these linguistic styles. My favorite site out of these is the Furman site. Here ESL students can contrast phonemes/long vowels from English to Modern English. This is the trapezoid of long vowels they will complete.

Trapezoid of Phonemes..All day Fun!

But the most fun podcast of this site is the Dialogue portions. This part is broken up into a literature portion as well. Here is where, an ESL student can get a taste of what Chaucer or Shakesphere really sounded like. In addition, the Furman site chooses to use a dialogue of conservative and advanced to speakers to outline the differences in speech. You can click on any word within these dialogues to get more information and clarity.

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