Online Task 4

Question:
1. Think of at least 3 benefits of using speeches by famous figures, in the classroom.

Mostly, the speeches are well prepared. They are free of grammatical errors and proofread many times. So these speech texts are suitable to be used in the classroom.

The type of speeches is persuasive speech. Students can learn the techniques of persuasive speech and apply this skill in their real life.

Critical thinking skills can be learnt from the speeches. If will sharpen the critical thinking skills of the students.

2. Go to www.youtube.com and find the audio-visual on the speech. In not less than 50 words, state would the audio-visual be of any use in helping understand the speech better? State your reasons.

Martin Luther King, Jr : I have A Dream

For my opinion, the audio-visual on the speech helps students a lot for their understanding than merely listening to the speech. They can see the way the speechmaker delivers his or her speech effectively through audio-visual. His or her gestures, body language as well as eye-contact play a crucial role for persuading others.

Besides, students are more interested in learning about the speech through audio-visual. Some of the students can’t focus for a long time on listening. With the help of audio-visual, which stimulate their sense organs, they can pay more attention on the speech.

3. Who is Martin Luther King?

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.

4. Based on the questions below, analyse the features of the given written speech:

a. What is the purpose of the speech?

The purpose of the speech is the called for racial equality and the end to discrimination. It also can be considered as a message of hope. Martin Luther King, Jr. hoped that blacks and whites could live amongst each other in peace.

b. What is the tone of the speech?

The tone of the speech is persuasive, eloquent, intellectual, honest, passionate, motivational, strong and hope.

c. What interesting major feature(s) can you see from the speech? (i.e.Repetition of phrases, emphasis on certain things said etc)

i.)                 Repetition of phrases such as “I have a dream”. This phrase was mentioned eight times throughout the speech. He repeated the phrase “I Have a Dream” to stress his hope for the future.

ii.)               Repetition of phrases such as “one hundred years later”. This phrase was mentioned four times throughout the speech. Martin Luther King, Jr. states that after a hundred years later, the blacks are still oppressed and marginalised by the whites by emphasizing on the phrase, “one hundred years later”.

iii.)             Repetition of phrases such as “now is the time”. This phrase was mentioned three times in the speech. By making that statement, he wants the blacks to be given equal treatment and equal opportunities as the whites.

iv.)            Repetition of phrases such as “be satisfied”. This phrase was mentioned five times in the speech. By making the statement above, he is saying that the blacks will never stop fighting for their rights until they are granted equal rights as the whites.

d. Any interesting facts that you can gather based on the background of the speech?
1) Martin Luther King, Jr ‘s date of birth was on January 15, 1929.

2) He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

3) He died on April 4, 1968. Memphis, Tennessee, USA (assassination by gunshot)

4) In 1951, he entered Boston University.

5) In 1953, he married Coretta Scott and lived in Montgomery, Alabama.

6) In 1954, he was selected as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama  

7) In 1955, he received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston University  

8) 1955-1956 Led a successful effort to desegregate Montgomery, Alabama, buses  

9) in 1957, he helped found and served as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)  

10) In 1958, he published Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story  

11) In 1963, he wrote 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' arguing that it was his moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws  

12) In 1963, he delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech to civil rights marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  

13) In 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and became the first black American to be honored as Time magazine's Man of the Year.  

14) In 1965, he organized a mass march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that created national support for federal voting-rights legislation  

15) In 1968, he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee

5. Suggest a while-reading activity that can be derived from this particular speech.

          Skimming activity.

Everything's Arranged

  

Everything's Arranged by Siew-Yue Killingley

Siew-Yue Killingley (née Leong) was born in Kuala Lumpur on 17th December 1940. Siew-Yue grew up in a family nurtured in the Chinese classics. She began writing short stories in English while still at school.

‘Everything's Arranged’ is about arranged marriages practiced by the Indian communities. The belief and traditions affects their daily lives. The story is centered on Rukumani, a young maiden from the Ceylonese Tamil community whose family has settled in Malaya. Probably her father or grandfather was brought to this land by the British those days. Though Rukumani, is sent to study in the university (`MU' as stated in the story ), the thinking of her parents is just like how it was back in their motherland, Sri Lanka. The Ceylonese, however educated, still hold to their tradition, beliefs and family values so adamantly. Education failed to change their thinking. Social life is a taboo for their young sons what more for a daughter.

            In this story, it infused the traditional food of Malay like curry. This can be shown in the lines:  “…she did not really enjoy the cold rice and curry, but…”. Although the curry is the traditional food of Malay, the Indian also like it.

The writer mentioned about Rukumani’s friends, Amy Wong and Johnny Chew whom help her to pass the love letter showed that the social relationship among the multi racial in the community. It also showed the different cultures in different races which was shown in the lines: “…envying the more fortunate couples, especially the Chinese ones, who went about openly holding hands.”

            Siew Yue projected the text by including the local slang “lah”, “ah”. These can be cited from the story: “…He's a joker, so sure tell my father I send love letters. But still, try lah!”

Online Task 3

 

                                                                  Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Brave, helpful, brilliant and insistent

Leader of the South Africa

Who loves reading, gardening and drawing

Who hates violence, bias and inequality

Who wants to see peace, respect, justice, freedom and human right

Resident of democracy

Nelson Mandela, a peacemaker

Poem of Malaysian Unique Identity

Monsoon History by Shirley Lim

     

                          (http://www.google.com.my/imglanding?q=Monsoon+History+by+Shirley+Lim)

          

             Shirley Geok-lin Lim was born in 1944. Her first poem was published in the Malacca Times when she was ten. The poem “Monsoon History” is the one of the greatest masterpieces of Shirley Lim. The theme for this poem is the harmony of the Baba-Nyonya lifestyle. As a Malacca-born child, she has seen the uniqueness of Baba-Nyonya lifestyle in her own state. Baba and Nyonya can only be seen in Malaysia, most apparently in Malacca. Therefore, it is not uncommon for her to infuse the special Baba-Nyonya culture in her work.

          Let's look how Shirley infused her work with a uniquely Malaysian identity.  Monsoon is referred to the monsoon season that Malaysia has. The title gives the readers the sense of nature and environment. The sentences such as “the water vapour soaks into the mattresses causing them to be damp” help the readers clearly understand the dampness and humidity of Malaysia’s tropical weather.

The readers can experience the culture and custom of the Malaccan Peranakan; Baba and Nyonya through the accurate choice of words by Shirley Lim. For instance, the mother’s sarong comes with a silver belt, the long hair of the nyonya, which is usually worn in a bun, the silver paper money that is burnt in Taoist funeral and also the portraits of ancestors in the sitting room.

            Baba and Nyonya has now become a trademark of one of the Malaysia culture for the foreigners. There is a lot of uniqueness that the readers of “Monsoon History” can see and know Malaysia better.

Online Task 2

1) Do we have a canon for Malaysian literary works? Let's say we do, who do you think are in it? Consider the fact that their works are well-known and most importantly included as part of the school syllabus- (both in BM and English)

English Literature

a) The Dead Crow (poem) Form 1

1986 : Datuk A. Samad Said

b) Si Tenggang’s Homecoming (poem) Form 4)

1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

c) Jungle of Hope (novel) Form 5

1981 : Kamaluddin Muhamad (Keris Mas)

Malay literature

a) Gelungnya Terpokah (short story) for SPM level

1982 : Dato' Shahnon Ahmad

b) Anak Global (poem) for SPM level

1991 : Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

2) The poems by Erica Jong raises some feminist issues. What are they?

"On The First Night"," Diving into the Wreck", "Fruits and Vegetables" and "Half-Lives".

The feminist issues raised by Erica Jong in her poems are sex, gender equality for women, women’s rights and interests, gender bias, gender difference, oppression of women, one’s quest for freedom and purpose.

3) Do you think they are suitable to teach at the secondary school level? Explain.

I think that they are not suitable to be taught at the secondary school level because her poems are concerning sexuality directly. It might mislead the young. Besides, she is an American woman whose culture is different from us. She expresses her thought and views through her works for some issues, for example sex widely. But in eastern culture, some issues are forbidden. Therefore, her poems are not suitable to be taught at the secondary school level.

4) Is Hillary Tham's poem more suitable?
Hilary Tham is a local writer from Malaysia. Her poems often deal with common female issues and the language uses in her poems are more moderate. Therefore, her poems are more suitable for our eastern culture and they can be taught at the secondary school level.

5) The short tale from the Native American group is about a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. How is this a universal experience? Can it teach our students anything?

This universal experience can be found at every where. Everyone is unsatisfied with their life. Once they get a small house, they plan to get a bigger house. But when they success to get a bigger house, they want a palace! Some of them are greedy and ungrateful to what they have. For example, my pupils always lost their Tupperware drinking bottle and never intend to get them back from teachers who found them. They seem like they belong those thing as free.

There also some people do not satisfy with their marriage life. They are unthankful to their spouse and end up having extra marital affairs with many excuses.

So, we can use the story to teach our students to appreciate the simple thing that they are given which is better than having nothing. Besides, we also can teach them not to judge someone from his or her appearance.

6) From your findings about his background, tell me about the dilemma he conveys through the poem CROSS.

This poem explores the emotions and troubles of a young man born into a world of confusion. Confused by his heritage but arrogant in his pride. He is growing up in the whirl of a white society, and cannot decide whether he is white or black. Hughes, using a black mother and white father, makes it easy for the reader to understand and almost foresee where this poem is going. It is evident that there is an inner sense of not belonging. He fells remorse for all the curses and bad wishes he said to his parents, now that they have died. This all part of a bigger problem. Now that his parents are both deceased, he has no one turn to. He can’t seem to figure out whether he is going to die in riches, or rags. This is the great dilemma Hughes presents to the reader, leaving them in query to this unanswerable question. He cannot seem to find any truth in himself whatsoever. Huggins had this to say of the poem, “This child is and forever will be lost in his own identity. Hughes uses this boys struggle symbolically, not to show the pressures of a crossed child, but rather to show how we as a society stereotype the races”. The white father dying in a fine house, whereas the mother dies in a shack, depicts the common view of the white race as being a more upscale and richer society, and the black culture oppressed in poverty and forever bound to the slums of the world. These questions and emotion are what made the Harlem Renaissance such an important movement for black America.

(http://www.freeessays123.com/termpaper20235/langstonhughescross.html)

7) I find "Dinner Guest: Me" laden with irony and sarcasm. Briefly state if you feel the same.

Langston Hughes is a black man invited to a dinner engagement at which well-heeled hosts discussed the Negro problem. A black person in a fancy restaurant was a big deal back in those days. They have to wait for service in the restaurant. Hughes concludes his poem with the statement that it is not so bad to be treated so well even if he is just treated as a personification of “The Negro Problem.”

8) The experience in the poem Harlem is one that is true for many people. Do you agree?

The experience in the poem is true for many people. In the year of the poem’s publication, 1951, frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. The Civil War in the previous century had liberated them from slavery, and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. However, continuing bias against blacks, as well as laws passed since the Civil War, relegated them to second-class citizenship. Consequently, blacks had to attend poorly equipped segregated schools and settle for menial jobs as porters, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys, and so on. In many states, blacks could not use the same public facilities as whites, including restrooms, restaurants, theaters, and parks. Access to other facilities, such as buses, required them to take a back seat, literally, to whites. By the mid-Twentieth Century, their frustration with inferior status became a powder keg, and the fuse was burning. Hughes well understood what the future held, as he indicates in the last line of the poem. 

(http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/harlem.html)

9) Langston Hughes fights for the voice of his people. What is the movement called?

The movement is called the Harlem Renaissance. The African Americans used art to prove their humanity and demand for equality. The Harlem Renaissance led to more opportunities for blacks to be published by mainstream houses. Many authors began to publish novels, magazines and newspapers during this time. The new fiction attracted a great amount of attention from the nation at large. Some authors who became nationally known were Jean Toomer, Jessie Fauset, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Alain Locke, Eric D. Walrond and Langston Hughes.

In 1916-17, Hubert Harrison founded the militant "New Negro Movement", which is also known as Harlem Renaissance. In 1917, he established the first organization (The Liberty League) and the first newspaper (The Voice) of the "New Negro Movement" and this movement energized Harlem and beyond with its race-conscious and class-conscious demands for political equality, an end to segregation and lynching as well as calls for armed self-defense when appropriate. Therefore, Harrison is called the "father of Harlem Radicalism."

Blindness in King Lear

Blindness is defined as the inability of the eye to see. In Shakespearean terms, blindness is not a physical quality, but a mental blemish. Blindness is the most prominent theme in King Lear. King Lear, Gloucester, and Albany are three main examples of this theme.  Blindness is the main cause of their wrong decisions making. They feel regret deeply after they had made such decisions.

1) King Lear

               At the first act, King Lear’s blindness makes him drive away his youngest daughter, 

Cordelia. The king wants to divide his kingdom to his three daughters through a test. He asks 

them to tell him how much they love him. Lear’s eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, give

 their father flattering answers. The king was easily deceived by his two eldest daughters’ lies.

 But, he was unable to see his youngest and favorite daughter’s, reality of true love for him. 

As a result, he banished her from his kingdom with the following words: “........for we Have 

no such daughter, nor shall ever see That face of her again.  Therefore be gone Without our 

grace, our love, our benison.” 

               Because of his blindness he makes two wrong decisions. First, he is gullibility to 

his daughters’ fake love. Second, he banishes his youngest daughter who loves him from her

 bottom of heart. Ridiculously, he takes villains in and drives out the loyal.

            Because of King Lear’ blindness, he also banishes one of his loyal followers, Kent. He is a 

nobleman of the same rank as Gloucester who is loyal to King Lear. In contrast, Kent is 

able to see Cordelia’s true love for her father, and tries to protect her from her blind father’s

irrationality.

Kent spends most of the play pretends as a countryman, calling himself “Caius,” so that he can continue to serve Lear even after Lear banishes him. Lear’s inability to determine his servant’s, Caius, true identity proves once again how blind Lear actually is. After his two eldest daughters locked him out of the castle during a tremendous storm, he realized how wick they really are.

               Then, Lear realizes that Cordelia’s love for him is so great that she couldn’t express it into words.   

Unfortunately, his awareness of this fact is too late. His blindness costs Cordelia’s life and his life too.

               2) Gloucester

               Gloucester also suffers from the blindness.  Gloucester’s blindness prevents him to see the goodness 

of Edgar and the evil of Edmund.  Edgar is the good and loving son but Gloucester negates him.  Ironically,

 he wants to kill Edgar who later saves his life.  Gloucester’s blindness begins when Edmund convinces him

 by using a forge letter which is about Edgar is plotting to kill him.  

               Gloucester’s blindness also makes him to believe that Edmund, the actual evil, is the good son 

and prevents him from become aware of Edmund in pursuit of his earldom.  Finally, Gloucester realizes

 that Edgar saves his life that pretends as Poor Tom and loved him all the way.  He understands that Edmund

 is the one who plans to take over the earldom and he is the evil all along, not Edgar. 

               Gloucester’s famous line: “I stumbled when I saw” is an ironic.  He is mentally blind when he has 

his physical sight; he is mentally sober when he has physically blind.  Fortunately, the consequences of 

Gloucester’s blindness throughout the play are minimal.

               3) Albany

                 Albany is the husband of King Lear’s daughter, Goneril. Albany is good hearted. His discovers

 the evil of his partners quite late in the play. 

               Albany is another character suffering from the blindness, but luckily, he survives his battle.   

Albany’s blindness is purely a result of the love he has for Goneril.  Although he disagrees of Goneril’s actions,

 he would only leniently argue his case.  When Goneril forces Lear to reduce his army so that he could stay 

in their castle, Albany refuses and says: “I cannot be so partial, Goneril, To the great love I bear You -”

               Albany’s deep devotion to Goneril blinds him from the evil of her.  He is unable to discover the

 greedy and mean of Goneril after she flatters Lear with a bunch of lies and then kicks him out of the castle. 

This case shows us Albany’s love to Goneril.  Albany is also blind to the fact that Goneril is cheating him 

and trying to kill him. Fortunately, Edgar sobers up Albany’s blindness after Albany sees a note which 

outlining Goneril’s evil plans.  Finally, Albany recognizes his wife is a devil who he married to and relieves 

his emotions for once when he says: “O Goneril, You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows

 in your face!”  

               Unlike Lear and Gloucester, Albany doesn’t suffer much with the consequence of blindness.   

He not only survives in his battle, but he remains the ruler of what was once Lear’s kingdom.

Iroquois: The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things

The girl in the story was very choosy for husband. She did not satisfy those men who have come to propose her. One night, a young handsome man who did not come from her village wanted to take her as wife. Without second thought, she followed her husband to his house. Then, she found out that her young handsome husband was a horned serpent (snake).
There was a message from the story: do not judge someone based on their appearance. They may look handsome, pretty but they might have bad intentions. It is better to know someone’s background clearly before marrying. You will regret if you do not do so. The girl in the story is lucky that Heno, the Thunderer helped her to escape from her serpent husband. But are you as lucky as her?
There is no 100 percent perfect human in this world. We must learn to tolerance each others’ defect.
This story can be used to teach our students about the manner of appreciation. All the things they have are come from their parents’ hard works. They must learn to appreciate for having simple things which is better than having nothing. Teachers can let the students to look some pictures about the poor boys and girls in Africa. The main purpose is to let the students know that some people are facing shortage of food and drinks in this world.
Besides, the message of the story also can be taught in school. Teachers can ask students to be prepared to retell a story in the class which has the same message as “The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things”. And the other students have to write a synopsis about the story told by their classmate.