Woody Guthrie, America's Merry Prankster

A “merry prankster” is a colorful person, real or legendary, who pokes fun at authority and the rich, powerful, and arrogant. The merry prankster appears small and powerless, but manages to outwit his opponents, often summing up the situation with witty one-liners — signal examples from medieval history and folklore are Mullah Nasreddin and Till Eugenspiel. In many ways, Woody Guthrie is an American merry prankster. Small in stature but large of intelligence, he used his wits, musical creativity, and people skills to defend the poor against the rich and powerful. He consistently made enemies of the privileged and those in authority, quitting and losing jobs, and he had to find clever ways to wriggle his way out of his problems, while always standing up for his beliefs and singing out boldly about them. This article situates Guthrie in the larger folkloric tradition of the “merry prankster,” using examples from history and folklore to make the case that Woody Guthrie’s life follows this tradition

All About the American Flap

In this column, I am going to talk about the American flap, a phonological feature of the American English dialect. Those of us with backgrounds in ESL/EFL learn about this in our master’s programs, but I have found that even teachers who have taken a course in linguistics may not be aware of the flap and its important implications for listening, reading, and spelling in English (Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017

Woody Guthrie, America\u27s Merry Prankster

A “merry prankster” is a colorful person, real or legendary, who pokes fun at authority and the rich, powerful, and arrogant. The merry prankster appears small and powerless, but manages to outwit his opponents, often summing up the situation with witty one-liners — signal examples from medieval history and folklore are Mullah Nasreddin and Till Eugenspiel. In many ways, Woody Guthrie is an American merry prankster. Small in stature but large of intelligence, he used his wits, musical creativity, and people skills to defend the poor against the rich and powerful. He consistently made enemies of the privileged and those in authority, quitting and losing jobs, and he had to find clever ways to wriggle his way out of his problems, while always standing up for his beliefs and singing out boldly about them. This article situates Guthrie in the larger folkloric tradition of the “merry prankster,” using examples from history and folklore to make the case that Woody Guthrie’s life follows this tradition

Louder than a Bomb: Poetry slams and community activism create a powerful brew

Louder than a Bomb is the oldest youth poetry slam in the country, born out of Chicago\u27s oral performance resources, including Second City. The article shares LTAB\u27s beginnings, evolution, growth, and influence, and the author describes the experience of being a judge at the annual poetry slam

Truly, Madly, Deeply: Adverbs and ELLs

In this issue’s column focusing on adverbs and English language learners, columnist Kristin Lems explores some of the basic but not-so-obvious features about adverbs that readers and writers need to learn in order to take advantage of these powerful levers of language. The odds are very good that your native English speakers will also benefit from this information—and you might learn a thing or two as well

Music, Our Human Superpower

Research about music pervades every discipline because music touches every area of life. Studies revealing the salutary effects of music can be found not only in music educator research, but in research in psychology, speech and hearing, child development, neuroscience, and increasingly, health and wellness, aging, rehabilitation and recovery. Since my focus is especially in the areas of language and literacy, I research the positive effects of music on reading, writing, and learning languages - and of this, there is no shortage. In this brief Academia article, I share what I’d like to call an “homage-with-references” to our great Superpower, which - as the recent animated movie Soul attests - gives so much meaning to life, for so many

Learning English Through Music in the Digital Age

Three simple ideas for music activities that work well in the English language learning classroom. Although there are innumerable methods and techniques, I have selected three techniques that involve use of video because of the focus of this newsletter