A lesson on noise?

Noise is not such an uninteresting topic as it may sound.... ( a little play on words?)

As a warm-up and surprise factor I used this year the sounds of the night that you can find on this website:

 http://www.noisli.com/

(by the way, it is not such a bad idea to use it outside the classroom context, if you are in need to relax, for instance)


I played the sounds of the night before I even started going through the presence sheet. At the beginning students didn't seem to pay attention. Slowly but surely, however, I started hearing different reactions to it, some people were agreeably surprised, others equally annoyed.

It opens up a possible discussion and involves students more directly and in a more personal way.

Discussion questions:

Why do they find this particular noise annoying/pleasant?
What sort of noise do they like and why?
What noise do they associate with the 21st century, and what noise do they imagine dominated the 19th, 18th or earlier times?

This short discussion may be followed by a reading exercise. BBC radio 4 used to broadcast a series of great programmes by prof David Hendy on the role of noise throughout the centuries.
They are really worth listening to:

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rglcy/episodes/guide

I have come across a review of Hendy's book on noise that I use as a reading exercise with my students:

Reviewed: Noise - a Human History of Sound and Listening by David Hendy

http://www.newstatesman.com     Published 27 March 2013

During a classical music concert, a cough is rarely just a cough. According to a recent paper by the economist Andreas Wagener, people are twice as likely to cough during a concert as at other times. Furthermore, they are more likely to cough during modern, atonal music than during better-known repertoire and they cough more during slow or quiet passages than during fast and loud ones. The classical cough, then, is no accident but rather a noisy substitute for direct, verbal communication and participation.
If there is one general lesson that David Hendy’s book reminds us of, it’s that sound has more profound effects on us than we often consciously realise – a truth exploited by movie composers and sound editors.
Why the cave art should have been placed where the acoustics was special is a mystery – as are many things about the distant past. Hendy’s first section on the prehistory of sound also takes in musical stones and African drumming as proto-telegraph. From prehistory and antiquity, we fast-forward to the medieval and early-modern periods, with monkish days measured out in bells.
Eventually, there arose what Hendy calls a “cult of decorum”: making noise was perceived as lower class, if not outright revolutionary. The ability to flee annoying tumult was always a prerogative of the rich.
As Hendy skips through the centuries, he observes Henry David Thoreau complaining about the encroaching noise of the railways, the shrieks and roars of Manchester in the Industrial Revolution and the inventions of the stethoscope, gramophone, radio and Muzak.
Though he expresses sympathy for the noise-exhausted residents of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the early 20th century, he doesn’t dwell on how the traffic noise suffered by people who live in London or New York increases their risk of stroke and lowers their scores on IQ tests.
Is the world now noisier than it ever was? The answer seems to be yes. Our global modern racket, as Hendy says, is physically harming wild animals as well as ourselves.

1.    What do people want to communicate through coughing at a classical music concert?

2.    To what end do movie composers use sound?

3.    What sort of sounds is our contemporary world filled with?

4.    In paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 as well as the last one find words/expressions that can be replaced with the following words:

1/ spend time on =
2/ right, privilege =
3/ noise =
4/ escape =
5/ completely, absolutely, utterly =
6/ move rapidly=
7/ invade =
8/ emerge =




I then proceed to a vocabulary exercise this time in the form of a crossword:
(the corssword was created using one of the numerous "free croswords for teachers" websites.
This is a fairly good tool, to be used in moderation, however, as even crosswords, if overused, can turn into a boring activity:)

Across

2. The involuntary sound resulting from a spasm of the diaphragm. (H)

4. To make a long low noise to show pain or unhappiness. (M)

6. A loud sucking noise made while eating or drinking (S)

8. To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired. (Y)

9. To make a sound like bacon being fried in a pan. (S)

10. To make a continuous loud noise ( of an engine, a lion) (R)

11. To make a sound from the vocal chords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed. (H)

Down

1. To make a sound like the one that leaves or sheets of paper make when they move. (R)

2. To make a loud noise with the horn on a car. In the UK the device is called 'a hooter', in the US it's a horn. (H)

3. To laugh gently or in a high-pitched voice; to laugh in a silly or giddy way. (G)

5. To make a long high noise, like a wooden floor when somebody walks on it. (C)

7. To breathe during sleep with harsh, snorting noises.(S)

9. A loud, unpleasant, high noise made by brakes or car tyres (S)

KEY

Burp To expel gas noisily from the stomach through the mouth



Hum To make a sound from the vocal chords without
pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed. 



Slurp A loud sucking noise made while eating or drinking



Yawn To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep
breath, often because one is tired.



Giggle To laugh gently or in a high-pitched voice; to laugh
in a silly or giddy way. 



Rustle To make a sound like the one that leaves or sheets of
paper make when they move.



Roar To make a continuous loud noise ( of an engine, a lion)



Creak To make a long high noise, like a wooden floor when
somebody walks on it.



Hoot To make a loud noise with the horn on a car. In the UK
the device is called 'a hooter', in the US it's a horn.



Moan  To make a long
low noise to show pain or unhappiness.



Sizzle  To make a
sound like bacon being fried in a pan.



Hiccup  The
involuntary sound resulting from a spasm of the diaphragm.



Snore To breathe during sleep with harsh, snorting noises.



Screech A loud, unpleasant, high noise made by brakes or car
tyres

It is always a good idea to keep something interesting up one's sleeve for the end of the class.
And so here it comes.It is yet again Jamie Keddie's excellent trick:

http://lessonstream.org/2007/12/10/noisy-collocations/

I use the two collocation sheets, and then move on to a short test. Students are invariably surprised by the person who makes all these sounds....

Don't hesitate and go for a noisy lesson yourself!