Jazz chants are a unique way of linking the rhythm of natural spoken language to the rhythm of music. Jazz chants were first created by Carolyn Graham, undisputed queen of the genre, over 30 years ago. Carolyn was teaching ESL at New York University by day and working as a singer/piano player in bars at night when, as she has said, she ‘stumbled upon’ the brilliant idea of connecting the natural rhythms of spoken American English with the rhythms of traditional American jazz music in order to help her students develop speaking skills.
I learnt about jazz chants early on in my teaching career and quickly discovered what a wonderful way they are to develop speaking skills both with adults (who I was also teaching at the time) and children. I soon found myself inspired by Carolyn to create my own chants to reflect the natural rhythms of the variety of English I speak i.e. British rather than American English, and have been writing them and using them with my classes regularly ever since.
The main feature of a jazz chant as opposed to a poem or rhyme is that there is no poetic licence or artificial change to the stress and intonation patterns of natural speech. Jazz chants also often take the form of an interchange or dialogue which display the natural give and take of everyday spoken language.
-- from http://carolread.wordpress.com/
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario