1. What is this?

This project spun out of my experience in teaching Communication for the Non-Native Speaker and Voice and Diction. I use many short recordings in those classes to get a batter handle on

This is a database of short poems and speeches from various Americans, dating from the colonial era to the present time.

The database includes the texts, performance and pronunciation hints in the annotations, and sample recordings. These recordings are not definitive performances, just examples. Students should be free to interpret the pieces.

I developed this, along with this website about the linguistics of spoken American English, to use as online education resources, eventually replacing the textbook.

1. How did you choose the authors?

The authors chosen here are from the United States, dating from the colonial era through the present day.

Most of these are texts I use in classes I teach. For instance, one week is Walt Whitman week, when the students pick one of the Whitman poems.

Sometimes, I use them for specific reasons. One week, the students choose from the Native American speeches. These are sad, angry, and/or defiant speeches, and part of the grade is reflecting that in their voices.

Later in the semester, my students recite The Gettysburg Address. Gettysburg is a short speech consisting of mostly run-on sentences. It is a great text to discuss pausing and diction. If someone pauses in the wrong place. They will run out of breath before coming to the end of a sentence. Further, because of the language and the structure, clear diction is necessary here.

I want this to be exclusively American authors. I may do a different project for British authors. Honestly, this could be done with Shakespeare’s sonnets, but that should absolutely be its own project.

1. What classes can you use this for?

As I said in the first question. I have used these pieces in Communication for the Non-Native Speaker and Voice and Diction classes.

These pieces could work in any ESL class that has a pronunciation component.

Classes like Oral Interpretation and some acting classes could also make use of the texts here.

Any class with a serious performative aspect to it can make use of these. If it’s a public speaking class, for example these texts could be used a low-stakes assignment, getting students accustomed to speaking in front of a group before they have to write their own speeches.

This could also be used in literature courses. Many of these works were meant to be performed, so listening to them and reciting them can add a depth of understanding that just reading them can’t give.

Reciting a piece: deciding where to pause and which words to emphasize can change the meaning of a text. So, listening to various people’s interpretations of the same work is also fascinating.

1. Potential projects

Besides audio recordings, I do a Digital Poem project, where students choose a poem, find pictures that match how they interpret the poem, recite the poem and put it all together in a short video.

It could be used as a jumping off point for a poetry slam. Students pick a poem from here, recite it, then write their own poem and recite that.

Students could do research on one of the authors here, and as part of their report, recite the poem or short speech included.