Voices of North Carolina Dialect Awareness Curriculum
The multimedia Voices of North Carolina dialect awareness curriculum was developed by NC State faculty members Jeffrey Reaser and Walt Wolfram in 2005 and updated in 2007. The culmination of Wolfram’s work in the public schools over the past twenty years, Voices of North Carolina is the first state-based curriculum on language variation in the country.
It is designed to help teachers better meet thestandard course of study for 8th grade social studies and it is endorsed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The curriculum is designed to be teachable by teachers without any background in linguistics. The curriculum was proven to be highly successful in pilot runs in Johnston County, NC, and in Ocracoke, NC. For various resources and materials, see below for Workbooks, Videos and an online version of Dialect Jeopardy!
The curriculum goals are:
- To develop a respect for the systematic patterning of all language varieties
- To develop an appreciation for the link between historical development and language
- To develop an awareness and appreciation for the connection between language and culture
- To gain authentic knowledge about how dialects pattern
- To develop an awareness and appreciation of other ways of speaking
I really think the students got a lot out of it (not the least of which was the challenging of a lot of stereotypes they might have had that are tied to language). I know it was enlightening for me and I truly enjoyed it
Leatha Fields-Carey, Johnston County, NC
Download Materials
Workbooks
- Download Voices of North Carolina student workbook [4.19MB]
- Download Voices of North Carolina teacher’s manual [18.3MB
Dialect Jeopardy!
Dialect Jeopardy! is an interactive online game made in the style of the popular Jeopardy! television show. Play Dialect Jeopardy! (requires Macromedia Flash player)
Videos
You may stream the curriculum's accompanying video files in MP4 format by clicking the below links, or download all files in Quicktime format:
Language Attitudes
Chapter 1: What Speech Tells Us [6.5MB]
Chapter 2: Examining Language Prejudices [6.1MB]
The Linguistic Continuum
Chapter 3: 30-some years [1.3MB]
Chapter 4: Massive boats [2MB]
Chapter 5: John Andrew [1.7MB]
Chapter 6: Pony Penning [1.3MB]
Chapter 7: Mounted Boy Scouts [1MB]
Chapter 8: Styrofoam Coolers [420KB]
Individual Variation
Chapter 9: Mandarins [1.4MB]
Chapter 10: Fish Retail [736KB]
Chapter 11: Studying Speech [376KB]
Southern Vowel Pronunciation
Chapter 12: List A [736KB]
Chapter 13: List B [660KB]
Chapter 14: List C [684KB]
R-Dropping in English Dialects
Chapter 15: List A [420KB]
Chapter 16: List B [416KB]
Chapter 17: List C [880KB]
Chapter 18: List A [1.1MB]
Chapter 19 List B [828KB]
Chapter 20: List C [876KB]
Outer Banks English
Chapter 21: Outer Banks Speech [39.9MB]
Chapter 22: Ocracoke Brogue [40.9MB]
Excerpt from The Carolina Brogue [65.9 MB]
Appalachian English
Chapter 23: Mountain Talk, Part I [49.9MB]
Chapter 24: Mountain Talk, Part II [52.3MB]
Native American Language in North Carolina
Chapter 25: Cherokee Language [56.8MB]
Chapter 26: Lumbee Dialect [67.5MB]
African American English
Chapter 27: African American English [ 50.5MB]
Language Change
Rural African American English
Chapter 28: Hyde County African American Male [2.3MB]
Chapter 29: Daughter [1.3MB]
Chapter 30: Granddaughter [1MB]
Chapter 31: Great-Granddaughter [2MB]
Rural European American English
Chapter 32: Hyde County European American Male (Older) [1.4MB]
Chapter 33: Hyde County European American Male (Younger) [1.9MB]
North Carolina Cities
Chapter 34: North Carolina Cities [42MB]
Spanish in North Carolina
Chapter 35: Bilingual or not? [3MB]
Chapter 36: Spanish in North Carolina [32.7MB]