ONLINE TASK 4

Speech

1. Think of at least 3 benefits of using speeches by famous figures, in the

        classroom.

-         Speeches by famous figures are authentic materials. It gives real experience to students as they listen or watch the recorded speech.

-         It gives inspiration and real courage to students.

-         The grammar and sentences used in the speech are well-organized. It can be used as a good comprehension text in the classroom.

2. Go to www.youtube.com and find the audio-visual on the speech. In not less than 50 words, state would the audio-visual be of any use in helping understand the speech better? State your reasons.

-         The use of audio-visual on the speech helps a lot in helping students to understand the speech better. Students will learn more when they both ‘see and listen’ the speech, rather than only listen to the speech. From viewing the recorded speech, students can watch the real character and audience of that particular time. They will learn about the condition, place, setting, and the people at that past time. Students can experience the feeling more or less like the people at that time felt.

3. Who is Martin Luther King?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael Luther King, Jr. on January 15, 1929. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen. He received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta. He started the theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania for three years. In 1951 he was awarded the B.D. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. They have two sons and two daughters later.

    In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. King was also a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. In the early of December, 1955, he accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

    In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action. In the meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. In 1963, he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, “l Have a Dream”. Besides, he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson. All his life, he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times. He was awarded five honorary degrees, and was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Martin Luther King was assassinated in the evening of April 4, 1968. He was standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city.

4. Based on the questions below, analyse the features of the given written speech:
a. What is the purpose of the speech?

The speech “I Have a Dream” is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. The speech was  delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

b. What is the tone of the speech?

-         The tone is strong with feeling, hope and courage.

c. What interesting major feature(s) can you see from the speech? (i.e.Repetition of phrases, emphasis on certain things said etc)

Anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of sentences, is a rhetorical tool employed throughout the speech. Repeating the words twice sets the pattern, and further repetitions emphasize the pattern and increase the rhetorical effect.

“I have a dream” is repeated in eight successive sentences, and is one of the most often cited examples of anaphora in modern rhetoric. The other examples are:

-         “One hundred years later…” [paragraph 3]

-         “Now is the time…” [paragraph 6]

-         “We must…” [paragraph 8]

-         “We can never (cannot) be satisfied…” [paragraph 13]

-         “Go back to…” [paragraph 14]

-         “I Have a Dream…” [paragraphs 16 through 24]

-         “With this faith, …” [paragraph 26]

-         “Let freedom ring (from) …” [paragraphs 27 through 41]

d. Any interesting facts that you can gather based on the background of the speech?

The names of the cities and places in USA provide us the background of the speech. The speech is greatly improved as Martin Luther King Jr. provides specific examples which illustrate the logical arguments. He makes numerous geographic references throughout the speech:

§                         Mississippi, New York [paragraph 13]

§                         Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana [14]

§                         Georgia [18]

§                         Mississippi [19]

§                         Alabama [22]

§                         New Hampshire [32], New York [33], Pennsylvania [34], Colorado [35], California

[36], Georgia [37], Tennessee [38], Mississippi [39]

Mississippi is mentioned on four separate occasions. This is not accidental; mentioning Mississippi would evoke some of the strongest emotions and images for his audience.

5. Suggest a while-reading activity that can be derived from this particular speech.

Students find metaphors from the speech. Metaphors associate the speech concepts with concrete images and emotions. An example in the speech, to contrast segregation with racial justice, King evokes the contrasting metaphors of dark and desolate valley (of segregation) and sunlit path (of racial justice.)