I was reading Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects when I came across image number 11: King Den’s Sandal Label, made from Hippopotamus ivory around 3000 BC. This label is only 5 cm square and was once attached to an Egyptian Pharaoh’s pair of sandals. Made to accompany him in the afterlife, this label would have clearly identified him from the rest. On the label, we can see King Den (the pharaoh) attacking an enemy who is cowering defenceless. It is thought that this would have gone alongside all the other symbolic items that accompanied the Pharaoh on his way, but what’s amazing about the label is how modern it seems to us today.

As Neil MacGregor says in his book “The nearest modern equivalent I can think of to this label is the ID card that people working in an office now have to wear round their necks to get past the security check.”

This comment got me thinking about how we choose to identify ourselves through images, the items we surround ourselves with that have a special symbolism etc. and how all this could make for interesting classroom material.

Video
After a little bit of online research online I found some great projects such as David Gauntlett’s Identity Box:

I can see this idea being very easily transposable to the classroom context, whether it’s done with objects or using still images. It’s a fun and accessible way of looking at objects that say something about you. I also found some other fascinating examples that explore identity issues in a more profound way. One of my favourites is this one by Daniela Ramos called simply Identity which looks at body language and adapting to a new language when everything seems just a noise.

Daniela says: “[On the left hand screen] I am speaking freely in front of the camera, about my experience in the new country. On the second screen, I am reading a text from the book “How to Understand and Use Norwegian” by Odd Børretzen”.

To my mind, the cacophony of Spanish and Norwegian and the difference in the way these languages are projected through Daniela’s body language say so much about her ease with the former and her ill ease with the latter and the different image of herself that she projects through each. The fact that the two images run parallel symbolizes the confusion that can ensue in our minds when having to struggle with two or more languages.

Identity from Daniela Ramos Arias on Vimeo.

Here is another more playful but no less symbolic example called “Me, Myself and 我”. Among other things here, from the time I spent in Hong Kong, I can recall having to adopt this new identity of the gweilo (“ghost man” in Cantonese) that is so well portrayed in the clip:

Finally, apart from these different “identity-portraits”, of course it’s interesting to analyze how we choose to identify ourselves in f2f communication (tattoos, labels, etc.) and in virtual worlds. Apart from taking on a whole new identity (the case of avatars), the photo that we use in our Twitter or Facebook profile is open to any amount of interpretation and some people change the image as the mood takes them. Sometimes you have to look carefully for details. For example, I only recently noticed in the Twitter profile pic of a friend of mine that the wallpaper used in the background to his portrait has his football team’s insignia all over it! Likewise with business cards: the design, the font, even the texture of the card can communicate different messages. Discreet or extrovert, the card itself can point clearly to your identity as a person who wants to either blend in or stand out.

My co-author Adrian Doff and I thought that this whole issue made for an accessible topic to raise in class so we developed some tasks for it. See attached a couple of pages on the subject of online identity from the just published English Unlimited Advanced coursbook, Cambridge University Press.

English Unlimited Advanced pages 16

English Unlimited Advanced page 17

Here are a couple more pages from English Unlimited Advanced connected with this post’s topic.
Page 21 looks at the idea of personal/business cards and what they say about people. This comes in the Across Cultures section of the book which focuses on intercultural issues.
Page 29 follows up on the idea of identity and language and looks at three books which discuss the topic explicitly. We discuss various questions here: Can a new language lead you to adopt a different identity? How important is it to develop your own voice in a new language?

I hope you enjoy looking at the activities.

p21 Advanced

p29 Advanced

I’ve been testing some of the tools suggested by Russell Stannard on his excellent blog. I have played around with fotobabble and piclits which are great. But I think the image tool that really has great potential is voice thread. I’ve just created this little task as a way to test the tool. It’s great how you can embed video commentary alongside the image that you are working with! This is a really fun way to get students talking about images. I also thought the image was just right for this particular task. No apologies for final slide

I’ve recently become interested in the idea of “watching a poem”. I think, apart from anything else, for a generation unaccustomed to reading poetry, representing a poem visually is an interesting idea. Have a look at this visual poem made by Headgear Animation based on a short poem called Forgetfulness by Billy Collins. How do you think you could exploit it in class?

Watch the video here

The video clip is actually featured in the forthcoming English Unlimited Advanced self-study pack, published by Cambridge University Press. Please see attached file for how it looks in the book. The book obviously features other more conventional video material such as drama, documentaries and film clips as well as more experimental genres such as this. I hope you find it interesting.

See the activities: Forgetfulness Video Worksheet

World Cup Collage

The World Cup is over, but have a look at this fantastic collage of football fan faces.
How many World Cup competing countries can your students identify? And what happened to them in the tournament?
Enjoy!

For the original source of this image click here.

Squircles

Outline: Students look at mosaics of squircles (squared circles), interpret what each sign means and in what context they might find it. They then create their own mosaics.

Focus: Descriptions of symbols and pictograms (language of description: ’stand for’, ‘depict’, ’symbolize’, ‘represent’, etc.)

Level: Pre- Intermediate – Advanced

Time: 30 minutes

Procedure:

1 Students brainstorm objects and images which they associate with a particular colour. If you have a large number of students, then divide them up and assign them with a different colour to focus on. Depending on the level, you could ask them to think of a particular number of images.

For example: Red – strawberry, blood, stop sign, lips, poppy, Santa Claus, Manchester United…

2 Show the following orange squircle mosaic made by Tom Magliery* (*I first came across Tom’s great mosaics on Flickr. He very kindly agreed for his images to be used in my book Working with Images).

It is essential that students can see clearly the 36 images in the mosaic. Students try to identify of each squircle and, in the case of a sign or pictogram, guess where it originally appeared or how the image was taken.

Example: Squircle 1 depicts the top of a table, the photo was taken from above.

3 Students then organise the squircles in any way they like and describe each. For example, you could organise the images in this way:

Signs / Neons and Light / Food and drink / Words and Letters / Wheels / Household Objects

Alternatively, provide a list of what the images represent and students can match them up with the squircles. You can find a full list on each of Tom Magliery’s squircle mosaics.

For the Orange squircle above you will find images such as these: e.g. hubcap, coaster, orange, doughnut, chair, etc.

4 Students can then create their own mosaics – with any images they like – using the Mosaic maker at Big Huge Labs.