Introduction of the course:
This classroom website is a collection of resources such as popular internet memes, that create contextual examples of swear words, informative online documents, and popular culture videos for the purpose of informing the fictional elective class ENG-407: F-Bombs and the like. This fictional class will cover the five most often used swear words in the English language. This will be done by creating and then showing sceneries that would be an appropriate use of the five swear words. The purpose of these resources are intended to help inform both educators and learners alike on the complexities and various contexts of these five often used English profanity. These resources are sorted into tabs that a student or teacher of the course may easily peruse by each English profanity. Each swear word tab contains various sources ranging from articles, videos, and memes that serve to illustrate different contexts and social components that are behind swearing use. By sorting the five swear words into different tabs allows the educator to either assign a tab as homework, or to allow them to pace the speed of the class. Keeping each swear word within its own section further helps in making sure that confusion is kept to a minimum.
The level of this course would be for intermediate English learners having the desire to explore the colloquial words that are often deemed taboo. By having a course that is solely focused on swearing, it can eliminate the possibility of awkward or inappropriate usage of these words.
Many of these resources are taken from things like internet memes and/or popular culture references to have the goal of creating a more engaging environment for the target learners. Having a medium such as these creates a connection with the students due to the large majority of the younger audience spending a large portion of their free time on the internet. Further it is to show examples of swearing in common media forms that they may run into often. Swearing is vastly more complex than just these five words.
Due to the plethora of differing swear words, further self research would be needed if a student is not satiated by these five words. It would come from a student's willingness to experience the cultural significance of swearing within English. Some examples of a starting place are to begin with cult-classic films that feature a colorful script (such as Pulp Fiction) or rap albums (Eminem for instance).
In order for this course to be successful, an open and safe environment must be achieved. Because this class’ topic is often seen as taboo or inappropriate, the environment’s importance is paramount. The way in which this can be achieved is by one video of note within the “ass” tab of the class’ website. The video is of a Finnish comedian and his struggles of properly using and understanding the context of “ass”. By introducing the class topic through showcasing another L2 learners of English and their confusion with the language elevates the nervousness of the students, resulting in an environment of “mistakes are okay” and can be laughed about in a lighthearted and supportive manner.