Read the article at http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/09/25/eye‐rate‐about‐
eye‐ran/ about American pronunciations of the countries of Iran and Iraq. Write the two
country names on a blank piece of paper, then ask any native speaker of American English
outside this class to read the names. Then have them read the article too and discuss it with
them. How are your perceptions of these words, and their socio‐political implications of their
pronunciations, similar to or different from theirs, and from the article’s claims? How and
why do particular pronunciations such as these come to carry such symbolic associations?