AS thinking about Language investigations and Language and Tech

Google Ngram - an amazing time sink and a Language researcher's friend. I was thinking about Language and Technology and the term "thumb drive" (which I just noticed is the term Skydrive are using to contrast to their storage method in the data cloud). I have called them USB sticks and pen drives in the past but I wanted to know how popular 'thumb drive' had become, so I put it into Ngram viewer (google it!). I was astonished to see references from the 1800s and couldn't imagine why - after a bit of digging (click on the time periods and you get the references to the search term in all available books), I could see that it was accidental in at least the first few cases (e.g. used as in drive your thumb into: "taking your thumb, drive it..."), right up until martial arts books became the thing to read and the use of 'thumb drive' as jargon from that field emerges. Recent uses are few and far between because of the newness of the general use of the term (and all the other synonyms that are available) which means publishing turnarounds of years prevent us seeing what is happening in real-time book writing. It would be interesting (if I had the time), to see what a search on Google brought up in terms of web references as opposed to book references...

What a fab investigation resource - all of the uses are quoted in context, so you could count up references, tabulate and data-handle (see the last entry on baby names from Wait but Why that I posted), while still being able to do PEE. That would make a lush investigation if you picked an interesting phrase.

Please comment below on any interesting phrases you typed in and researched (even briefly).

Wait but Why is back again - A2 and AS

This week's blog post is useful to A2 for data handling (investigations) and AS for Language and Gender - look particularly at how many boys were called Elizabeth/ girls called Michael etc. (you have to click on the name in that section of the post, and it takes you straight to how many boys were named Elizabeth in a range of years - change at the top to see girls in comparison). Wow.

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/12/how-to-name-baby.html?utm_source=List&utm_campaign=b0587fb69c-WBW+%28MailChimp%29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5b568bad0b-b0587fb69c-42133465

Chip away approach

This article describes a useful approach if you are finding any tasks difficult to get on with. It isn't especially well-written, it is just useful in terms of a study (or life!) approach:

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/simple-mini-habits-can-change-life/

Good for AS and A2

This blog is ace. And this week's post is good for AS for Language and Technology and for A2 for Media texts.

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/12/11-awkward-things-about-email.html

A2 computer room lessons Tues 3rd and Fri 6th

I will have finished marking your media texts by Friday, so you will be able to work on those then.

Today, I would like you to spend some (or all) of your computer room time revising and reading widely around grammar, Power, Gender and/or CLA. Use Google, Andrew Moore's language site, Grammar Bytes, search for particular topics using The Guardian's search facility, articles and pages I have linked to on my blog (e.g. the one on phonological development) etc. You can also work on your coursework if you wish.

While I have your attention, I wanted you to know that, during assessment week, I expect you to work for the extra time that you would have spent in lessons on top of your 4.5 hours of independent study time (so, 7.5 hours) . In order to fill that with useful work, I would like you to finish your media text (so that it is out of the way and not rushed near the final deadline) and write your conclusion/evaluation. I will be taking the conclusion/evaluation in on Tuesday the 17th. You should also revisit your AS notes to revise the ideas you need to be using on all texts this year. Visit and comment on others' blogs too. Don't forget to keep chipping away at grammar and terminology.

A2 coursework lesson - media text self-evaluation

Please complete the peer- and self-evaluation by swapping your media text with someone else (on-screen or a printed version), like we did for the analysis. Swap with someone who doesn't know what you are working on, so that they are answering the questions on the sheet without knowing the answers in advance. It doesn't hurt to write some positives, but the focus should be what the writer can improve on. Ask questions, quote unclear phrases, make suggestions (but don't tell them what to write).

When you get yours back, fill in the bottom box with what you have thought about since doing this exercise that you know now that you have to work on. You can do some edits first if you have time.

I will take a hard-copy in at the end of the lesson, but I don't mind if it has handwritten notes and edits on it. Put the evaluation sheet on top so I can see the comments first, then I won't have to duplicate them in my feedback.

Thanks.

A2 coursework: conclusion/evaluation

These sections of your coursework can be combined and I recommend this for the sake of keeping your word count low.

The conclusion/evaluation should explore your findings, noticing patterns, anomalies and significant aspects that can be (or cannot be) generalised (when you can generalise results, you are confident that a repeated investigation would find the same thing and/or that the finding is likely to be true of a wider pool of data e.g. all 10 broadsheet articles used a higher proportion of polysyllabic lexis than any of the tabloid articles, by at least 10%: this is fairly convincing as a generalisable finding to suggest that broadheets use a higher proportioin of polysyllabic lexis than tabloids; you might want to suggest why it might also not be generalisiable e.g. only certain topics were covered and it might not be true of other types of article). You are more likely to be saying why the findings can't be generalised and this will probably show more thought. If anyone says their hypothesis was proven, I will be very cross! Say to what degree your hypothesis was supported/contradicted.

You must try and examine why this would be the case, using tentative language and referring to context and any relevant theory that supports or contradicts your findings.

Evaluate which aspects of your investigation were interesting and why. Which aspects were flawed and what might have been a better approach (don't put your work down but acknowledge when something didn't work out as planned and see if you can explain why and what would have been more effective)? What might be an interesting approach to take to extend this research?

Show off your thinking -  be mature and reflective but not self-critical - don't leave the reader with a negative impression.

This rash of schools banning certain types of non-standard language use is worrying

It suggests that non-standard equates to WRONG and devalues language variety. By suggesting that a blanket ban is necessary to enable students to learn to "switch off" their dialect or sociolect and only use it when it is "appropriate" suggests that it is not appropriate generally. What other prescriptivist views are we hearing lately?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/primary-school-bans-the-black-country-dialect--because-it-s--damaging--to-pupils-and-shows-a--decline-in-standards--144542450.html#TeCOJST

Good writing is a window into someone else's perspective

This is good writing:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/why-poor-peoples-bad-decisions-make-perfect-sense_b_4326233.html

A2 coursework lesson 21.11.13

Work on coursework - please post the current version of your media text (whatever state it is in) by the end of the lesson so I can see a snapshot of your progress and make sure your results are shaping up so we can start conclusions on Tuesday.

Since I am absent (due to my illness this time, sadly, but Zachy is a little better, yay), if the absence register doesn't arrive by the hand of some kind staff member, please can someone go down and get it from the door of C101, or you can all, individually, troop down and sign it if no-one is feeling generous but no-one must sign for anyone else.

You could also go to the LRC and get out some wider reading on any of the key topics relevant to the summer exam. Remember to keep brief notes and a bibliography.

We will do the test on CLA on Mon.

work in my absence

Good morning! I am afraid that my little boy is ill today and I have had to stay home with him. I have set work, which is explained on the register on the door to the classroom. You sign to say you have read and understood (and will do) the work. I will be checking and you will be marked absent if you have signed but the work is not done.

Please note:

AS - coursework still needs to come in so I can pick it up tomorrow (on my desk in C102)
A2 - if someone has a problem finding the transcript for me, please transcribe a short Youtube clip and annotate/analyse the child's and the caregiver's language.

If you have any problems, please email me.

A2 Coursework lessons Tuesday 12th and Friday15th

Media text work is your top priority but I would like you to do some wider reading, so I am pointing you in the direction of emagazine (they have a facebook page, which updates you on some interesting articles but we have a subscription to the online version of the actual magazine).

The logon and password are: emagazine11  yx647wh

This information is also on the Moodle AS Language page, if you need to use it again and can't find this post. Remember to keep updating yourself on AS content, theory and terminology throughout this year.

Tuesday: The article I would like you to read and make notes on (either handwritten or on your blog) is a Language Change article that uses some phonetic transcription (so you can see how it would be useful for both key units). The article is called "World Englishes..." and starts on p.23 of this season's edition (issue 61 - September - just click on the fromt cover in the top right of the website). The question to really think about is 'how is English changing because of the speakers who use it?'

Then go on to your media text. You can intersperse some grammar work on Grammar Bytes or similar, or do some AS work or CLA work alongside it, but keep busy and focussed.

Friday: I will hopefully have marked your investigations by Tuesday, so in preparation for that, I would like you to read another emagazine article - one that looks at investigation data and gives an overview and results analysis. Please make notes on how findings are evaluated in depth and the language used to explore the data tentitively. Notice how the close analysis is of the statistically significant or anomalous findings. You should follow this structure in your investigations. The article is on page 52. Write on your blog which aspects of your data you will look at closely and why.

Then continue with your media text, gammar work etc.

A2 coursework lesson in B202 Tuesday 5th and Friday 8th (includes tips for conclusion/evaluation)

Tuesdays and Fridays will be coursework lessons for the first couple of weeks of this term and then we will be using the computers mostly for CLA. We will be in B202 every week.

I am taking in a hard copy of your coursework at the end of today's lesson. First, we are going to look at a good example of an investigation (I have included the media text that we will look at later, so keep hold of these). Once we have seen some ideas, I want to use today's lesson for you to read someone else's intro/methodology/analysis and make some constructive comments on the peer assessment sheet I will give you. You will hand in the sheet with your coursework draft. Read and edit your own work again in the light of those comments, even if that means crossing out and writing things into a draft you have already printed. It will take me a couple of weeks to mark these.

Our next task is conclusion/evaluation but this will be very much a rough, rough draft until you have some feedback on your analysis, so post it to your blog but I won't be taking that in for a couple of weeks, after you have redrafted it.

Tips:

• Give an overview of your understanding of the data in context and how it relates to theory.
• If you have discovered anything theory did not tell you to expect, explore why in context.
• How effective were the approaches that you used (from data and theory selection/collection to analysis headings tothe investigation focus) - try not to be too negative but be thoughtful and suggest what might have been more effective in order to find out more/something different.
• If you choose to look at how you could deepen or extend this investigation to make the findings more convincing, try and evaluate the new methodology to show why it would be better.
• Make sure the reader comes away impressed with your thoughtfulness and thoroughness.
• Round it off so it finishes cleanly.

Then we shall get the media text done (start this week and finish next week). You could use some of your computer room time to read more of the type of text you are going to write and/or do further research. Do that before you complete your media text first draft.

an 'otel or a hotel? (Language change issue) Guardian article

This rings true for me: Rosen says in this article that, "When people object to the way others speak,... it is nearly always because of the way that a particular linguistic feature is seen as belonging to a cluster of disliked social features."For me, it is like the way you find a name objectionable if you know someone with that name that you don't like.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2013/nov/04/letter-h-contentious-alphabet-history-alphabetical-rosen

A2 phonological development useful webpage

This is the best table I have found for phonology - really clear examples:

http://www.home-speech-home.com/phonological-processes.html

Avoid the Dark Playground at all costs!

We've all been there. Just heed the wise words of Wait but Why:

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html?utm_source=List&utm_campaign=873615b44e-WBW+%28MailChimp%29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5b568bad0b-873615b44e-42133465

Gender representation of a man knitting vs some police officers

How does the writer represent aspects of masculinity here?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregory-patrick/knitting-ninja_b_4143644.html

AS Coursework lessons Mon 21st and Tues 22nd Oct - sample 500 words instructions

Beautifuls,

you will be writing the start of piece one in Mondays lesson in C108 and piece two in the classroom on Tuesday (you will start piece two on Tuesday no matter how far you have/have not got with piece one).

Check your style models with me if you have not already and fill in the coursework APF table in your blue booklets (put a brief description of your content as you will not yet know your title).

Next, closely annotate your style model a) identifying all the conventions of the form (e.g. headline, strapline, picture, caption etc. for newspaper articles) and b) idenifying the effective techniques used by that particular writer. You should use terminology (ask me if you are not sure what a technique is called) and consider effects on the target audience. If you can, show how techniques work together to achieve effects.

Identify all the techniques you want to include and relate them to the content you have chosen on a plan. You could do the plan as a layout diagram of the text, bullet points or a spidergram or any other method you desire. I think that the layout plan helps you show where in the text you would use particular techniques and what for. The plan can be really scruffy but it does go into your coursework folder, along with your annotated style model, to show that you created the piece from scratch, inspired by your style model (using the techniques from it, as well as any others you choose, and adapting them to your chosen piece - your content may be very different and may demand careful consideration of techniques you could use to suit it to the APF).

Check out the student guide to Turnitin, which gives further information about plagiarism as well as how to post and check your own piece before the deadline:

http://moodle.stbrn.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=1009

Then start writing piece one (don't forget to keep a bibliography of the sources you use, if you use any - you should submit the bibliography too when you post the pieces to Turnitin on our Moodle page under Creating Texts). Remember the deadline is 11.55pm Friday for both pieces and any late pieces will not be given feedback except for convincing extenuating circumstances (missing a lesson does not count). I will also not mark pieces that have not been proofread and edited to a good standard but I will mark pieces that are too short if you do not have time to write 500 words, although longer pieces should not be submitted (please keep under 550 words) - the feedback will be very limited in the case of short pieces but would be better than none at all, so polish carefully what you have and submit it on Moodle to the Turnitin assignment under ENGB2, Creating texts, "Halla's class: 500 words of pieces 1&2" You can submit your piece early, see what it highlights as being copied from an internet source, and, if you have forgotton the reference all of it in your bibliography (which you should also post if you have used sources), you can re-submit an improved version up until the deadline and the old piece will be written over.

Since we have not used Turnitin before, you should post pieces and bibliographies to your blogs too, just in case.

Lily Myers slam poetry Language and Gender

What I think is fascinating is that she says we copy what we are exposed to (what we "sit across from") but she sat across from her father too. What is it that tells us to absorb only gendered behaviour? I grew up with only my mother so I inevitably picked up many of her 'dropped habits' but I hope that we can hear such tales and be conscious now of trying to being free (from gender straitjackets) to be ourselves (hard to find out what that is, of course) and be inspired by qualities from either gender that would fit us, not that we have been squeezed into or forced to tidy up and take on board. How's that for mixed metaphors?

Here is the link:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k&autoplay=1&desktop_uri=%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DzQucWXWXp3k%2526autoplay%253D1

The horrific question on the Eton entrance exam

It's worth looking at how values are assessed, disguised as intellectual assessment. Language and Power, dear readers!

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/05/eton-scholarship-question-how-british-elite-are-trained-think

Gove's advisor's fascist views on the part "genetics" plays in education

Why moan about mediocre teaching if it doesn't matter, as "70%" of educational achievement is down to your DNA?! Let's write off all those (insert racial or social group here) and spend time educating those who are worth it...

Have a look at how the attitudes in this article are portrayed, both the views quoted and the way they are presented by Patrick Wintour (The Guaridan is left-wing and wouldn't agree with the advisor's views).

 http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/11/genetics-teaching-gove-adviser

A2 coursework lessons 15th and 18th October

Gorgeousnesses,

please be ready for Friday's coursework lesson by ensuring you have done all your theory reading, you are certain of the hypotheses you will be using that come from that theory reading and that you have thought about exactly why you chose that theory area and that data pool.

Tuesday: ensure you have finished your media text preparation work as I will be coming around to look at this with you today. For the rest of the time, please work on your investigation.

Friday: now you are certain of exctly what you are doing, it is time to write the introduction. As per the coursework booklet, there are certain elements that the introduction should contain (you may find that you can use some of the information that is currently in your methodology and then you can reduce the word-count of that). What is vital to understand is that this is the reader's first impression of you: it must show that you are a thoughtful, evaluative, sophisticated student who is very aware of the reader's needs (in terms of what needs explaining and how) and can write in a formal voice that is nonetheless very engaging. Keep it concise but explain your thinking and enthusiasm.

If I were a student doing an investigation into the gendered language of my peers, I might write an introduction like this.

An investigation into the gendered language uses of St Brendan's AS Drama students

Introduction

 The myriad theories regarding possible differences between male and female speech is a daunting but fascinating area of Language theory. Over time, it appears that the shift has been from distinctive differences percieved during the Dominance/Difference/Deficit research of the 1970s/80s (Zimmerman and West, Tannen, Lakoff) to a focus on the biological aspects [citation needed] and, more crucially, on the context that language is used in rather than by which gender (Cameron: "your genes don't determine your jeans"*1). Although Cameron's point is convincing, while our physical gender may not determine our language, particularly in a college where many feel the need to fit in and/or find their niche, society does appear to have some expectations of what is masculine or feminine speech; we may (even subconsciously) choose to conform to this. I am interested to see if this is the case.

I chose to examine the language of my peers but not those who shared my friendship group so that I could remain objective. I wanted to record people participating in a task and, when not asking friends who might give their time generously, I decided on students who regularly participate in group tasks to gain a better chance of them agreeing. I could have chosen Sports students, but since I wanted verbal responses rather than predominantly physical participation in my tasks, I decided that Drama students would give wholehearted participation and (I predicted) be confident enough to retain their individuality in a group task. I know that accommodation would be something worth looking at, but in the time frame of this investigation, I decided that differences would be more practical to explore within a limited data sample.

I needed to set tasks that would provide the participants with opportunities to use a range of language, so I decided on one discussion task, one problem-solving task and one solo interview (with the same questions and delivery for each participant - I practised this in advance).

Each of the six participants (three female and three male) would take part in each activity and, using the Dominance/Difference/Deficit theories, I could determine how far the language they used was in line with those gender expectations.

Hypotheses:

• According to Zimmerman and West, males will interrupt more in mixed-sex conversations (the discussion, the problem-solving and potentially in their interview with me).
• Males and females will predominantly correspond to the traits described in Tannen's Difference theory pairings (I will focus on status versus support in the discussion, competition vesus co-operation in the problem-solving task and report verus rapport in the interview).
• The language of females will be deficient in comparison to that of the males (I will look for Lakoff's 'deficient' techniques in both males and females and evaluate their use in context).

Rather than key frameworks, I will use theory headings, however the exploration will necessarily focus on discourse (for interruptions, back-channel agreement, length of turn etc.) and grammar for sentence moods, syntax analysis, word-classes etc.

*1 I would need a footnote and to reference that article in my bibliography

***

Now, obviously this is much longer than my advised word count for the introduction and I would try and cut it down in my second draft (I wrote this in just over half an hour and had to come up with the whole idea for the investigation in that time) but you can see how the thinking is explored and then I can go into more detail about the exact process in the methodology, but that can be shorter because of the explanation here.

A2 coursework 11/10/13

Good afternoon, fantastics!

Please continue to work on the media text tasks in the booklet.

If you finish these, please continue your investigation analysis. We will be doing introductions next week, so you need to be entirely sure what theory, hypotheses and frameworks you are using to analyse your data with by Friday. Please ask me if you have any issues but it is your thinking that is important, so spend time working through your issues before you see me.

Thanks.

AS style models - fashion is a tricky area

Often, people have areas of interest they want to write about and fashion can be a dangerous one as it is hard to find ambitious style models. Of course, you can take someone's techniques and apply it to a different subject (that is actually far better) but you could get away with writing about a completely different area of fashion than the following writer does. A colleague (Rich) put me on to Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, so here's an example of her writing:

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/sep/30/shorts-fashion-trend-summer-2013

AS Language classwork 7/10/13

Good morning super-gorgeousnesses!

Three tasks today: one we prepared for last lesson (write a 'me' column as a regular columnist for The Guardian using Brooker's column as a style model, then proofread/edit it then post it) and one that is an admin task, which you should do first...

Please log on to the student portal for Correro and input your TAG and your targets(s). Ask someone nearby if you don't know how to do it. I will be checking these when I put in your attainment, effort and homework grades and add my comments about your progress.

And (the third) one that is me discussing with you your interesting texts, some of which might be suitable style models, so please have these out and ready to talk about.

If you get time, please read - and comment on - as many other class blogs as you can. My recent post on the article about language change is worth commenting on too.

Don't forget the 'unreliable narrator' monologue you have to write is due in tomorrow but it is HOMEwork not classwork, so don't be caught working on it in the lesson.

A fab Guardian article about semantic (meaning) change in English words

Particularly useful for A2 students to get examples from for Language Change (keep good notes as you need examples to quote in the exam), it is useful for everyone to think about how language is constantly evolving. Comment with other examples of words changing meaning (semantic shift) or gaining new meanings while retaining the old ones (broadening in meaning).

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2013/oct/07/mind-your-language-words

An article from The Telegraph's archives on telegrams

Useful for Language and Technology, Language Change and for understanding the term 'telegraphic' in Child Language Acquisition. So, in other words, read it!

http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html

A2 coursework lesson 4/10/13

Lovely people!

Today we will be thinking about media texts and the skills you will need to do them well.

I will be coming around to discuss ideas with you and you will be working on the activities from the coursework booklet. Some of you will have done some of them, others not. If you complete all the activities, you can carry on with your investigation/do some grammar work/read some of my posts.

Please post any work you do on the media text activities to your blog. We may discuss some of them in class to iron out any issues for everyone - don't worry about doing it wrong - no-one will poke fun or be snide: it is a work in progress that is educational. I will expect something substantial posted today.

There is an electronic copy of the booklet on our Moodle page under the heading Topic 3 (I am not responsible for the construction of the A2, page, my domain is the AS page, which you can still visit and use!). If you need to enrol on either course, the enrolment key is Shakespeare.

How does the language in this open letter to Miley Cyrus from Sinead O'Connor represent gender?

My AS class will remember how angry I was about the VMA twerking+rape lyrics debacle. The (inspirational and marvellous) Sinead O'Connor is angry too about the way Miley Cyrus is being portrayed, for slightly different reasons. But what is particularly interesting for Language students (I am still one of those - you never stop learning) is how she uses language when describing gender issues. We will be discussing this, so get your thoughts together in advance.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/03/sinead-o-connor-open-letter-miley-cyrus

Spoken word poetry - I love it! Eat it up!

This is a powerful poem by an acquaintance of mine who is bril and I like very much:

http://vimeo.com/75515195

The Guardian - grammar worries lifted

Things you possibly never knew you didn't need to worry about...

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/30/10-grammar-rules-you-can-forget

Interesting Charlie Brooker column on "too much talk" - I will be using it on Friday with AS Lang

A Shakespeare quote seems relevant here. Many of you will recognise that these words are a despairing Macbeth's:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/too-much-talk-charlie-brooker

A2 coursework 1/10/13

Now that you are really into your analysis, try and keep the focus of the headings you are using, rather than writing about EVERYTHING, but keep a note of any links you want to make - it is ideal to do this in the conclusion but might be worked into the analysis, so keep an open mind and good records of your thinking!

I will be coming around today to ask you about potential media text topics, so give that some thought.

Check back in the 'Coursework' booklet to ensure you have all the important information in mind.

Some quantifiable data is a really good springboard, so invest some time in counting. Not necessarily in lesson time, as it is donkey work and you are better writing things I can check in class time but do it at home this week.

Remember formal style, PEE(EE) plus context but add in bullet points, tables etc. because it is not an essay.

Quotes do not count towards your word limit but the word limit is really tight, so keep focussed.

A2 Child Language Acquisition theories test

Child Language Acquisition key theories test

1. Whose theory stated we have an inbuilt sense of grammar and what did he call it?
2. What are two examples of overgeneralisation?
3. Describe what is happening when children use these examples (use terminology):
4. Whose theory was that children learn language through imitation?
5. What strategies did he use to ensure the rats learned that adults use when interacting with children (the terms for praise and correction)?
6. Whose theory was that you need interaction to learn language?
7. What was the case study that supported this theory (a boy’s name and what his situation was)?
8. Whose theory was that children can’t learn to use language about something that they don’t understand?
9. What is the name of that theory?
10. What is the acronym for the way which adults speak to children?
11. Give three examples of ways in which adults use CDS:

AS Language lesson work for 30/9/13

Welcome to Monday, my clevernesses!

Since you are doing an analysis of a style model under timed conditions in class tomorrow (in the second half of the lesson - we are doing peer assessments on your Geoffrey monologue excerpts for the first part), it is important you get more practice at PEE analysis of monologues.

Before we do that, I would like to introduce another framework. It is one that is very important for monologues as it is the SOUND element of language: 'phonology'. This can be anything from techniques we already know like alliteration and onomatopoeia to the use of accent, to new terms you should check out now : prosody/paralinguistics (which can be body language but has sound-related aspects too - what are they?)

1) Find a monologue (it can be far too short for coursework for this task, so an audition piece is fine - google 'monologues').
2) Post some context (what do we need to know about the play before we read the extract/analysis), an extract you have chosen to look at closely, and a PEE analysis (remember to mention the audience and to use terminology, quotes, and a formal style). Your analysis should be two paragraphs, focussing on two different frameworks. You must look at the implicature (how we understand what isn't actually said). That is from the framework 'pragmatics' but it should never be in a separate paragraph, it should always be talked about in combination with lexis, discourse, grammar, phonology etc.
3) Read and comment on as many other blogs as possible. I do take note of the comments made by others and it is an important part of thinking critically about your own work and others' and in expressing feedback usefully and tactfully and really engaging with both the text and the analysis.
4) Work on grammar - post a comment on this blog if you find a good site.
5) Read the comments made on your blog. You could post a redraft of your analysis once you have seen some others, read the comments on yours and thought about how to improve.

A2 coursework lesson 27/9/13

Thank you to those who posted their paragraph of analysis. I have commented on these where relevant. If you have not posted it, you cannot get any feedback.

Today we will be thinking about how to structure your analysis. It is not an essay. Not. An. Essay. It is an investigation and you are reporting your findings. You must do this in a clear but intellectually sophisticated way where the structure helps the reader to comprehend your thinking and your findings. Both parts are equally important so you must continually make comments that show you have thought about your findings and how reliable/relevant they are and whether they stand up to close examination in context - what are the exceptions? What would happen if you removed some of the exceptional results? What would be the picture then? How many actual results have made up that percentage? This is evaluation and it is one of the key criteria (it is not enough to only put evaluative comments in the Evaluation, you must put them in the Methodology, Analysis and Conclusion too.

So, regarding structure, you must organise your analysis. You will probably not be looking at each piece of data in detail so this is not a good way to organise your analysis (under transcript/article/song headings). It is better to think about getting an overview and explaining your findings either under different theories and how far they are supported/contradicted; or framework headings; orquestions you wanted to answer; or the features that you used to test your hypotheseis with; or any other suitable set of headings that makes you give an overview of the data each time (you can have sub-sub-headings that show which piece of data is being discussed if that clarifies things). You should have tables/charts/graphs to show quantifiable findings where at all possible and then use quotes in context to exemplify some of those findings to show close PEE(EE) skills and contextual understanding - remember to evaluate how reliable the findings are.

So plan how you will break down your analysis and start to test your hypothesis using quantifiable aspects, picking out examples of these aspects using PEE.

Post an explanation of how you are sub-dividing your analysis and why today, please.

A couple of interesting speeches - one on gender issues, one good for power, both use good techniques

Doc Brown on sexism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ-pIuL4-sQ&feature=youtu.be&a


Tim Minchin addressing graduates

http://www.timminchin.com/2013/09/

A2 coursework lesson 24/9/13

You should be happy with your data now and have a hypothesis to test. Choose a framework to test your hypothesis with and select an extract from your data to do a sample paragraph of analysis on.

Post your findings bearing in mind the following information to include:

• give us some context - what is the data and what are you looking for?
• which framework/technique or theory are you looking at the data through in the paragraph?
• a polished paragraph should include PEE(EE?)
• evaluate what you have found - does it seem significant/interesting?

Please comment on one anothers' analysis with questions, suggestions and positive aspects.

Speech style model: Malala Yousafzai's speech to the UN (she is only 16)

Here is the text of the speech in an Indedpendent article. Read particularly the section where she talks about being shot. Prepare to be impressed - she is only 16. See the speech video in the second link.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-full-text-malala-yousafzai-delivers-defiant-riposte-to-taliban-militants-with-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly-8706606.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23291897

AS Language Style models (ongoing homework for the next two weeks)

I know I haven't talked much about what makes a good style model. And I also know that people want to start thinking about it so here are a few thoughts.

To get an A or B, the text forms have to be 'ambitious' i.e. difficult to write in (e.g. difficult to get the conventions/voice/tone/lexis/structure right). They also have to show you can write for audiences other than just teenagers. Each text must be for a different APF. IT should also be of a suitable length that you can use in your coursework. The pieces should be (word-counts combined) between 1500 and 2500 words and neither piece should be shorter than 750.

The audience challenge means reading things you don't normally read - things that are not aimed at you.

You have to write your piece for the same APF/GAP as the piece you have chosen as your style model and use quite a few techniques from the style model (so you can't write your piece first and choose your style model afterwards!) so that you can explain how you were inspired by the style model and how you adapted the techniques to deal with very different content.

As I was saying last lesson, you can't, for instance, take a Guardian article about drugs and then write about drugs. You can use your reading as research of course, so if you are using a Guardian article about a flu pandemic as your style model and are writing about drugs, you can use all the research material, including Guardian articles about drugs, that you can lay your hands on to help you get your facts right! These articles (or textbooks, or whatever) mst be cited in your bibliography and you must ensure that you don't plagiarise any sources you have used for research (we will be working on that skill soon). So, your style model is not your source for research, it is good writing that you want to learn techniques from that will be suitable for your APF, because it will be for the same APF. It will teach you how to write your piece successfully.

You can start collecting possible style models now and then we can be discussing the portfolio of texts that you have collected so we can decide what you will write for your two pieces. We need to decide this in the next couple of weeks. You must find your own style models. Happy hunting!

P.S. Having said to you not to write reviews (it's film reviews that tend to be done really badly, but all reviews are a danger zone), here is one I enjoyed recently that is clever, about the right length, reasonably (but not hugely) challenging and quite accessible. Humour that works for the target audience is allowed! 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10261852/The-bear-facts-about-The-Great-British-Bake-Off.html

Irony in practice in a gender article

Many students ask me what irony is and this article illustates the use of the concept throughout. It is also interesting in its representation of gender.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/sep/18/how-to-pick-up-women-with-science

AS Lesson Mon 23rd

Good day, Fabulousnesses! AS always, read all the instructions first to get an overview.

Please remember if you have not done your homework, you cannot stay and play. Come back and sign in late when you are done. Make sure I see you as I have to say how many minutes late you were. Also remember, lateness is factored into attendance, so we will all be in trouble with Jude and this class does not deserve that, so sort yourselves out!

Today we are going to have another chance to look at and feed back on one another's blogs. I should have blog URLs for everyone by a few minutes in.

You can work together on this under one person's log-on, if you say in any comments that it is both people feeding back, and then you can discuss it. Or you can work solo. Stay logged on on your own computer as we will be doing solo tasks later.

1) Read my post on 'style models' and write down a reminder to do the homework. Then read any posts you haven't read by a range of your classmates and pick something significant worth commenting on. Ask questions, throw ideas into the mix, consider alternatives, point out subtleties other readers may not notice, or anything else that seems useful.

I really liked the posts in character that were used in response to the 'me' texts, so anything groovy like that will be welcomed.

I will be doing 1 to 1s with people about their assessed pieces. I have judged them against work I have read this year and in the past at this stage of the course but you have all come with different levels of prior experience and grades often reflect that, rather than ability.

After about 25 mins, you will move on (you decide when and/or I will remind you).

2) Do five minutes grammar work on Grammar Bytes or similar.
3) Then log into Moodle and go to our AS Language page.

• Go to ENGB2 Creating Texts.
• Then go to Original Pieces and then Coursework Materials.
• On the left-hand bar, you will see a long list of available resources for this unit headed 'Table of Contents'.
• Read the Powerpoint later, for homework
• Instead, read the section called 'Introduction to blogs' and the example blog - you will see it is quite formal, using low-frequency lexis and complex syntax.
• Find another well-written blog of your choice elsewhere on the internet. If you are not sure where to start, think of a topic you are interested in and skim-read blogs quickly to find a clever, well-written one. Go to a blogger you know and like? Or go to a reputable host-site for blogs like The Huffington Post and see what takes your fancy. Please comment on this blog if you find/know of another good hosting site for blogs or a great blogger.
• Write a post on your blog which links to the one you are analysing and give us an extract, analysis (using quotes) and which techniques you would take from it if you were to write a blog. Are there any aspects you can see which might not work so well for the apparent target audience and why?

4) Go back to commenting on people's blogs and/or grammar when you have finished. Don't forget to read all the comments on your own blog and on other peole's posts.These are often great opportunities to learn somehting extra from the texts.

A2 Coursework info for today's lesson

Now that you have evaluated your data to ensure that it is the right data (enough data, selected reliably etc.), you need to make sure you have done enough theory reading to get a hypothesis (or two or three hypotheses).

A hypothesis should be based on your understanding of what you might expect from your data, based on your theory reading. It should be in the form of a declarative that reflects a theory/research (even if that is not actually what you believe you are going to find!). You will test the hypothesis with your data and it is just as interesting to find the opposite rather than 'prove' your hypothesis.

While we are on the subject of proving/disproving, I must state categorically that you must not do either! You should evaluate how far hypotheses are supported or contraditcted based on what you find and how representative your data is. This should happen all the way through your analysis - 'evaluate' is one of the key criteria and you have already begun to hit it in your methodologies; you must also evaluate how far the data supports research in your analysis.

Please post your hypothesis as a declarative (statement) onto your blog and add underneath which frameworks/techniques you will be exploring to test it. E.g. if I were looking at a group of students (males and females) doing two different tasks (co-operative and competetive), I could use Deborah Tannen's Difference theory to hypothesise that 'no matter which task they are undertaking, males will be use more competetive language and women will use more co-operative language'. I would then need to look at some key techniques that I was initially identifying as either 'competetive' or 'co-operative' (I would evaluate whether that was actually the case in context during my analysis) e.g. interrruptions and imperatives (these could be quantified) as competetive and interrogatives and back-channel agreement as co-operative). I could also look at Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies to help me to talk about techniques used, so a secondary hypothesis might be 'therefore, men will use more on-record and positive face strategies while women will use more negative face and indirect strategies.' I could see what I find before I decide what would be useful to quantify in proving (supporting!) or disproving (contradicting!) that. I suspect that all the sentence moods would be very important. I know I could link to (and evaluate the usefulness of the flawed study by) Zimmerman and West when discussing the data, and also Tannen's other pairs (e.g. status vs support) so I could be confident of a good range of theory to help me test my data (and show off to the coursework marker/moderators). I would also have plenty to choose from when deciding what to write about in my media text (so keep that in mind).

Only when you are sure you know what your research tells you should you start analysing your data properly, so you know what to look for and comment on and you can link it all back to your hypothesis throughout, creating a cohesive analysis.

Please also check the coursework booklet for the overview of how the sections of the coursework break down. Your analysis can be broken up under framework headings, questions, techniques you are focussing on or any other way of helping to get a methodical structure that helps the reader see your scientific process in analysing your data.

Start your analysis when you are confident you are ready.

Good luck!

A2 lesson work - data analysis

Now is the time to evaluate your data. Use these questions to help you and post your thoughts to your blog.

1. Do you feel it is a representative sample of the whole data pool?
2. Does it offer enough data to analyse/test your hypothesis with/write 1500 words about? Is there too much data to handle and how will you select from within that data pool if so (you don't have to closely analyse each piece of data - just the significant aspects of the whole data sample in context - but you will have to be able to go through it all to count whatever it is you need to count/quantify).
3. What can you quantify/tabulate?
4. Are there any more useful aspects of your data that you were not originally going to look at? Do you need to change the focus of your investigation as a result (- see me urgently)?
5. How does the theory you have read so far illuminate your data (what does theory tell you to look for that you have found or found the opposite)?

Choose which frameworks and/or other sub-headings will be most useful for testing your hypothesis e.g. for examining sociolect you might use lexis and grammar.

Start annotating your data but keep a clean copy. Annotate it with what jumps out at you as interesting/unusual/significant first of all, then go through it again with theory in mind, again with frameworks in mind and then again with your hypothesis in mind. Get to know your data really well. Then revisit questions 1-5 again before you start to write up your analysis.

I will want your introductions, methodologies and analysis drafts in on Monday the 4th November. These need to be redrafted and polished several times before I see them. Use test readers, read it aloud, check any grammar you are not sure of. If I get something shoddy in, I will not mark it and you will forfeit your chance to get detailed feedback. You need this feedback to do well, I assure you. Sometimes big changes need to be made, once we can see how it is all working together. This, I am afraid, is part of the process and why the draft deadline is so early. We will start the media texts when the analysis is well underway and I will set the deadline for the draft of that when I know what is reasonable. After the October holiday, we will be writing conclusions and evaluations, so I can see those and get them back to you before Christmas. I will give the investigations and media texts together a final check over before the fixed deadline for coursework submission of 20th Jan.

AS lesson work 16/9/13

Alright, you gorgeousnesses - time for some terminology use! You should take about 35-40 minutes for the first task and 35-40 minutes for the second. Write down the homework as soon as you have read all the instructions (which you will obviously do before you start task one!).

You have been learning some key terms to prepare you for doing some A-Level analysis, so here is your first opportunity. Try and use as many of the terms as you can, so I can see if you are using them correctly (and applying them will help you to remember them).

1) Watch the Youtube clips, pick one and comment (using quotes and terminology) about how the writer of the comedy plays with language (write 2-3 paragraphs). Decide what is interesting, decide what terminology you can use to describe it, plan your analysis and then post it to your blog. Don’t forget to do any preparation work on your post in Word in case of random shut-downs etc.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt--2ASTg7k (Armstrong and Miller RAF pilots 'D-Day' - please note that the characters are very politically incorrect while claiming to be well-versed in "diversity" issues)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNEWatD0viw (Bill Bailey parody of 1300s poetry by Chaucer using some modern language)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08 (Blackadder - Prince George meets the writer of the first really comprehensive English Dictionary, Dr Johnson)

2) Then look back at your text about yourself. Just as you will do in your coursework, I want you to write a commentary explaining what techniques you used (and how and why). As you did with the analysis of the comedy, think about what is interesting/significant and then select two points (from two different frameworks) to explain. Plan it then HANDWRITE it - I want to see your handwriting, spelling and grammar (as you would use it in the exam if you took one now). Crossing out and editing is fine: please do proofread it and edit it before putting your name on it and handing it in to me this lesson. If you handwrite your plan, I would like that too. Really think about the APF/GAP and what I need to know.

Homework for next Monday (don't forget to check you've done tomorrow's homework on changing the register of a text of your choice and posted it in a large font): choose a text that you like that plays with langage and post some explanation/analysis (using quotes as well as giving us an extract/link). It could be a comedy sketch, a song, a poem or anything you like (edit any taboo language where possible unless you are specifically and tactfully discussing it). Post it BY Monday's lesson not at the beginning of Monday's lesson, please. 

Wow! I work you hard! Please don't be afraid to tell me if you are struggling but really try to manage your time.