Another interesting article about the same campaign as my other post - A-Level students this time.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2013/jun/20/why-i-started-a-feminist-society

Thursday 20th/Friday 21st June's lesson work (and homework if necessary)

1) Comment on at least 6 analysis posts according to the instructions given on my email
2) Work though the sections in the yellow booklet on comparable/reliable/ethical data and post your answers to your blog for me to check
3) Comment on your own analysis about whether the data you suggested you would collect would be suitable and why/why not then let me know and I will read your thoughts and reply
4) Read the 'possible investigations' on one of my blog posts and discuss with a partner which would be problematic and why - what better suggestions could you come up with? What are two or three suitable ideas for you to investigate? Check with me.
5) Read up on more theory and choose some sample data that would help you work out if your actual investigation suggestion(s) would work well and use the activity on page 6 to work through it
6) Be ready by Tuesday to write a draft plan of how to collect your real data (your methodology) for me to check - we will write it in the lesson so you can get help and you will give it in by the end of the lesson (we will also be working on media texts)

Media text - be on the lookout for articles about language

Here's an article about language for non-linguists, which is exactly what you have to write for your media text - this one doesn't look at any of the theory areas we will be covering but it does attempt to simplify the science for the 'lay person', so it is really helpful for seeing the kind of complexity and tone an educated reader (who is a non-specialist) expects.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/20/where_does_language_come_from/

Language and gender - interesting data

This is a link to students at Cambridge's thoughts on why feminism is needed, written on mini-whiteboards.

This kind of data is exciting to me and would make an interesting investigation data set if you could be aware of all the contextual factors e.g. possibly find out how the data was selected, grouped etc from the person publishing the campaign or speculate about that thoughtfully if you can't find it out. Or better still reproduce the investigation with a different set of participants - you could do an investigation similar to that before the end of term using St brendan's students (if you get each one to sign an 'informed consent' form that I could help you devise). Be on the look out for interesting data!

http://awkwardsituationist.tumblr.com/post/52817821994/cambridge-university-students-were-asked-on-campus

class blogs

I have emailed you all the blog URLs and the instructions for commenting so please check your college emails :)

The following are some coursework topics sent to us by the moderator. Some of these seem more suitable than others - are the ideas going to provide data that is comparable/ethical/reliable? Read them all to generate ideas so that you can discuss possibilities with me and then collect some sample data.

Examples of possible areas for investigation

1.    Language change e.g. recipes, magazines, children’s books.

2.    Gender issues e.g. Jamie Oliver vs Delia Smith, Richard and Judy, Jo and Twiggy, Des and Mel.

3.    Comparison of language in news programmes – R4, newsbeat, local radio

4.    Interview techniques e.g. Paxman, Parkinson, Jonathan Ross.

5.    Study of transcribed examples of a regional variety of spoken English – accent and dialect.

6.    Observations of how parents speak to children.

7.    Analysis of a stretch of everyday discourse e.g. making requests, gender mix in conversation, telephone calls, Big Brother, sales talk, greetings, gossip, funeral speeches, occupational variations (politicians, lawyers, detectives, doctors, hairdressers…the list is endless).

8.    Comedy styles – stand-up, sitcom, taboo.

9.    An investigation into strategies of human politeness behaviour and whether these are age related.

10.  Analysis of differences between spoken and written English e.g. radio v. press, news or sports reports.

11.  Observations of young children learning to speak read or write.

12.  Exploration of stylistic features of media forms e.g. magazines, tv programmes, websites. Look at how language is related to the audience.

13.  Do women have less confidence than men in their recognition and use of computer related jargon?

14.  How is slang used differently by 16-19 year old students at one state and one private sixth form institution?

15.  An investigation into the gendered use of taboo language.

16.  Has the use of occupational titles changed over time?

17.  Is there a gendered difference in the use of text messaging language forms?

18.  Is there any evidence to suggest that the language of text messaging is undergoing any of the processes of standardisation?

19.  Does the degree of friendship influence the power dynamics of conversation between same sex pairs of teenage friends?

20.  Do common linguistic definitions of gendered language match ordinary people’s perceptions?

21.  Does British English of the last fifteen years still encode sexism?

22.  The Language of Beer Mats

23.  The Language of Toy adverts (Gender-related)

24.  The Lang of Nursery/Playground rhymes

25.  The Lang of Lonely Hearts columns

26.  The Lang of Car/Food/Cosmetic adverts

27.  The Lang of Dystopias (sci-fi,etc)

28.  The Lang of a Literature text – eg “The Color Purple”

29.  The Lang of Charity letters

30.  The Lang of Comics (gender issues)

31.  The Lang of Girls/Boys Annuals (re: Lang Change/Gender issues)

32.  The Lang of Political Speeches

33.  The Lang of Childrens’ books

34.  The Lang of Club Flyers

Fab interactive piece in The Guardian

Go to this link and wait a few seconds. I don't think it works in college but it's worth looking at.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/14/glenn-greenwald-reader-profile-interactive#578

Interesting language use - church slogans

Within two miles in Brislington, these two slogans can be seen on posters outside churches. Who might the target audiences be? Tentative comments please. 

God sez luv 1anuva cos I luv u.    and      Love your enemies. After all, you made them. 

Enrichment week next week - new event

There is a poster of all the interesting events going on for English Enrichment Week but I just wanted to let you know of one that is particularly useful for A2 Language which is a last-minute replacement for an author who is ill - a psychology professor from Bristol Uni whose specialisation is linguistic aspects of psychology. It would really help with Child Language Acquisition but is generally very interesting anyway (my colleague, Mei, has seen the talk already). It is Wednesday lesson 1 in C105 - don't be late! Please comment or let me know if you are interested in going so I can let Mei know about numbers, but you can go along anyway if you find yourselves suddenly free!

Language investigations are tricky but so interesting!

The sample data links below give you some idea of the kind of speech that would be interesting to transcribe and analyse and the areas of theory that could be used to do this but you don't HAVE to do spoken data for your investigation (it's just the most impressive form of data collection). 

You Tube clips that are collected with no scientific basis are frowned on by the exam board so it is better to get similar real world data or find a rationale (scientific reasons) for the clips you choose e.g. the most watched adverts or using a random number generator to tell you which clips to pick from your You Tube search list. Please ask if you are unsure.

It is important to have practice with spoken data and transcription so produce really good transcripts that are worth analysing in close detail.

Instructions and links to sample data clips (also on the A2 Moodle page - use Old Moodle and search for 'language' in 'search courses'  until the new site is running):

Before you choose the type of data you would like to investigate, we will do some activities to help you see what might work well by looking at some sample data.

Watch all the following You Tube clips, then choose one/two to transcribe. Use the transcription conventions on the next page to transcribe the data then answer the following questions. Use the answers to form the basis of a Powerpoint for the class on what you have found and what it has made you think of for potential investigations.

1. What is interesting about the language used? (annotate the data)
2. What theory could you use when analysing the transcript? (add more annotation)
3. What other data could you collect that would compare with it?
4. What could you title an investigation into data like this? (Use the title format of an interrogative e.g. How does… or a declarative e.g. An investigation into…
5. What real data could you collect (rather than just going to You Tube?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW9ENhFoWBE (The Apprentice – Language and Power)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kORINpVUEtE (USA Fox network discussion - ‘challenging’ Language and Gender)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4PvRZi3XY (‘Geordie Shore’ interview – easier Language and Gender - transcribe up to time reference 2:06 “being your wife forever”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EertzeHjM&feature=related (Child directed speech - Child Language Acquisition)

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

Your Powerpoint or other presentation about your findings should include:

• Which data you chose and why
• What you found and what theory you linked it to
• What other data you could choose to go with it or replace it with to make an investigation
• What you would call that investigation