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.