AS Language computer room lesson 1/3/16

It's Fair Trade fortnight and I wanted to use resources linked to this to explore terms and ideas to use in Paper 1 (analyse two texts separately then compare them). This work should bring together some of the work on representation that we have done so far. you should be able to do most of the analysis and write-up in class but you should finish the task and post the three-part answer (a, b and c) to the following question on your blog by Friday (4th March).

The question is 'how are meanings and representations communicated in the two texts?'

a) The first text is an official website (ActionAid) providing teaching resources for Fair Trade fortnight. Use the following questions and terms to help you explore it but your answer should be structured like an essay in PEE paragraphs:

• Identify the GRAPE and select some key conventions/techniques that relate to the GRAPE across a range of frameworks/levels (grammar, lexis, discourse etc - particularly explore how graphology supports meanings made through language)
• Look at all the conventions of the form (website) and how these are used to make meanings and representations e.g. they might link to other reputable organisations to make them seems more reliable, or characterise the organisation in particular ways e.g. as professional ("get a job at ActionAid" hyperlink). Use the terms 'affordances' (benefits of the genre/mode i.e. what the technological aspects of the form allow the producer to do/achieve/communicate) and 'constraints' (the limitations of the form i.e. what the website cannot do or can only do in a limited way - try to tentatively establish the effect of constraints and how the producer mitigates/compensates for these).
• choose a range of points that cover meanings, representations and different aspects of the form (including affordances and constraints) and plan an answer. 

b) The second text is a Daily Mail article on research into fair trade.

• Again establish the effect of the GRAPE on language choices
• Then explore the representations of Fair Trade, the workers, the researchers, The Daily Mail etc.
• Look for significant patterns in the language (quotes you could group together that work in similar ways or for similar effects)
• choose a range of points that cover meanings, representations and different aspects of the form ensuring that you can use plenty of terminology across a range of frameworks (lexis, grammar, discourse, graphology etc.) and that you can link all of the analysis to the GRAPE then plan an answer

c) compare the two texts

• spot connections and contrasts across the two texts, focussing on the theme they have in common but also considering how and why they diverge
• choose quotes that you can connect and contrast because they are comparable (e.g. they both use interrogatives/noun phrases/metaphors or other shared techniques; they both talk about the Fair Trade initiative; they are both critical of something; they both refer to outside agencies etc.) 
• ensure that you talk aboiut how the meanings and representations that are made are similar and different using terminology from a range of frameworks
• plan an answer and write up all three answers on your blog

AO1 terminology, clear PEE with linked points and clustered (linked/grouped) quotes
AO3 show how the context affects the linguistic techniques used (why those techniques are used in that way for that audience and purpose, and how the form/genre affects language use)

World Englishes - Texan dialect

For the AS exams, it is just British English but for the second year, we widen out to world Englishes and look at variation internationally. Here is a marketing website for living in/working in/visiting Texas, giving readers a friendly insight into how to converge with local speakers. What are the features of the local dialect (using terminology)?

Essay competition

Should you fancy having a look, here are the English essay questions to choose from for the Peterhouse essay competitions.

If you are considering entering, please contact me asap as each sixth form is limited to two entrants - we may not have any but there might need to be a pre-judging process.

A2 computer room lesson 29/2/16 prescriptive and descriptive attitudes to language change

Descriptivenesses,

it is important to consider attitudes to language change. Two key terms you must get into your essay (apart from diachronic and synchronic) are the terms for the two contrasting attitudes: prescriptive and descriptive.

A descriptive attitude is the one we try to take where you observe and try to objectively record what is happening linguistically, exploring why it might be.

A prescriptive attitude is giving a judgement about whether language use/change is 'good' or 'bad', 'correct' or 'incorrect'.

We realised in Tuesday's lesson that, although prescriptive attitudes have been discovered in texts written in the early centuries AD, it was only after standardisation (through dictionaries and grammar texts in the 1700s) that prescriptivists could make specific claims about what was right and wrong with any authority. You must remember that these texts (grammar texts and dictionaries) were written by self-appointed 'experts' and the only reason that their ideas about what was correct and incorrect became authoritative was the popularity of their texts (we, as English speakers, agree on what constitutes a valid part of our language - if it doesn't 'catch on', it won't be in our language).

Here is a detailed discussion from The Guardian linking attitudes to language change to attitudes to fashion and exploring that analogy. Read the text closely, looking up the links too. Then research Jean Aitchison's metaphors for prescriptive attitudes to language change. Then sum up some ideas about attitudes to language change on your blog, thinking about the tems and theories/concepts you could link to in the exam.

Representation of race - Beyonce

Here is some wider reading that is a discourse on race with a focus on the issue created by Beyonce's 'Formation' lyrics and her performance at the Superbowl. These are controversial texts and should be read with an objective eye as to how race is represented through language choices. This is just a few texts to explore some aspects of the issue. Feel free to leave your own links with suitable trigger warnings.

These are the texts we read in class. BET is Black Entertainment Television, and the first article gives the lyrics of the song (including the taboo language).  http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/news/a53296/beyonce-formation-lyrics/      http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/14/beyonce-profile-black-power-super-bowl-civil-rights       http://www.bet.com/news/music/2016/02/12/ne-yo-backs-beyonce-saying-she-has-the-right-to-discuss-race-and.html  

These are further articles for close consideration of how language is used to represent race (and Beyonce as a black woman):

A student-run news site sums up the issue in a particular light  http://easterneronline.com/36992/opinion/beyonces-superbowl-halftime-show-not-racist/

Rod Liddle for The Spectator about football and racism has some controversial aspects:  http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/beyonce-at-the-super-bowl-i-prefer-the-anti-racists-of-millwall/

Look at where the emphasis is and the terms applied to race here: http://myfox8.com/2016/02/23/why-the-beyonce-controversy-is-bigger-than-you-think/

This impassioned rant: http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/02/22/beyonce/

A2 computer room lesson 22/2/16

Diachronics,

in a bit, we are going to research the etymology and semantic shoft or some words. first, I would like you to upload your media texts to Turnitin. You will need to take out any images but I would still like captions, headings etc. Please cut and paste bibliographies in too. Remember it has to be only one file. You can find the assignment in the coursework section on our Moodle page - if there are any probems uploading, let me know straight away.

I will come around and assign you one of these words (they are polysemes and can also be found in idioms and collocations so incluide all the shades of meaning with examples); if you have another you would like to do, let me know. Please read the instructions below before you start.

wicked
friend
like
bit
awesome
gay
level
chill
paper
green
meat
place
father

Produce a blog post and a powerpoint (notes only on the PPT) that explores the etymology and the stages of semantic development of the word. As I said above, use examples of the word in collocations, cliches, titles, blends etc to show how the word has different shades of meaning in different contexts. Use terminology wherever possible and tentatively suggest WHY the word has changed in denotation and connotation diachronically (pressures on language change).

Punctuation and style

This is a fascinating article with some great infographics. This kind of data would make for a great basis for a coursework investigation for Language students moving into the second year of the course or as an insight into how literary writers create particular styles for Lang Lit.

AQA's list of terminology for 2017 onwards

This is a link to the AQA list of possible terms to use. Many of them point to post-AS topics such as writing to..., child language acuisition, world Englishes and language change. This is for your interest, not as a (very) long list of terms to learn. It might help you think about the different ways terms are grouped by the exam board and your own understanding of terms you have already come across. I was slightly appalled to see that they have changed their definition of 'register' from formality to, well, it isn't quite clear, but what I have always understood to be register, they are now calling 'style'. So we had best use their new term.

Language and representation - privilege (wealth/class)

This is from The Poke which is a chiefly humorous site with an undercurrent of political satire. These are 'hearsay' and proabbly crafted for effect but 'Highgate Waitrose mums' are being represented in a particular way here, both in the language itself and in selecting and editing this body of 'evidence' together. Please comment on where you can see privilege encoded in the language choices (how are these speakers represented) - just pick one or two aspects to leave plenty for others to comment on. As always, the GRAPE is vital to consider.

A2 computer room lesson 15/2/16

Deadline-nesses,

time to polish titles, hypotheses and media text hooks. I will come and look over each person's shoulder for five minutes where I would like to see all three of those things (get them ready on separate screens to flick between) and then anything else you'd like to look at that we have time for.

Peer and self-assessment:

investigation

• insight (subtler points)
• evaluative approach e.g. use of words like revealing, significant, relevant 
• systematic (equal depth for each point with terminology used precisely several times per paragraph and related to theory and explicitly to the hypothesis)
• discussion of what quantification can/cannot reveal
• considerations of comparability, reliablity and ethicality (as far as it is relevant) in both the methodology and the evaluation
• clear guiding of the reader with sub-headings within the methodology, analysis and conclusion and little overview paras for each section
• explanation of how far the hypotheses are supported/contradicted with tentative contextual exploration of the relevant GRAPE pressures, offering alternatives

media text

• suitable hook
• all the relevant conventions
• all linguistic content transformed for non-specialist readers
• suitablility for specific audience(s)
• accuracy of SPAG

Lang/Lit and A2 CLA - Michael Rosen (brilliant man!) on testing poetry

This sickens me beyond belief - I know that poetry is worth studying but reducing it to communicating information that can be straightforwardly and completely understood is fundamentally missing the point of poetry! 'Right answers' my eye!

Making up for lost time suggestion - ALL STUDENTS PLEASE READ

Wonderfulls,

I've been thinking about this after talking to AS Language and hearing that the vast majority don't want to miss any lesson time to catch up; perhaps I could suggest to management that I come in on a day I don't work (Wed or Thurs) and offer small-group and 1-2-1 tutorials with whoever wants to sign up in their frees, lunch etc - I suppose around 15 mins per person, so a group of three gets 45 mins?

It would need to be well-subscribed to for it to be worth the college paying me for a day but I think it would be a really valuable opportunity for you to bring marked work to me for help improving it, get some terminology or theory help, or look at a text with me - whatever you would like to do (I could help you decide if you need pointers). If it was well-subscribed to, we could potentially do more than one day.

Thoughts:

a) does that sound like a useful amount of time?
b) are there problems with the days?
c) would it seem useful?
d) would you definitely sign up?
e) any other suggestions or comments?

Gender and representation - stop generalising about dads

This post that's doing the rounds on Facebook makes it clear that it's important not to make generalisations based on gender, as much about men as about women because 'children' is one of the most significant areas where the gender equality is imbalanced in the other direction

Great post clarifying pronouns - essential reading for everyone!

I've been banging on about everyone getting ther basic grammar right and this is one of the clearest walk-throughs of pronouns for A-Level students I have ever seen. If you are struggling with reading it all through, come back a few times and try and pick up a bit each time. The links to language change and gender issues are particularly helpful.

AS holiday work 05/2/16

It is interesting to look at where the idea of representation intersects with the work we have done on gender.

First, read this and then try and find three (or more) examples of texts where a gender is represented in a particular way. Here are some ideas but you can look at anythig you think might be interesting/relevant. You could look into the way in which (trigger warning) Roosh V represents men and women and why some people want to ban him from the country. Or look at how the same product e.g. deodorant, razors or even pens (Lady Bic) are sold through different language for men and women - how are the audiences represented by the language describing what would appeal to them? Or look at an article that discusses advertising campaigns like Always #likeagirl or this one about asymmetric terms like a boss/bossy from Pantene. Really try and look closely at the connotations of language choices that the producers use. You could look at some of the other gender posts on my blog and see how gender issues are described in a way that represents particular genders in specific ways. Don't forget to apply as much terminology as you can.

We will share those texts in groups onthe first lesson back and keep hold of them for when we start comparing texts.

Learn your basic grammar terms and as much terminology as you can.

Anyone who hasn't given me their gender discussion essay can work on it and give it to me the first lesson back.

How we can make up for missed time - ALL STUDENTS read please

Wonderfulls,

Sophie has been asking me how we can make up for missed time. I have talked to a few people about an option of getting you all off timetable for a half-day or a day to get together and get some intensive input. It would mean each class would get a different day - the implication of which would be that St Brendan's would get a supply teacher in to cover my other lessons for the day and I would set work. So you would get 4 lessons on a full day with me, but miss other subjects and you would miss one or two more English lessons with me but they would be lessons with a supply teacher that I set.

I need your thoughts, please, on the following (either comment here or email me asap):

1. what is your impression of how far behind you feel as a result of my absence?
2. would you like a full day of intensive catchup? A half day? Neither? Why?
3. can you go to the workshop at 2.30 on Wednesdays if you want to?  - I strongly suggest it if you can 
4. what other suggestions of what would help can you think of?

Please comment unless it is not appropriate to do so so you can respond to each other's thoughts.

Scouse dialect and Google translate

I haven't tried Google Translate but I love how if I use my cut crystal RP, Google Search's voice option will accurately search (even for outlandish computer game content queries) exactly what I asked for,  99% of the time. It is, apprently, starting to handle regional accents too. But dialect, says this writer, is a bridge too far. Really good for Language students to have a range of Liverpudlian dialect examples.

Top blog for Lang - ALL AS LANG STUDENTS

This blog is by Dan Clayton who is a teacher of Language and a trainer for the exam board. Follow closely!

AS Language computer room lesson 2/2

Perspicaciousnesses,

we are working on 'representation' at the moment and I need you to get used to seeing how someone or something is represented (comes across) and identifying techniques that create that impression.

1) please comment on the posts of those who have selected a text, identifying how you think the producer is represented and identifying at least one technique using terminology that communicates that.

2) please select a text from a charity or another organisation and post a link or (preferably) a screenshot to your blog and discuss how the organisation is represented. Consider aspects like use of pronouns, organisational power, adjectives, concrete or abstract nouns, transitive or intransitive verbs, politeness strategies and anything else you can think of.

3) then comment on some of these posts, adding to the analysis others have done and identifying where you think someone has done well.

4) If you have time, comment on one of my blog posts