Super-wonderfulls,
start with some of the terminology games on the next post down. Spend up to 25 mins or you can do one and come back in between the other tasks.
Next browse a few online dictionaries (look at the same word over several dictionaries and do this a few times, looking at a range across formal, colloquial and technical words etc.) and look at the list of conventions that are used - how do they help the audience to gain a full understanding of the word and its uses? Don't forget the urban dictionary and look at the comments, if it is not firewalled! You may well get a dictionary entry in the exam but it will be a long one like the Oxford English Dictionary online (not the same as the Oxford Dictionary Online) which is a subscription service - we will look at some examples in class but you need to bring a good pragmatic understanding of dictionary conventions. Note them down on your blog.
Log on to Cambridge Elevate and use the 'menu' button to see that chapters 16 and 22 are on Language Change - you can work through them independently. This is the new specification, not the one you are studying, but anything on Language Change is usable in the exam - your texts will be from 1700 on and you will get a choice of two questions - one will be a single text and one will be a comparison. They could be synchronic or diachronic focusses.
After this, find an article that displays prescriptive attitudes to language changing and print it out. Annotate it with which of Aitchison's metaphors for prescriptive attitudes are in evidence and explore how the attitudes are communicated (terminology for techniques needed and reference to the GRAPE). Put a summary on your blog and bring the text to next lesson.
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