A2 computer room lesson 26/4/16

Post-mocknesses,

please use this lesson to address any issues that you know arose from the mocks. Which theories do you need to brush up on, which facts do you need to memorise, what do you need to read more about? Post your targets as comments below and post the results to your blog.

Gender - women's language in the boardroom

Here's a 2011 article from The Guardian presenting some research findings. Don't take them at face value - look at how they are presented. AS - you could memorise some of this for the exam.

Steven Pinker, Michael Rosen and Laura Wright on CLA

A Radio 4 programme well worth listening to for CLA.

AS Lang computer room lesson 26/4/16

Opinionateds,

hers's a chance to apply the 'occupation' theories you have in front of you to a Section B (opinion writing) question.

Read this article up to the line "does she live where people work?"

Write an opinionated article about the use of work language in other contexts.

I super-love this writing style guide!

A witty guide to the pitfalls and safe roads of grammar.

Lang Lit writing radio/TV scripts

Here is a good resource for working on the skills needed for TV/radio scripts in case they come up on the creative task for Paper 1.

Lang Lit - A Satirical Elegy...

Here's a link to Guardian writer Carol Rumens's discussion of the poem.

Here's a more detailed exploration on Encyclopedia.com.

Here are some mind-mapped notes from a student that are useful.

British Library links on accent and dialect (Lang and Lang/Lit)

Tune your ear and think about language varieties with The British Library.

Lang and Lang Li - when a phoneme matters

A useful text that helps us to think about a single sound (phoneme - the smallest unit of sound) changing and using technical terms about phonemes to describe what is happening - high class analysis!

Thinking about English at uni?

This looks good - an advisor is coming in to talk about where English or Languagees can lead in terms of careers. If you are considering English (or Languages) follow this link to check out when the talk is and maybe sign up to a 1-to-1.

Recent research on accents (accent and dialect and LC)

This is a useful Telegraph article on executive accents.

This is a 2006 BBC poll on accents. Interesting findings that we prefer accents from near our own home.

A nicely put mix of academic and persuasive approach that is a bit under-transformed for a non-specialist audience but useful for you guys.

AS computer room 19/4/16

Theoreticals,

get ready for your accent and dialect practice paper on Friday by revising and researching and learning quotes and quantified findings and by reading (and noting down the techniques from) opinion pieces (starting with the one below).

I've found an opinion piece that includes some quite heavy concepts and research - the exam board would love it if it were about language, except it doesn't do enough of breaking down opposing ideas (although it does so quite successfully in the caption which is a pull-quote) and it assumes you know who figures like Keynes are (I do and so would anyone in the target audience but they won't know gender theorists for example).

Read through the article and evaluate the effectiveness of techniques (so that you can see how to use them yourself) such as:

• headline
• strapline
• caption
• facts/research/quotes
• discourse markers like "in fact", "just", "take climate change", "obviously", "nevertheless", "particularly" etc.
• short sentences/paragraphs for effect
• metaphors and similes
• hyperlinks
• emotive language
• opinion mixed with fact 

Plan some suitable research/quotes/metaphors, emotive points that are likely to be usable on Friday (and, of course, in the exam!).

Oliver Kamm on prescriptive attitudes

Descriptivenesses,

here is a review of Kamm's interesting exploration of the pedantic rules prescriptivists are touting and how inconsistent they are.

Here is another review (from The Guardian). It is a much harder read but worth having a look at if you want to stretch yourself - skim and scan if you need to.

Labov's Fourth Floor study (Language and occupation, accent and dialect, investigations)

This, in Labov's own words, is a useful explanation of the study. It shows how he took factors such as comparablity and the observer's paradox into account and it gives you more depth to use in your discussion. Try and read at least pages 168-170 inclusive but if you can bear to go further, do! Skim and scan the rest if you like and pick out what you can. Make good notes of years, findings, quotes, page references etc.

Miss/Mrs/Ms (Gender/Language Change)

This is an interesting debate and this article from 2009 highlights some of the main issues.

What is a discourse community?

This is a good page for explaining this clearly :)

Language change: what to say about the long s

If you have a text from the 1700s, it may contain the long s. this orthography became obsolete during a long-term process of simplification that the language is still undergoing (what is fading synchronically?).

This Wikipedia page has some good content to link in as part of a discussion of diachronic change - ignore the middle section on other languages and make sure you read the last section.

Language varieties - Englishes

Jamila Lyiscott uses her three Englishes to show what is "articulate".

AS computer room lesson 12/4/16

Opinionateds,

Please do research to help you do more in-depth points about the relevant theories/ideas then plan a speech on gender. If you need to, use the conventions of a speech that is aimed at the same kind of audience you are trying to engage - I looked for a speech on accents or dialects but the only one I found was so unconventional (poetic) that it wouldn't serve as a style model. But I posted it (next post) because it's brilliant and great for the second year of A-Level when we do world Englishes. Watch it some other time.

1) use the sheet I gave you yesterday to identify areas for further research and research anything you need for your opinion article on attitudes to accents/dialects that you are writing for Friday
2) research and revise gender theories to explore in a speech from an opinion-giving perspective and post ideas to your blog about what you could write/speak about:

• What opinion could you give about how language is affected by gender/gender issues/gender stereotypes? What do you think is interesting about language and gender?
• Which theories could you inform your audience (who and where are they?) about that would support your opinion?
• What are some opposing views (remember to knock them down)? Can you find any quotes from theorists or celebrities to support or argue against you?
• Plan a four-paragraph answer and write the headline/strapline/intro and post to your blog

Broken grammar rules

1. Make sure each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
2. Just between you and I, the case of pronoun is important.
3. Watch out for irregular verbs which have crope into English.
4. Verbs has to agree in number with their subjects.
5. Don't use no double negatives.
6. Being bad grammar, a writer should not use dangling modifiers.
7. Join clauses good like a conjunction should.
8. A writer must be not shift your point of view.
9. About sentence fragments.
10. Don't use run-on sentences you got to punctuate them.
11. In letters essays and reports use commas to separate items in series.
12. Don't use commas, which are not necessary.
13. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
14. Its important to use apostrophes right in everybodys writing.
15. Don't abbrev.
16. Check to see if you any words out.
17. In the case of a report, check to see that jargonwise, it's A-OK.
18. As far as incomplete constructions, they are wrong.
19. About repetition, the repetition of a word might be real effective repetition - take, for instance the repetition of Abraham Lincoln.
20. In my opinion, I think that an author when he is writing should definitely not get into the habit of making use of too many unnecessary words that he does not really need in order to put his message across.
21. Use parallel construction not only to be concise but also clarify.
22. It behooves us all to avoid archaic expressions.
23. Mixed metaphors are a pain in the neck and ought to be weeded out.
24. Consult the dictionery to avoid mispelings.
25. To ignorantly split an infinitive is a practice to religiously avoid.
26. Last but not least, lay off cliches.

The above was taken from a reprint at http://lib.ru/ANEKDOTY/orfograf.txt.

Brilliant Language Change or discourse communities article - Language students must read!

This Guardian article explores the benefits of discourse communities having their own exclusive language. These could be explored in terms of occupational language, sociolect, communities of practice, ways in which language has been modified and/or the effects of context on how language is used. Or in many other ways! Learn the terms and make sure you apply ones you already know where relevant e.g. sociolect, covert prestige etc. I love the term cryptolect and I will be using that again!

For AS, look at how quite heavily linguistic content is adapted for a non-specialist reader.

A2 Language computer room lesson 11/4/16

Returningnesses,

so little time left together! So many amazing things about the English Language still to discover!

Let's do some 1700s work (the oldest texts you may get on the exam paper are from the 1700s) with a little research and poetry.

Firstly, I know it's not very good yet but take a look at this very, very rough draft – can you spot the non-standard uses prescriptivists hate? Please comment with suggestions for re-drafting, observations or questions :)

Prescriptivism
(the idea in the study of English Language that some uses of language are right and proper and some are wrong)
I’m piffed off
Because some 18^th century rules are well slow to die
(Not the one where esses were effs, obvs – that’s gone)
Language change is goals AF but some don’t agree...

What is the world coming to?
No apostrophe in Waterstones?
Is it literally the end of the civilised world?

And is it the done thing
To sadly wave goodbye to ‘manners’ and ‘decorum’
While the engines of language change are all like
“FML what is your problem?”
And tweeting things that prescriptivists
Would respond to with #crumblingcastle
If they weren’t sat reading the Telegraph instead?

I do have alot of bugbears
Like apostrophe’s in plurals
And their are homophone errors and misheard phrases
That make me like a bowl in a china shop

Until I remember that
Language makes meaning in myriad, uncountable ways
And error plays a part in the beauty of change
And playing brings heart to language
And if you don’t like it, then that use of language
Wasn’t meant for you – you are not its audience
And maybe if you don’t get it, you are behind the times
Stuck in the 18^th century, perhaps?

So if you think the rules are immutable
Stay mute
And stop revealing your ignorance


Nextly, find out more about 'standardisation' as a language change issue. Not only was Dr Johnson's dictionary in the 1700s (which year?), but also Lowth's grammar texts. Find out more about how these and other influences on our language that made it more standard were influential. Put your research and bibliography on your blog - at least three sources. Work swiftly.

Then have a look at this poem by Jonathan Swift (he of Gulliver's travels fame and notorious prescriptivist to boot - find a quote of his to memorise for the exam to go with your John Humphries one). Identify how language is used in a different way to modern standard English and explore how meaning is made in terms of the power, gender, technology angles as well as any contextual comments you can make. Put that on your blog by Friday if not today. And see how much you can dig out of this for homework for next Monday: http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/

On Stella's Birth-Day 1719 by Jonathan Swift

Stella this Day is thirty four,
(We shan't dispute a Year or more)
However Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy Size and Years are doubled,
Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen
The brightest Virgin on the Green,
So little is thy Form declin'd
Made up so largely in thy Mind.
Oh, woud it please the Gods to split
Thy Beauty, Size, and Years, and Wit,
No Age could furnish out a Pair
Of Nymphs so graceful, Wise and fair
With half the Lustre of your Eyes,
With half your Wit, your Years and Size:
And then before it grew too late,
How should I beg of gentle Fate,
(That either Nymph might have her Swain,)
To split my Worship too in twain.