Language summer task

Creatives,

over the summer, you need to read around your theory area and make sure you have the best hypothesis and plenty of theory to refer to in your analysis.

You could collect your data but you need to check your method of collecting it with me first - I will be checking my email periodically but am away 16th-23rd July.

You need to annotate your style model, spotting techniques across all the frameworks (lexis, grammar, discourse, phonology etc.) and all the relevant conventions you will have to use.

Plan your piece and your commentary by identifying techniques you will definitely use and discuss e.g. create a table to help with planning:

Lexical tech from SM    effect on aud because of GRAPE   my use of tech   why it's effective for GRAPE


Discourse tech...


Grammar tech...


You should plan and draft your piece and commentary (preferably redrafting several times) to bring in with you in Sept. We will do some peer assessment and redrafting before I mark a draft as I can only mark your work once before I take it in for final marking.

To recap: reading theory, annotating style model, planning and drafting creative piece and commentary for first lesson back.

Edit: please see my more recent 'choosing and annotating a style model' post.

A-Level Lang computer room lesson 28/6/16 commentaries

Wonderfulls,

I need to have discussions with everyone today about style models and investigations.

While I am doing that, please check that you understand the process of writing a commentary by writing one for one of the two pieces you wrote for homework (or an earlier written piece if you were not here). Pick the one that uses the most techniques from a style model.

In the real creative section of your coursework (that you are drafting over the summer), you should plan the piece and the commentary side-by-side so that you definitely use techniques from the style model actross a range of frameworks (see below). Your commentary must show how the style model used a technique and how you adapted that same technique for your content. You could also consider the drafting process e.g. the possible effects of choices you discarded and how/why your final choice was more effective.

Commentaries should allow you to make comments across a range of frameworks e.g. lexis (emotive, lexical field, metaphorical language etc.), discourse (ways of attracting and engaging the audience, use of discourse markers, fist/second/third person etc.), grammar (use of sentence mood, ellipsis, sentence fragments, abstract nouns etc.), phonology (alliteration/assonance/consonance, onomatopoeia, puns etc.) and other frameworks e.g. explore the pragmatic understanding needed for references you make, jargon you use etc. These are just examples and you should select the significant/clever/suitable techniques you used (as long as they cover a range of at least three frameworks).

 Tips:

•  Consider GRAPE in every paragraph, particularly during the explanation of the effect(s) of the style model's and your own piece's techniques (PEE) on your audience(s) – link to purpose(s) and how you have used the conventions of your form.

• Always use a quote (or multiple quotes to show patterns of use) but keep it as short as possible – sometimes one word is enough, if you explore the connotations, lexical field, implicature etc.
• Use as much detail as possible about the possible meanings created by the  techniques on the particular target audience or sub-audiences
• Show how techniques worked together to achieve purposes

• Refer to what you learned from your style model in every paragraph
• Consider how and why you make particular representations 
• Cover a range of frameworks but show how aspects from different frameworks work together

• Meet the word count (750 words) as closely as possible but don’t go over or under by more than 75 words (10%)

• Proofread for accurate, clear, concise writing and a clear structure that guides the reader

Basic paragraph structure (double PEE!):

POINT say what effective technique the style model writer used and how it might have affected the target audience

EVIDENCE quote or give an example – keep it as short as possible (sometimes one word will do)

EXPLANATION explore the techniques in the quote, looking at exactly how they make meaning for the audience in that context (e.g. because of what the audience knows, because of what was said earlier, because of what is expected in that text type, other GRAPE aspect etc.)

LINKING POINT say how that led to a decision that you made in your writing

EVIDENCE quote (or multiple quotes to show a pattern of use) or give an example – keep it as short as possible (sometimes one word will do but sometimes you need to show how a single technique e.g. the use of the second person pronoun works in a longer quote to explore its effect properly)

EXPLANATION explore the techniques in the quote, looking at exactly how they make meaning for the audience in that context (e.g. because of what the audience knows, because of what was said earlier, because of what is expected in that text type etc.). Be tentative. Link back to and contrast with the style model.

Good example:
 In Popular Mechanics, Carver uses words from the lexical field of dirt to show that  the relationship between the couple has got worse. The "snow" turns to "dirty water"; the pre-modifying adjective has connotations that the pure snow has become disappointing and disgusting. Carver also uses "streaks", "slushed" and "dark" to continue this lexical field and indicate that everything is in the same state, including the people. This is a use of pathetic fallacy where the environment of filth reflects the characters' lack of pure morality. I chose to create pathetic fallacy in a similar way with a lexical field of electricity. The "lightning" that arcs across the sky and the noun in "the shock she felt" are used to give a sense of my main character's jumpy behaviour and the lexical field is evident in those choices and in "charged" and "current" to hopefully give a sense of anticipation and curiosity about why she is so nervous/excited and cause sophisticated readers to wonder what is going to happen in the same way that Carver creates a sense of doom with his lexical field because his characters' world is descending into dirt and darkness.

Aspirational example:

In Popular Mechanics, Carver uses words from the lexical field of dirt, perhaps to show how the relationship between the couple has become tarnished so that the reader is prepared to judge the conflict that follows as a result of neglect and treat this as a cautionary tale. The lexical choice of the noun "snow" with its pristine connotations of purity, bright whiteness etc. is juxtaposed with the adjective "dirty" to show how the environment is getting tarnished. This is then followed by "streaks", "slushed"  and "dark on the inside" where it becomes clear that the dirt outside is meant to be pathetic fallacy symbolising the darkness of the couple's hearts. In my own story, I used pathetic fallacy in a similar way by using the lexical field of electricity to create a sense of the protagonist's frenetic mindset. The "lightning" that arcs across the sky is described in a short sentence to add to the sense of freneticism and pace. The noun in "the shock she felt" is used metaphorically but the literal sense is created too in her jumpy behaviour and in the context of the lexical field that is evident in those choices and in "charged" and "current". The semantic field is used to create a sense of danger and even allude to Frankenstein in the change that is about to happen to her. This should play on the sophisticated audience's pragmatic understanding of other texts and enhance their sense of anticipation and curiosity about what is going to happen in the same way that Carver creates a sense of doom with his lexical field because their world is descending into darkness.

Lang Lit summer task

Wonderfulls,

here are the sheets for the summer task in case you are not in for the last week or misplace them:

task sheet

notes sheet

Good luck and it has been such a pleasure working with you!

AS Lang computer room lesson 21/6/16

Creatives,

please spend this lesson trying out a prospective investigation by choosing a hypothesis and collecting sample data to test it with. Do a quick analysis to see if your hypothesis is supported or contradicted and to what extent (a successful investigation could either support or contradict theory or a bit of both!). Post your findings and any issues you encountered to your blog. What would make this a valid investigation?

Sample data is data that is kind of, sort of, a bit like the data you might really collect and will give you an indication of what you might find, what the problems might be, how much data you might need etc.

Here are five examples of the kind of thing you could do (quickly please) today:

If you want to record a child in your family, find clips of children doing the kind of activities you might want them to do and transcribe some data to test your hypothesis e.g. children will not use language they are not yet cognitively developed enough to understand (Piaget) - this could lead you to look for non-standard uses and what is altered/missing or, conversely, uses of language they clearly don't understand.

If you want to collect Vote Leave propaganda, you could have a look for some on the internet, although your real data might be leaflets. You could test a Power hypothesis e.g. the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (it matters what you call something because language influences thought/attitudes) by looking at how controversial subjects are referred to e.g. lexical fields, use of synonyms, euphemisms/dysphemisms, adjectives.

If you wanted to look at mixed-sex discussions to test deficit theory you could find something on YouTube to transcribe in order to test the hypothesis that women will use Lakoff's uncertainty features, to see if that was the case and suggest reasons why/why not, bringing in other theory when you discuss it. You could then decide what you want to actually record.

If you wanted to look at Penelope Eckert's research on social groups and dialect, 'jocks and burnouts', you could get someone who you know identifies as being in a particular social group to answer some questions about themselves (make sure they are ethical ones) or to talk on a controvesial topic that you could use for all the people you recorded (get permission before you record but don't tell them what you are interested in - get full, informed consent, afterwards and anonymise the data before you post any analysis onto your blog).

If you wanted to look at how occupation affects language, you could test the hypothesis by Swales that members of a discourse community share pragmatic understanding by looking at comments on a particular business magazine or reviews of a product for a particular business and see the kind of abbreviations, coined terms, shared references that were used.

Please post some analysis and reference to how far your hypothesis was supported/contradicted and what you learned about possible investigations.

Creative writing support - plot

This is quite an interesting exploration of the value of a good plot. I would say it is invaluable - what can you do in a very short piece? Here is some support on writing short fiction - we will work on writing some 'mini sagas' which are 50-word stories. If you can read some 'flash fiction' (1000 words or less) at home, you will avoid the college smoothwall. If you get good (practise!), you may be able to get your work published!

Grammar help - Khan Academy

These are quite fun little tutorials and tests on grammar - I'm sure you can find something you don't know!

Lang Lit - more Dystopian novels: Player Piano by Vonnegut and Animal Farm by Orwell

This looks good (although I haven't read it - I like some of his other novels). And, as I said in the lesson, Animal Farm is great.

Revision? What, right now? Yes! (style model)

There is a danger that you 'crammed' knowledge in time for the exam that you won't retain if it is not reinforced... and you will need it all this coming year. So do little and often, starting now. Read this well-written informative piece (under 1000 words so suitable style-model length) and let it convince you that little and often is better (secondary purpose: to persuade).

A-Level Lang computer room lesson 14/06/16

Non-exam-assessmentnesses,

today I need you to feed back your findings from the reserach task yesterday and comment on each other's posts. I also need you to find an 'information' style model about a language issue in one of our study areas e.g. gender, accent/dialect, child language, language change etc.

A serious point is the importance of keeping a bibliography of anything you read and make notes from. A long bibliography looks good, for starters, but more importantly you might end up putting ideas in your coursework that come from sources that are not in your bibliography if you are not careful, and that is plagiarism. You can be withdrawn from all AQA exams if you sign to say you have credited all sources and you haven't.

You can use one of the online Harvard referencing programs to help you - there are many but it is wise to keep a backup copy on another program e.g. on Word. Also back up your coursework regularly by emailng it to yourself or putting another copy on a thumb drive.

Today:

1) post what you found out yesterday that you could test with a Harvard reference at the bottom
2) find an informative style model about lanugage (you don't have to write about language in the coursework but this doubles-up the reading for your investigation and creative work)
3) list the conventions and effective techniques of the style model you have chosen in a blog post with a link to the text - what have you learned about writing in this form for this audience and purpose? What have you learned about language issues?
4) comment on other people's blog posts with what data they could test the theory they posted with and what they could consider in terms of collecting data - start with the two people after you on the register so everyone gets comments. Find out who that is from me.

A-Level Language coursework

Investigatives,

you will be getting a coursework booklet next lesson and I will email the Powerpoint on the course structure to you all.

For homework for next Friday, I need you to collect a 'style model' i.e. a good example of writing to learn from (of around 750-1000 words) from at least two of the key areas (if you can find one or more than one from each area, great - we will aim to have at least a couple from each area over the next couple of weeks to choose from):

• storytelling e.g. short story, dramatic monologue, biography
• persuasion e.g. speech, charity letter, opinionated article
• information e.g. travel journalism, local history, researched blog post

These should be writing that you would like to be able to do - that you can learn from - just like you did when we looked at articles and blogs to prepare for paper 2, section B on the AS exam e.g. if your style model uses a pun in the headline, you will use one.

The text you eventually choose will go into your coursework folder so that you can show how you learned from it when writing your own piece. It should have the same audience, the same purpose and the same form as the text you choose to write but it should have different content, so don't pick an opinion article on Brexit if that is what you want to write but perhaps do pick an opinion article on a different aspect of politics, so you are writing for the same audience.

Language change and gender - Australian 'power of words'

This cringe-making video gives a little window into Australian English and political correctness issues. It was linked to by Gary Nunn in a Guardian article this week on the problem with the noun 'guys'.

Lang Lit coursework introduction and missed lessons

Intellectuals,

your coursework will require a great deal of independent reading and should allow ou to choose texts that will really stimulate/engage you.

If you missed the first lesson back, here is the powerpoint introducing the coursework.

If you haven't collected your coursework booklet, you need to do so asap and you need to keep it safe over the summer or you will have to photocopy someone else's at your own expense.

Remember to listen to more of these Dangerous Visions radio plays before you write your own (homework to be on your blog or handed in for Tuesday's lesson - even if you missed the lesson). Use as many of the conventions of radio plays as you can and use the notes you made on 'Produce' to help you use the conventions and structures well.

If you missed today's lesson (Fri 10th), you should finish reading the extract of 1984 in the coursework booklet and use it to help you write a 3-paragraph description of the college if it had been taken over by a totalitarian group (you choose if that is a religious, political, alien etc. group). Focus on descriptions of how the college would look  if other rules had been imposed - we walked around and thought about how the reception, Cafe Max, the lift, the posters, the electronic devices etc would be different. We are going to improve the paragraphs in class on Tuesday.

Performance evaluations of men and women and why women talk less

This is fascinating research I got to from this very useful post about why women talk less.

Language change - slang

An easy way into a 'second year' topic - slang is one of the key ways in which our language develops, driven by young people (reasons for and ways in which language changes are vital to understand). Here is an article that covers some key examples - memorise a few that belong to MLE (multicultural London English) for the coming year's study. You might want to notice if some of them are already spreading further or falling out of use. Why might that be?

This is still a talking point - schools banning slang. What do you think?

It is an area of endless research, perhaps because it goes out of date so fast and has such shaky foundations in that people are not always agreed on what slang terms mean and often, if they are ever written down, write and use them differently. But here's a review of a book researching slang where some of the key ideas are explored. Do you agree that slang is often not creative but borrows words from elsewhere (or elsewhen)?

If you keep up with Dan Clayton's blog, you will have already seen these links. If you don't, you should!

Occupation links for paper 2

Here's an article about jargon - skip over any difficult bits and see where it goes.

And some more examples of corporate jargon.

This is about gender but could be made very relevant to an occupation topic.

World Englishes - Chicano

We are extending our study of accent and dialect past the UK this year and we are adding 'world Englishes' which includes the way other countries use English, business English, English as a lingua franca etc. Here is a link to a page describing an interesting American variety I have only just heard of: Chicano. Chicano is almost a creole although it is much more heavily weighted towards English than Spanish so the researcher rightly regards it more as a kind of dialect of English, but pidgins and creoles will be an area we will investigate as part of 'world Englishes'.

Dialect examples for paper 2

Preparednesses,

here's a link to a recent Guardian article on some dialectal varieties of words.

here's a link to a term for grammatical variation you could use. And the next tab is 'social variation' if you fancy taking it a bit further.

current thinking about valuing women's language

Along with the Mary Beard discussion about how women's voices are not valued (see my post and the link to her article here), here is a useful opinion piece ( - you could use some of these ideas in your essay or your opinion piece but you must link them to theory e.g. Lakoff vs Cameron). It is important to have a perspective on current thinking - the task I set you about 'should women change their language' (which too few of you have done in time to get it marked) almost invites you to say they should, but it is a trap! Discuss the idea that women's language is deficient from the perspective that it isn't, please! Otherwise you look like you are not well-read on current thinking.