Computer room lesson Mon 3 Oct (E-block) and Fri 7 Oct (A-Block)

I will be coming around to talk to you about predicted grades, if I haven't already, and about investigation ideas.

Carry on with independent work in the meantime. Read all the instructions before you start, as always.

First, listen to one of the Word of Mouth radio broadcasts on IPlayer - put a link to it on your blog, summarising the key ideas in no more than 3 sentences. Choose one that links with a possible coursework idea, perhaps?

Then revise some of the key theories from last year by exploring Andrew Moore's website and making notes on your blog on language varieties, focussing on accent and dialect first and then anything else e.g. gender that you are rusty on - continue this as part of your independent study throughout the year. We will be building on Accent and Dialect when we look at World Englishes shortly, so that's why you should prioritise that, but you might want to refer to any of them in your coursework, even if that is not your key focus.

Intersperse some work on grammar. Grammar Bytes is quite a useful site (check out their handy rules about grammar here), although it is American and they sometimes use capital letters after colons and the other odd things that we don't do so beware of that (research what the main differences are for World Englishes and blog about it). I will also email you my handy grammar tips sheet on word classes for you to use (ignore if I've already done that - I've been meaning to for a couple of weeks!).

If you want to ask me about the ongoing work analysing the Zachy transcripts, grab me as I come round.

Microaggressions and respresentation

There is a discourse going on about sensitivity to something called 'microaggressions', which is considered a problem in American colleges. This article contains strong opinions ( - not well-supported ones). Look at how he is positioning the reader as someone on his side and representing colleges and microaggressions in a negative light.

Respond to this on your blog, selecting quotes that convey meanings and representations in particular ways, applying terminology and describing the meanings made for his target audience and for someone who is opposed to the way he is presenting the topic.

Investigation support

I'm getting some questions about the investigation, so here's a quick support post.

Basically, you have to take an aspect of theory (any linguistic theory you like) e.g. Lakoff said 'women use deficit features in their language' (this will form your hypothesis) and choose some data you can collect yourself to test it e.g. set up a discussion task and record/transcribe it (data can be written or spoken, depending on the theory you are testing).

You then write it up in 2000 words - this post will help you get an overview:

http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/a-level-language-coursework-support.html

A-Level Language coursework support - investigations hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk Investigatives, Here is the simplified version of the assessment objectives for the investigation component (which is marked out of 50): ...

Don't forget to look at your green coursework booklet.
Any more questions, let me know.

Work in my absence 27/9/16

Hope you are all well and working hard!

I haven't seen many blogs about coursework ideas, so use at least half an hour to go up to the library and get out some relevant reading and make some notes (don't forget the Harvard bibliographical reference for your notes), if you haven't done that. I want firm ideas on Friday with theory to test.

There are hard copies of the following transcript (I hope) in B22 for you, with the register to sign but if it is a hardship for you to come in, please print off your own version and email me with the reason why.

We will start the presentations next classroom lesson. Email me if you have any worries/issues/stuff for presentations. Don't forget the performance today - they are down to one fabulous performer because of disappointing ticket sales but it is still worth going to!

Blog your discussion of the following ideas, using theory, terminology and contextual points by Friday, please.

Look closely at this transcript of Zach (about a year after the one we've looked at). Don't answer it question by question - make notes and then organise ideas into paragraphs.

1. His speech often seems less fluent - can you suggest some contextual reasons why?
2. Who sets the agenda in the first and second conversations? How does this affect the amount and quality of talk?
3. Look at the vocabulary, sentence types and MLUs in the two transcripts - what development can you see over the course of the 13 months?
4. What non-standard uses appear? What alternative interpretations could you offer as to why?
5. Whose theories do the transcripts support/contradict (think power and gender and accent/dialect as well as CLA)?
6. How reliable is the data when drawing any kind of conclusions?

Zach and the healing robot (watch up to 3:17)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05fVwsKfWiw

Zach 3;5 (Z) and Mummy(H) both home ill, are completing a team project 'build a robot' and Zach is project leader.

[Z tapping the back of a cardboard box with fingertips of both hands]

Z: doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo (0.5) now the robot house is gone right

H: oo you fixed it? well done (.) what did you have to do?

Z: I had to(.) just put the thing in (.) and then I had to put the deep buttons on, and then I had to go in (1)

H: so you have to go in next (.) is that what you're saying?

Z: yeh I need one more bit of tape

H: to do?

Z: the covering back [biting off pieces of brown tape] (0.5) [turning towards Mummy] can you do it Mummy?

H: yes [unwinds the tape]

Z:  a very long bit

H: oo a long bit?(2 ) this long?

Z: yeah (3) thank yooou [taking tape and applying it carefully to the back of the box] tahdah!

H: ooh (.) what happened? (2)

Z: it got lots of hurt all the way down (.) so I put lots of (0.5) sellotape on it (.) so it could feel better

H: oh good

Z: [climbing onto armchair] an I'm sitting here (.) to (.) for waiting (.) to get (0.5) better (.) for it (0.5)

H: waiting for the robot to get better?/(0.5) ok, its gotta take some time to heal has it?/

Z:/yeah/yeah

H: ok, how about we have some breakfast (.) while the robot heals

Z: we can't (.) we'll just have to wait an wait an wait

H: oh(.) because?

Z: because it's a long time for the robot to heal

H: so that's why it's a good idea to have some breakfast while we're waiting

Z: we don't need breakfast(.) it's gonna take a little time now (2) cos it went wrong before (.) now we (.) then it healed and now (.) it will take a little time(.) for the robot to heal again (2)

H: ok (.) so we just wait? we don’t have breakfast?

Z: yeah(.) it's gonna be a long time though(.) but we're not gonna have breakfast still (0.5)

H: because?

Z: because [picks up a cardboard box] we needing 3 (0.5) 1,2,3,4,5 pom poms (0.5)

H: right

Z: and 1,2,3,4,5 pom poms that we need to put on the robot

H: oh(.) can we do that while the robot's healing?

Z: no (6) [looking into a plastic container and pulling out a glue spreader] we need to take all the glue sticks off [leaning over arm of armchair] I dropped one of the glue (.) spreaders

H: you did (1)

Z: please can you pick it up

H: how about yooou pick it up

Z: but (.) I want you to pick it up (.) for special

H: for special? [amused] just this once?

Z: yeah

H: well (.) I think (.) you might need the magic word then

Z: please

 

If I'm absent...

Once upon a time, many moons ago, I, too, was an A-Level English student.

One day, my class was waiting for our teacher to arrive and some time had passed, but we carried on chatting.

Eventually, we started to wonder how we could check whether our teacher was coming and we were planning to leave if we weren't told otherwise.

Just then, the Head of English - Mr Nutbrown - appeared amongst us. He was not pleased.

And he said to use something that has stayed with me ever since. In a world-weary voice, he intoned the following: "You are A-Level students. You are studying something you enjoy, something you hope to succeed at. You should be using every opportunity to enhance your learning and develop your skills. You all have your work that you can get on with; you don't need a teacher." And, lo, he was correct.

We all felt duly ashamed, despite not really having done anything wrong. We just hadn't done anything right and we knew it was going to take a lot of 'doing things right' to do well at A-Level. We split into groups, making sure everyone had someone to get support from and then we carried on with what we were supposed to be doing.

After that, we were always working whenever our teacher (who was not always as prompt as me) arrived and I think that was the day I really started to take responsibility for my own learning.

I've not been very well at all this weekend and there is a good chance I might not be fit to come in tomorrow (I am writing this on Sunday).

Don't be angry and resentful if you have to come in and your teacher is not there. Get together with others from the class and make it the kind of learning experience you can't get at home anyway. Get a book out of the library that will help you with your coursework or a key topic. Make it worth being in college and make sure you use the time well and don't slack off.

I will always set work, usually on my blog, and it will always be worthwhile work.

I hope that this post will help those of you who hadn't learned the life lesson I learned that day, even if my virtual presence is not as imposing as that of Mr Nutbrown.

If I am not in tomorrow (I will decide if I am well enough in the morning), E-Block are doing the computer room lesson on the other post and A-Block (we were in the computer room on Friday) should please work on your analysis of the Zachy transcript, doing some quantified analysis and applying Halliday and Dore and your research theorist to your discussion (at notes stage at the moment unless you want to start on the PEE that you will be doing soon as per the instruction sheet you have been using). Don't forget to keep doing your wider reading on my blog and learning terminology. I'm really looking forward to seeing the investigation ideas going up on your blog as we have to decide on a topic this week or next week at the latest.

Ask others and then email me if you are not sure of anything and I will try and get back to you.

The 'Good' Immigrant - language and power, language change - talk today!!! and read the review

This is a review of the book that the writer/editor is coming in to talk about today. So much to do with language! Read the review even if you have missed the talk.

C7 lesson Fri 23 and Mon 26

Splendids,

firstly, please check your blog name and edit it if necessary so that it has your name at the start - so many on my list are called a variation on 'English Language blog' and then I can't read the rest on my reading list. If you are a Sophie, Connor, Ellie, Joe or Olivia, please can you ensure it has your surname initial too.

I am sending (or have sent) you the links for all the blogs in the class, please go to the orange and white square Blogger icon in the top left of your blog to bring up your reading list. Press 'add' under the orange  'reading list' heading and then copy-and-paste the blogs in, pressing 'add' in between and 'follow' at the end - do them in batches (not all at once) as it can be glitchy. Edit: if I haven't sent it because I am ill, try and do this as soon as I do send it!

Send me anything you want reproduced for the presentations (with clear instructions!).

Blog some ideas of theory and data that you might want to explore for your investigation.

Research Halliday's functions of speech and Dore's categories makign sure you add bibliographical links. Find an example in the transcript of as many of those functions/categories as you can - is there any crossover? Are there any quotes that could fit into more than one of the functions/categories? Blog the functions/categories with your quotes/analysis of how far the quotes fit the classifications in context. Finish for homework by Fri 30th but you should probably be able to finish it today.

Edited Sun 25th. Please see my post about 'If I am absent...'

Fabulous spoken word performance Tues 27 Sept - DO NOT MISS

Do not miss this - people who perform like this are experts in language and you will get a lot from this.

You can miss lessons to come - send me your name when you have a ticket and I will make it official. If you can get on the workshop even better - email or see Sarah Forbes or Colin Upton!

reflected meaning - textual analysis (including coursework)

This is an interesting concept that might enhance your discussion of re-drafting or use of puns and might help you explore ambiguities. Make sure you read down to all the discussions/examples.

Another terminology booklet - and a warning

This is really useful, except that I've only scanned through six pages and have already found definitions I disagree with for acronym, homonym and consonance. It is worth looking up any term you are learning in multiple sources.

A-Level English Glossary from BC ALevels

Adjective order - did you know? and reduplication (CLA)

This is an article by the master of 'writing about nothing', Tim Dowling. He has an uncanny knack of producing whole pieces from tiny, inconsequential anecdotes about his life. But this time he happens to be writing about something I saw too on the Facebook feed from Writing about Writing (who is worth following) and really enjoyed. Treat reading his pieces as a style model on how to write engagingly about anything.

You must also click on his hyperlink to the Macmillan Dictionary blog on reduplication (or do it here) as it is a really useful technique to talk about in CLA.

The origins of speech - theory discussed (CLA)

This is a review but it touches on one of our key theorists for CLA - Chomsky and his nativist theory - and is quite interesting from a linguistic perspective.

A-Level Language computer room lesson Fri 16 (A-Block) and Mon 19 (E-Block)

Linguistics,

Research the stages of CLA (starting with cooing, babbling, holophrastic...) and blog a summary, citing your sources (use more than one).

Research one of the following ideas about how children learn/use language (I will assign you one) and post your research and your sources (use three or more reputable sources). Print out info for next lesson - you will be working in groups to present a summary.

Chomsky's LAD/nativism theory
Skinner's operant conditioning/behavioural theory for how children learn language
Lenneberg's critical period hypothesis
Bruner's interactionist theory
Vygotski's zone of proximal development


Ensure you have a summary overview, quotes, examples, criticisms of the theory and anything else that will enhance learning about the idea/theorist.

Wall St Journal

I saw a Facebook post about The Wall Street Journal where the same story and advert were clearly aimed at different audiences:

I wasn't sure how authentic it was, so I went to the website and saw that there are different editions for key international markets. And the small print suggests that New York does get a different edition to elsewhere in the US and that there are different Eurpoean and Asian editions too.

Note the different intentions behind the phrasing of the ISIS headlines in the US and British versions (consider the connotations of "tricks" vs "eludes" for instance):

US - ISIS OPERATIVES LEARN TRICKS OF SPYCRAFT
UK - HOW ISIS ELUDES DETECTION

Visit the website here to make current comparisons.

A blog you must follow (EngLangBlog)

Follow this and use the links on the right-hand-side. Fail to do so at your peril! The blogger is a teacher who is very much involved with AQA: developing the course, training teachers etc.

Wiradjuri - language and identity, world Englishes

English sits alongside many other languages now but there were circumstances it was used to keep native populations under control when the British took over. This reduction of the status of other languages has no doubt destroyed many but this one (Wiradjuri), like Welsh, is undergoing a resurgence.

Make sure you notice that I have a feed from The Guardian Language section on the right hand side of my blog (which is where I found this article). Maybe put it on yours too?

computer room lesson (A-block Fri 9th and E-block Mon 12th) and GRAPE explanation

Creatives,

please send me your blog links and then work on your creative coursework and commentary - if you haven't started the commentary yet, write some within the first 30 mins even if it is only one paragraph, so I can have a look over your shoulder and see if you are on the right track. If you have your style model, I would like to take a quick look at that too.

Work hard and fast; this is a tight deadline. If your concentration goes, go to my blog and do something else briefly e.g. check out the grammar help from one of the posts or do some wider reading and put some notes on your blog. Use the search bar or the pinned post at the top for grammar help and browse down or use the search bar for wider reading. All the older posts are still relevant.

For ease of access, here is the link to my post on commentaries. If you weren't in my class, here is what GRAPE stands for (it is a mnemonic for context issues that goes a bit deeper than GAP):

G genre/form - what are the conventions of the form, how are they used in interesting/powerful/suprising ways?
R received - how is the text literally received (how does someone get to read/hear it - does it come through their letter box? Did they search for it? Was it recommended?) and how is it metaphorically received e.g. is it well-recieved by them because it is useful to them? Because it fits in with their world view? Because a friend sent them a link? Is it badly recieved because they are forced to read it? It's on a controversial topic and they don't agree with the producer? It is too challenging for them to understand?
A audiences - who are the primary and secondary audiences in as much detail as you can imagine?
P purposes - what is the primary purpose (evaluate which it may be if it isn't clear) and secondary purposes? How do they complement or conflict with one another?
E expectations - what expectations/wants/needs do the audience have before receiving the text? Are those met/thwarted/challenged/subverted?

Gossiping children (CLA)

One of the important aspects of the topic of CLA is 'development'. Jean Piaget said that children won't use language they don't understand  e.g. they won't use words like 'longer' and 'narrower' (except when copying) before they understand how to make estimates and compare. This theory is called 'cognitive development' and this concept is explored here where the writer talks about the difference in gossip between 3- and 5-year-olds.

By five they are cognitively devloped enough to give justifications for their opinions. Younger children may lack understanding of abstract concepts like 'generosity' or 'selfishness', although they are extrememly selfish themselves at that age, because they are only interested in meeting their own needs (they are egocentric) and don't yet understand the social value of sharing (although they might have had it drummed into them that you share, few have the emotional maturity to want to in order to make others like and trust them and feel better - this requires empathy which often develops more around 4-5 years old).

Trigger warnings and vindictive protectiveness - language change

This essay for The Atlantic is very long but read what you can or do it in stages. Make sure you follow the link when you get to it about the stories of how they came to write the essay.

As Language students, you should develop more sensitivity about the impact of your language on others - you should learn to use language powerfully but also tactfully (which is often the same thing!). But as students I also want you to learn resilience - to not over-react, to persevere, to accept (even while questioning) the opinions of others. Are trigger warnings and vindictive protectiveness more useful or dangerous? Learning to evaluate complex issues is key to high grades too.

Computer room lesson for E-block and classroom laptop lesson for A-block Mon 5th Sept

Hello and welcome to my course blog (welcome back if you were in my class last year)!

Even if I taught you last year, I would really like to get to know about your learning experience in more detail. Please read all the instructions before you start and record the deadline and what you have to bring tomorrow:

• Please bring your pieces (and commentaries even if it is only a paragraph because you weren't asked to do one over the summer) printed out to tomorrow's lesson with word counts on them so we can do some peer assessment and then you can further improve them before the draft deadline. You must have them with you so take all precautions e.g. emailing them to yourself to make sure. The better the drafts, the more useful the feedback will be but rough drafts are better than none if there was anything you were unsure about. See me today if there are any issues. Draft deadline Tues 13th September (a week on Tues/tomorrow).  No drafts will be taken in after the one on the 13th - the next time it gets marked is the final version. Late drafts don't get marked. If you have a reason for an extension, please see me asap.
• Today, please send me the URL for your blog straight away then complete the following task that will help me to get to know you and assess your directed writing. Write a blog post about yourself as an English student. What did you learn/enjoy/find challenging? Which ways do you learn best and what is problematic? How have your interests outside college or your personality impacted on your study? What occupational or dialectal language do you use? What else might I need/like to know? Edit your work ensuring a clear structure and written accuracy and then publish it to your blog. Because it is an assessment, please think about how to make it more complex/ambitious e.g. with punctuation, non-standard genre conventions, humour/wit that I will appreciate etc.
• When you have time, please browse my blog - you can use the blog's search bar in the top left to search for topics realted to your investigation or this year's key topics of Child Language (CLA) or Language Change.

I'm really looking forward to working with you and the A2 topics are my favourites...