Language Change intro

Here's the Powerpoint from the lesson FYI :)

Language change intro from Halla Williams

Work over the break - due in Jan

Diligents,

here are the mandatory and recommended pieces of work you've been set (most of them should be well under an hour each):

Mandatory:

• the George reading essay (I will leave transcripts on my desk for those who don't have them - copy up the notes from someone who was there and the title is: Young readers should be corrected whenever they make a mistake. Evaluate.) Posted on your blog by 3/1/16
• The Language Change research I set in Tuesday's lesson:
  Find a short section of text (fiction or non-fiction) from 1600ish and translate it into modern English. Then analyse differences using as much linguistic comment as you can e.g. syntax, semantic shift (what sorts?) etc.
  Research a word that has changed and any phrases, collocations or uses (previous or current uses) that illustrate the different meanings e.g. not quite ready vs quite tired
  Find two articles that show differing attitudes to a ‘language change’ issue e.g. an article that criticises young people’s language and one that objectively describes it or is positive about it. Or one about the change in ‘literally’ or one on the use of non-gendered pronouns etc.  Analyse the language used to represent the change/issue, comparing the two texts.
  By 5/1 on your blogs, please
  
  
  Recommended:
  • Get a target reader to read your creative coursework. Ask them specific questions about their response and get them to highlight (but not correct) issues. Re-draft.
  • Revise key theory areas and terminology
  
  

British Library trip

Enrichmentnesses,

this trip would be so worth your while but if it doesn't have much more takeup soon it will be cancelled. Get your money in to ensure everyone gets the opportunity to go - the other thing that might happen is it gets opened up to AL1s and then all the places go before you get  a chance to book. So if you are intending to go (everyone should), don't delay!

English Language Trip to the British Library London, Wednesday 25th January 2017 


During the first half term of new year we will be running a trip for A level English language students to visit the British Library. We will also be given the opportunity to take part in 2 practical workshop sessions which are very relevant to the A level syllabus: Sounds Familiar, this session introduces ways of analysing spoken English. Students will learn about language variation, and regional vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar in the UK. Exploring English in which students will look at some of the key turning points in language change and develop an understanding of the diversity of the English language.

This trip is highly recommended for all students taking the course. It promises to be a fantastic opportunity for students to gain some real insight into these aspects of English language and we urge students to book their place as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. 


The cost of the trip will be £12.00 which is the price for the workshops and transport to and from London. If anyone feels that they are unable to or have difficulties with payment, please contact a member of the English department for further information/advice. 


We aim to leave college around 7am in order to arrive in London our first workshop at 10.45. We hope to leave London around 3.30pm and arrive back at college between 7-8pm depending on traffic. Parents should be aware that the students have to make their own arrangements home to and from college at these times. Students should take their own lunch. However there are facilities at the venue to buy lunch whilst there. 




Yours sincerely, 





Emma Haynes
Teacher of English Language
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College

CLA - virtuous errors fun article

For a bit of light relief: Mentalfloss on virtuous errors!

Computer room lesson 9th/12th Dec - children's writing

It's worth getting a quick overview of this although I wouldn't recommend you tackle a writing question. This is good practice for working fast and effectively to tackle something new.

• Children start by writing squiggles, not separated into words (pre-phonemic stage)
• They then start to produce letter shapes, some invented and some mirrored or overly ornate or truncated versions of standard letters - often not split into words (did you know that in the early stages of the development writing  in history, words were often written consecutively without spaces or punctuation - think about how words in speech flow together) (semi-phonetic stage)
• The write with invented/phonetic spellings at first, refining this as they develop - they should not be corrected at the earliest stages - communication should be rewarded (phonetic stage)
• They start to learn some of the key patterns and even split digraphs (e.g. magic e) (transitional stage)
• They start to spell most words (within their experience or supported by key words provided) correctly (conventional stage)
• They start to develop awareness of punctuation as their writing and reading improve 
• They start to use conventions of the different forms with support e.g. writing frames
• They start to become aware of the differences between speech and writing and different levels of formality.

Here's a site with some theory on it in an accessible way - the spelling of preparatory is wrong but it's otherwise good for a short blast of theory.

Now have an explore of this site. Here you will find a corpus (collection) of children's writing. You can pick two comparable children or projects from different ages and look at how writing develops as children progress through the education system. Make notes and link to the theory from the previous site. Pay special attention to the kind of non-standard language uses you find. Write down examples and try and explain what they do and don't know about language.

Try and identify some of the following spelling (virtuous?) error types:

• Insertion - adding extra letters 
• Omission - leaving out letters
• Substitution - substituting one letter for another
• Transposition - reversing the order of letters in words
• Phonetic spelling - spelling words according to the standard phonemes that graphemes make
• Over/undergeneralising of spelling rules - applying or not applying rules in inappropriate contexts or one specific context
• Salient (key) sounds - only including the key sounds

Post your findings to your blog by the end of the lesson.

CLA theories (additional to the main theorists)

Here's a useful overview where the writer has referenced some key concepts and used the theorist and year in the way you should if possible in the exam and your coursework.

This idea in particular strikes me as useful for the CLA exam: all children regardless of factors such as ethnicity, culture and social class will go through the same stages when learning language and at approximately the same age (Flanagan, 1996). What others can you find in this text - record the concept, the theorist and the year in your notes.

CLA - reading theories

Here's the site I referenced in the reading powerpoint.

Children's reading - miscue analysis

Here's a useful site for getting to grips with the process of analysing the kinds of miscues a reader can make.

Male and female brains

This is an area that is worth knowing enough about to mention research done for gender essays (a theorist/researcher and a year for using it in the exam is preferable). Here is a recent New Scientist article that suggests it's a myth but read around the topic briefly.

The language gene

A misleading, clickbait title as this article is about a (significant) language gene. This could be used to link to Chomsky's LAD or Lenneberg's critical period.

Important exemplar: a piece of linguistic research on children's politeness

Investigatves,

this is obviously a higher-level and larger piece of research than you are doing but would be very useful to read and take notes on for content (CLA, gender) and style (for your investigation). Don't try and read all of the introduction, unless you are feeling ambitious, but do read the methodology and some of the analysis.

Notice how the theorists are referenced - you will have the texts in your bibliography so you use the theorists' names and bracketed years to indicated which text in the bibliography you are referring to. You can also use footnotes to extend and clarify theory points.

The way I am asking you to present the analysis (with charts/tables) makes it much easier for the marker to follow what you are saying (see the later parts of Ladegaard's investigation) but you can see that the close analysis of the quotes in context is illuminating in this example and terminology is used to identify the relevant features.

The discussion and conclusion sections are the equivalent of your conclusion and evaluation so they are worth looking at again when you write those. We can write a conclusion-slash-evaluation to simplify things in our investigations.

E-Block please see your email urgently

Computer room lesson Fri 2/Mon 5 Dec

Investigatives,

as the analyses are coming together, I want to speak to everyone briefly so that you can get help and/or check the finer points - you will get a lot of feedback when I mark the draft and the analysis will probably change a great deal after that, so don't worry if you are not feeling ready - give me what you've got on the 6th and I will help you move forward.

The research that has been done on children's reading needs a bit more depth - develop discussions of alternative strategies for young readers to make meaning beyond synthetic phonics and 'look and say' (although you do need to be absolutely clear on the advantages of these approaches).

This site for people schooling their children at home gives a basic overview of four approaches but doesn't really expound on the benefits of synthesising them much and this is so vital. Look at the charts to see how each letter that makes different sounds can cause problems for early readers, let along where two letters combine to form a single sound (two graphemes working together to form a single phoneme are called a digraph and they can be together e.g. th, sh, ch, or split as in the a and e in make). Also think about how you read - do you read grapheme by grapheme?

We will do some work on the Tom transcript and do a bit on reading and try and just start Language Change before Christmas so you can do some work on it over the break.

Back in tomorrow

Beautifulls,

I am still not right but I am going to struggle in. See you tomorrow!