Language diversity and change - accents and power

This Guardian article explores the power of accents and opens some interesting avenues for investigation e.g. how much influential power certain accents currently hold.

Look at the words Jack uses to describe a change in accent (e.g. down near the bottom of the article, he uses "thickened" versus "weakened", which have different sets of connotations rather than being simple antonyms).

It's really worth reading/watching Pygmalion if you are interested in attitudes to accents - it is also worth practising some, perhaps using a YouTube video to help or going on a short course. Also try transcribing an accent carefully using the IPA. Do other people hear what you hear? Can they reproduce what was said from your transcription?

Language and gender - whose issue?

I found this article from 2008 when I was researching a quote I saw on my FaceBook news feed (always check sources!). The quote was about how when we talk about women being raped, we use the passive construction rather than focussing on the actual problem: the men who did the raping (the active agent). He also talks about how certain words have narrowed in their immediate connotations so that when someone says 'race', we have started to think about the people bringing up race as an issue, not the dominant race; the same with gender. That leaves the powerful unquestioned - they don't have to examine their privilege.

This links to Steven Poole's ideas about 'unspeak' and a central idea from the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:  because language influences thought (Sapir and Whorf), influential people choose words and expressions carefully (Poole), or instinctively, to shape the views of others through their language choices. As Katz says, by calling the problems around gender expectations in our society 'women's issues', it means that the actions of the dominant gender remain unquestioned - it doesn't have anything to do with men, does it?! Katz talks about how those in a position to do so can challenge this, so it's well worth checking out more of his work, e.g. his TED talks. And checking out Steven Poole's writing for an understanding of how our views are being manipulated (one of his examples is about whose idea it was to stop calling it global warming and start calling it climate change) - I'm sure you are aware of the current political uses of the synonyms 'migrant' vs 'refugee' and their starkly different connotations. Try and collect examples to use in a discussion of the importance of this - it would be great material in the creative question in AQA Paper 2 if you have examples from the key areas.

Mistranslations - language technology

I love mistranslations. If this article whets your appetite, read the opening of Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue (excellent read for Language students) for some blindingly good ones. This article touches on some ideas that you could link to World Englishes (cultural issues in language choices) and Language Change/Technology. Speech recognition technology's one of the most interesting areas in current synchronic language change. Its implications are worth exploring e.g homophones, punctuation, handwriting, children's language development etc.

As an aside, look at the clickbait headline and maybe do a study of how these work on different sites. Bristol Post is a particular culprit on my Facebook news feed recently.

American dialect words - Language Change

Here's a Huffington post article about a group that have been investigating dialect vocabulary across America with a view to documenting dialect words before they are lost in a homogenising process (dialect levelling).  It is interesting to consider whether new words that have covert prestige (the article refers to language signifying being 'in or out' of a group) will be a local variety or sociolectal as communication increases though increasing access to technology.

Dan Clayton (examiner for AQA and teacher of A-Level Language) Language blog

Clayton's blog is well worth checking out - there are some revision resources on the most recent post (as of today) and a great post on the skills development from AS to A-Level.

http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.co.uk/

Articles for opinion comparison and writing your own opinion piece - gender

Here are the links for the two articles we are using today:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jun/19/women-language-boardroom-study
https://www.radainbusiness.com/women-in-the-boardroom

When you are writing your opinion article, 'gender' is obviously the focus of the question but what about some 'power' theory e.g. other strategies for gaining power (Laver's phatic tokens for example) or anything from 'occupation' you can make relevant?

A must-read! Grammar, world Englishes and LC

I was looking for something that explored the debate as to whether punctuation is a grammar issue or not and I found this. I disagree, incidentally, as I think that punctuation and syntax are both grammar, but this post by an American English teacher explores and exemplifies a range of grammar and punctuation ideas and brings in American English and language change... so read and take notes but you don't have to agree!

A presentation collecting together some language change ideas and theorists

I've been searching for new theory for you and here is a presentation that seems to be a good starting point for you to do wider reading - particularly McKinnon's attitudes look like they might be useful for exploring contrasting evidence about language change. It's just a jumping off point - don't expect to understand it from these brief notes - do more research to understand ideas that seem useful  and there are a couple of good quotes to memorise.

I've also come across something called the PIDC model but no proper research to back it up yet - just people's revision sites. You can probably get a good idea by just googling 'language change PIDC' but I haven't got anything reliable to link to.

Language change - wave or tree?

Below my introduction is a copy-and-pasted section of an article that is on https://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics/The-comparative-method#ref411908.

It's a little academic but it talks about two contrasting theories/models of how language changes. First, belonging to the 'comparative' method of linguistic analysis (don't worry about that) is a 'family tree' model (August Schleicher's model), where change causes aspects of language to branch off from the standard and become separate e.g. dialects forming, or new languages splitting off from the parent language (for instance, pidgins and creoles). See if you can read closely to find out what the criticisms of this model are.

The contrasting model is the wave model (Johannes Schmidt), which visualises causes of change impacting like dropped stones in a pool where the waves spead out, becoming less powerful as they move from the impetus for change and can overlap and influence one another (see the diagram and explanation on the right of the Wikipedia article). This model explains why trends in language don't continue to create more and more diverse 'branches' but instead can re-converge, as we see in dialect levelling, or in standard language users using dialect or sociolect for covert prestige e.g. Martha's Vineyard.

Excerpt from the website link above:

Criticisms of the comparative method

One of the criticisms directed against the comparative method is that it is based upon a misleading genealogical metaphor. In the mid-19th century, the German linguist August Schleicher introduced into comparative linguistics the model of the “family tree.” There is obviously no point in time at which it can be said that new languages are “born” of a common parent language. Nor is it normally the case that the parent language “lives on” for a while, relatively unchanged, and then “dies.” It is easy enough to recognize the inappropriateness of these biological expressions. No less misleading, however, is the assumption that languages descended from the same parent language will necessarily diverge, never to converge again, through time. This assumption is built into the comparative method as it is traditionally applied. And yet there are many clear cases of convergence in the development of well-documented languages. The dialects of England are fast disappearing and are far more similar in grammar and vocabulary today than they were even a generation ago. They have been strongly influenced by the standard language. The same phenomenon, the replacement of nonstandard or less prestigious forms with forms borrowed from the standard language or dialect, has taken place in many different places at many different times. It would seem, therefore, that one must reckon with both divergence and convergence in the diachronic development of languages: divergence when contact between two speech communities is reduced or broken and convergence when the two speech communities remain in contact and when one is politically or culturally dominant.

• 

  August Schleicher, engraving

  Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

The comparative method presupposes linguistically uniform speech communities and independent development after sudden, sharp cleavage. Critics of the comparative method have pointed out that this situation does not generally hold. In 1872 a German scholar, Johannes Schmidt, criticized the family-tree theory and proposed instead what is referred to as the wave theory, according to which different linguistic changes will spread, like waves, from a politically, commercially, or culturally important centre along the main lines of communication, but successive innovations will not necessarily cover exactly the same area. Consequently, there will be no sharp distinction between contiguous dialects, but, in general, the further apart two speech communities are, the more linguistic features there will be that distinguish them.

Frozen register - language change

This mental floss post is great for some examples of word whose meanings and use have been preserved through frozen register - I was familiar with all these idioms but not their backgrounds - try and apply some of the language change terminology to words that are familiar now with different meanings (in which ways have they semantically shifted?).

Revision tips

The audience for this article is teachers - think about how it might be written differently for students.

To sum up the key points, make yourself sit down and start; switch tasks and subjects rather than going for a long time on one; try and recall what you've learned when you finish a task (and do so again the next day would be my tip although that's not in there in so many words - at the start of the next day's revision session, recall what you did last time before you start); plan to go back over this information in a week or so; do some quizzes (e.g. On Quizlet) to practise digging info out from your brain; work next to or with someone who is working hard; and there may be one or two more tips in there that I've forgotten.

Also think about what works for you e.g. posters, recording yourself saying info, putting ideas to music, throwing a ball as you memorise info, putting it into silly stories e.g. Chomsky met a lad who was dressed as a Native American who told him not to overgeneralise then runned away on his fast feets but overextended hisseff and falled over a regular past tense suffix applied to an irregular verb.

Good luck!

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Sapir and Whorf came up with a complex proposition; the part of it we are interested in is to do with the idea that language doesn't only reflect how we think, it influences it. Basically, what we call something matters because it shapes opinions about what we are describing.

Recently, there has been much discussion about whether the people fleeing their war-torn countries should be termed 'migrants' or 'refugees'. By examining the implicature of these nouns, we can see why they leave the audience with different impressions of the same people. 'Migrants' suggests that they have chosen to move to improve their situation. 'Refugees' suggests that they have had to flee in fear of their lives. Which group would you be keener to help? But it is the same people.

Steven Poole called the manipulation of the audience through these kinds of choices 'unspeak' - deliberately choosing or avoiding emotive language to control opinion about an issue, even deliberately making the heart of the issue more difficult to understand. His book is worth dipping into. He tackles the interchangeable terms global warming/climate change in depth and this post does so more simply, so read that first.

Easter homework

Wonderfulls,

Jacobe has set some Language Change research questions which need to be done during independent study and one computer room lesson (A-Block started it on Friday) and he has emailed these to you.

We need to do plenty of exam practice and, with that in mind, here are two titles (do both). Each of these would be done in 45 mins in the exam - do it as exam conditions at home if you choose, or use your notes, but please handwrite the answers and practise writing faster and more than you do already. If you use your notes, please write a realistic amount that you could cover in the time in the exam or it won't be useful.

Have a good go - whatever you produce, I will help you improve it but I can't help you if you don't give me the essays and I would be justifiably concerned if you didn't submit the work on the first Tuesday back.

The gender one should be doable; there is some help for the LC question below - don't look at it if you don't want the help. If you look at it afterwards, please write targets on the essay of things you know you could have done and didn't, for me.

AO1 is worth 10 marks so you need examples of words/ideas with terminology attached and a cohesive essay that guides the reader through the ideas; AO2 is worth 20 marks so discuss the theories and concepts with reference to examples from wider reading (e.g. news stories, theories, historical examples for the LC question etc.). Don't forget to plan!!! And proofread/edit for 3-4 mins at the end!

1) Men and women do not speak differently. Evaluate this idea.

2) Evaluate the idea that language is becoming more informal over time.


Language change question help:

• the question references Fairclough's idea that our language is becoming more informal over time - think about examples where this is the case e.g. mixed-mode business communications via email instead of formal letters; news reporters with local accents instead of received pronunciation (for local news only at this stage); vocative issues like calling your teacher, doctor, boss etc. by their first name in some cases; the use of text language in company names and adverts and other examples I'm sure you can think of - how far do these indicate that language is becoming more informal and is there any opposing evidence?
• prescriptivists would oppose these diachronic changes and you can bring in examples like schools banning sociolect and dialect terms, people being asked to reduce their accent for their jobs, John Humphrys's rant about text speak (he's also against multicultural London English - MLE - look up his views on that), our Bristol grammar graffiti artist etc. You could evaluate which of Aitchison's metaphors best fit these attitudes etc. Always link back to how these examples of change could be regarded as 'informal' by prescriptivists.
• Include examples of features of English that might be regarded as 'hypercorrect' and are falling out of favour (e.g. the object pronoun 'whom', the indefinite pronoun 'one' and recieved pronunciation - heightened received pronunciation is so out of favour, The Queen has stopped using it and 'one' to refer to herself, and now the apostrophe is under threat) and link back to hypercorrect features in the past, like the loss of the long S; you could also consider contrasting the standardising effect of the printing press compared with the liberating effect of modern technology and the effect of this on 'formality'; consider evaluating why Lowth's grammar and other similar books might have imposed artificial rules that were influenced by Latin and are now regarded as optional rather than 'correct' e.g. never split an infinitive - link to whether this is more informal and why those rules were ever considered 'correct' and prestigious
• Also bring in Giles's CAT, covert prestige e.g. Martha's Vineyard etc. to try and explain why informalisation might be happening and link to reasons for language change such as technology/changes in attitudes in society/globalisation (e.g. code switching in other varieties of English e.g. Manglish, the simplicity of Business/International English - the need for English as a lingua franca etc.). You could maybe link to the effectiveness of synthetic personalisation in advertising (look at how brands like Innocent address the consumer) and why being called 'Madam' by a shopkeeper might be now offensive rather than polite and how your junk mail uses your first name (even my Fitbit does!).
• Anything else you think links to the idea of informalisation - definitely explore how it is difficult to define and separate from language diversity - e.g. is using an accent other than RP less formal?
• For top grades, really try and identify patterns and complexities in establishing what might or might not be more informal; it's hard to challenge theory when there isn't much but contrast prescriptive and descriptive ideas
• Use the terms 'diachronic' and 'synchronic' and as many other terms as you can cram in attached to examples e.g. the ones in bullet point three and any others you can think of
• Just do your best and don't panic! Read up on some of these ideas if you need to - now, or in the next few weeks - remember, LC will definitely be on the paper!

Back in

It was wonderful to see most of you on Friday - I am very happy to be back with you! Please see the following post with essay titles for the holiday. Thanks.

My absence

Sorry I'm not really fit to be in contact - I hope the work I sent in has been set and you can all manage. I will be back with you as soon as I can but it will be at least another week.

Gender revision

Changing ideas about attitudes towards gender are a hot topic at the moment so read around the topic but focus especially on linguistic ideas like gender neutral pronouns, the supposed need for women to speak more powerfully (contrasted with Beard's idea that we have to value women's voices more), the idea that context drives language use more than gender does, the socialisation of young children to take on gender stereotypes (watch The Secret Life of 5-year-olds on 4OD's gender episodes to get an idea of how powerful the message is) etc. In your essay and opinion piece if they are on gender, remember to only mention non-linguistic ideas very briefly.

Overview (you need to know more than this):

4 Ds:

Deficit

• main proponent Robin Lakoff
• women's language is deficient in comparison to men's due to uncertainty features like hedges and tag questions and women lack humour
• evaluation: Lakoff based her ideas on her long experience as a linguist but no specific research to test them
• contrast: O'Barr and Atkins did research in courtrooms and found that Lakoff's deficit features did appear more in the language of some than others but that the split was not along gender lines but along lines of social power so that the deficit features were 'powerless' features not 'women's' features; Pamela Fishman also argued against Lakoff's idea that tag questions showed uncertainty - she suggested they were powerful tooks for involving others in conversation and seeking consensus

Dominance

• main proponents: Zimmerman and West, Dale Spender (West and Spender are both female, like Lakoff, so watch out for that when using pronouns in your essay - I see a lot of 'he's)
• patriarchal dominance is reflected in language uses by males who are more direct and interrupt more
• evaluation: Zimmerman and West's '96% of interruptions were made by men' findings were widely spread in support of the idea that men spoke in more dominant ways but it was a small study and you know those can't be generalised to all men/women - just because they confirmed what most people felt was the case and became very famous, doesn't mean that the research was valid
• contrast: Geoffrey Beattie criticised Z&W's resaearch on the basis that it was a small sample of white, middle-class speakers from a single area, and he did research himself on a much larger sample of his students where he found that interruptions were much more evenly split between men and women (no statistically significant difference) and he also added that he interpreted many interruptions as co-operative (rather than competitive), offering support or demonstrating enthusiasm

Difference

•  main proponent: Tannen but see also the popular psychology (not linguistics) book by John Grey: 'Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus'
• men and women speak in different (but equal) ways
• in her book 'You Just Don't Understand' (1990), Tannen offered pairs of antonyms to characterise the way men and women spoke differently (interestingly, she put the male version forst in each pairing) e.g. conflict vs compromise, information vs feelings etc.
• Like Grey's book (both published close together - Grey's in  1992), it was very popular (hers was not as popular as his!) as they both reflected ideas about gender that people found convincing because they were describing traits they already perceived to be the case - Tannen didn't need to work hard to prove the theory
• for contrast, see the next D (Discusive/Diversity) and Janet Hyde found that 78% of features that were supposed to be different between the genders were close to 0 in large-scale research

Discursive/Diversity

•  main proponent: Cameron
• "your genes don't determine your jeans" so why should biology affect language use? - paralleling language and fashion in this quote
• Cameron suggested that context was far more of a factor than biology in how people used language e.g. direct language on a battlefield and supportive language with children
• she suggested that we used certain language features to perform gender, that we 'do' gender not that we are a certain stereotypical set of traits that make up perceptions of male or female genders - that there is a diversity of gender identities and that we can adapt our language (link to Giles's CAT) but that we are socially constructed into choosing to conforming to gender stereotypes that are the norms for our local 'communities of practice' and that these vary by place, class etc. - there are no universal features that men vs women use
• wider reading on this 

 Read this research and notice there is an assumption of the difference rather than discursive approach, but it does go through the approaches in an accessible way.

Exam tips

Revisingnesses,

with the mocks coming up, I thought I'd give you a quick reminder on exam techniques:

• follow the timing recommendations on the front of the paper
• when you've read the question, note down quickly anything you might be able to crowbar in that you know and then check you've included those things on your plan when you've finished planning
• read the context (in the question, at the top and bottom of texts) and then predict what you are going to find - that way you read more actively and you will spot linguistic features that suit the context as you read the text; you will also notice anything surprising and that will always be worth exploring
• skim-read texts first (in under a minute) to get an idea of the subject, register, structure, then read and annotate in detail
• look for quotes that you can comment on using terminology from a range of frameworks e.g. the pun (lexis) is which word class (grammar) and is a cataphoric reference (discourse) to what?
• look for quotes that show patterns of language use by the producer and use more than one example (three, ideally), analysed with terminology and how the techniques suit the context
• check your plans meet the AOs - terminology, essay structure, context, theory content (if relevant), connecting/contrasting in every paragraph (if relevant) etc.
• explore ambiguities, offereing alternative explanations/interpretations that are linked to context e.g. it could be that the use of the paralinguistic feature "hahaha" in the Amelia email is meant to use orthography to covey genuine laughter and work with other features to reassure her family and friends that she is happy and well, or it could be sarcastic and a mixed-mode affordance to convey her idiolect and personality in a way that might make the recievers hear her voice strongly and not miss her so much - the audience would probably have a pragmatic understanding of which it is meant to be as they know her well.
• in theory essays, give examples and attach terminology to them e.g. talking about how the past-tense suffix 'ed' is overgeneralised by children to irregular verbs to form neologisms they couldn't be imitating e.g. 'runned', 'flied', or the plural suffix to irregular count-nouns e.g. 'foots'
• in opinion pieces, ensure that you have explained theories well to a non-specialist but included enough depth and detail to get a good AO2 mark - use examples here too and write in an engaging way that is suitable for the audience you have decided on
• leave time for proofreading and editing - quality is always preferable to quantitiy in terms of the mark scheme - have you used enough terminology, examples, clear discourse markers, theory, context? Aim for at least 3 terms per paragraph - the example on the Amelia text above uses 7 in reference to a single quote (paralinguistic, orthography, mixed-mode, affordance, idiolect, recievers, pragmatic understanding)

Monday 6/3/17 textbook work and revision

Linguistics,

continuing with the principle of focussing mainly on what interests you and then finding out more to get examples and terminology, please find and work through the following Language Change sections in the text book. Switch it up with revision on the AS key topics. Don't forget there's a search bar on the top of my blog to search within my blog for earlier posts on key topics. Post work to your blog.

Textbook sections: 16.4 (starting on p.199), anything in between, and then 16.7 (pp.216-219)

The langauge of social groups - very useful post

This is a blog you should all be following but if you are not, or if you missed it, here is a post guiding a class through an essay that you should all try on how social groups use language to exclude. Post it to your blog as revision.

A mind map of English speakers

This is a useful image that Amy pointed me to from a mind-mapping site (http://misterrichard.weebly.com/mind-maps.html). You need to learn these for the exams and research them further.

Attitudes to accent and accent and dialect revision

Here is an emagazine article on attitudes to accent. Take some notes on examples of reactions to different accents and why it is news. Sign into emagazine first and then copy this into the browser: https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/articles/15741

Revise some of the key ideas from the topic by doing some research on:

• Giles (matched guise)
• Cheshire (Reading study)
• Trudgill (Norwich)
• Labov (fourth floor and Martha's Vineyard)
• Milroy & Milroy (closed network)
• Kerswill (Milton Keynes)
• Baugh (linguistic profiling)
• accent surveys (e.g. Comres)
• dialect levelling

and anything else you like! Memorise quotes and statistics you can use to explore these.

computer room lesson 27/2/17 Standardisation of the English language

Dictionaries and grammar books were key parts of the process of standardising spellings, meanings and the manner of expression of English.

Read this emagazine article (sign in first) and make notes on dates and examples of dictionary uses nd conventions, especially Johnson's little joke about oats (what is he implying?). https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/articles/14693

Then research Robert Lowth's Grammar and other grammar texts of the 1700s (and today e.g. Eats, Shoots and Leaves) - read enough to get an idea of who these men were and why they had the authority to decide. Ensure you know what the rules were drawn from and some examples of rules that were disagreed over. Then research what is changing now (some starters: 'one', the possessive apostrophe, a gender-neutral pronoun - what else?).

Make notes on your blog of key ideas and examples relating to spelling and grammar standardisation and changes - as always, cite your sources. this content can be brought into the discussion of the older text, your essays on language change, opinions/attitudes about language and any opinion piece on language could probably use it!

Language and occupation and opinion - political debate on Trump visit

This link to the transcript of the debate in the House of Commons on the petition against Trump's state visit is a fascinating insight into the conventions of political speech and how opinions are supported in this context - look at the language of this occupation, particularly register, lexis and discourse (especially modes of adress, turn-taking and structuring of points). Look at it also for how opinions are expressed and supported for paper 2, section 2.

computer room lesson 20/2/17 and 25/2/17

Preparednesses,

E-bloc (Mon): tomorrow is hand-in day during the lesson, so use today to finesesse your coursework if you wish, then go onto the A-Block work.

A-Block (Fri):  here's a link to the British Library website English page (it's Lang and Lit so ignore the lit sections) for you to make some notes on Language Change - look at their timeline and note down some key events/dates to memorise.

Then, if you have headphones, go to their accents section and collect some examples of different phonological and grammatical aspects of different accents and dialects to memorise.

You can search their website in the bar on the top right for 'Language Change' and browse what's available - here are some ideas of things you need to cover if you want to do specific searches: varieties of English e.g. thieves' cant, polidori, pidgins and creoles, business English and English as a lingua franca - put your notes and links to your sources on your blog.

Amelia email PEE paragraphs - urgent

I should not still be waiting on the analysis of this text - please send me your PEE paragraphs if you have not already handed them in. Thanks. I will be contacting home when terms starts again for those who still think handing in work on time is not a priority or discussing it at the progress evening. Don't make me do that.

CLA revision by 28th Feb - a TED ed quiz and discussion

Revisingnesses,

this TED ed video with questions that I uploaded asks some thought-provoking multiple choice questions to help you develop your skills of close transcript analysis and then the 'discussion' prompts you to explore the relationship with theory.

Keep a record of any questions you want to ask as you go and email me so I know what I need to feed back on.

Complete this by Tuesday 28th Feb.

Putting your coursework through Turnitin - working now!

Conscientiousnesses,

I have created an assignment on our Moodle page under Component 3: Language in Action (which is the official name for our coursework unit) called 'Halla's groups coursework Turnitin.

You do need to put the whole thing through as one file so please cut and paste them together - don't worry about including pictures or formatting issues because it is only the text that is important. The file also needs to be under 2MB. You should be able to overwrite it if you need to alter anything and check again. Please make sure all the text of everything is on there by the hand-in so I can check it if I need to.

You may or may not have a high percentage - even if you do, as long as it is all quotes and direct references to theory that you have acknowledged, that is fine. Please ensure anything you have read is on your bibliography to protect yourselves as human readers can catch even more similarities than online checkers.

St Brendan's writing prize - good practice to enter and maybe win money!

Coursework folder contents

Courseworkians,

Here is the list of required aspects of your coursework folder - these must be handed in without a folder or stapling, in order, on Tuesday the 21st of  Feb - they will then be punched in the top-left-hand corner and fastened with a treasury tag.

Contents:

• Front sheet signed to declare you haven't plagiarised with titles etc. filled in on the day
• Contents page for whole folder with page numbers if possible
• Title page for investigation with word count and your name
• Contents page for investigation including the appendices
• Investigation (all sub-headings)
• Tables
• Unannotated data
• Permissions forms/informed consent letters/forms where applicable
• Any research that isn't easy to acquire, photocopied
• Bibliography
• Original writing and commentary front sheet - identify if it is 'the power of storytelling, information or persuasion' and give the word count of the piece and the commentary
• Original writing audience, purpose and form table (fill this in on the hand-in day)
• Original writing piece
• Commentary
• Annotated style model
• Bibliography

Coursework re-drafting

Precisenesses,

now's the time to make your work the very best it can be before peer assessment on Tuesday.

If you fancy a break from coursework, read some e-magazine articles on one of the key topics or watch a couple of TED talks on language change.

One of the areas we need to research on that you can do some initial notes on is World Englishes. See what you can find out, today or soon. Some key words: American English, Business English, pidgins and creoles, Circles of Englishes, global village, leet and lolcat.

Methodology and conclusion/evaluation feedback (including key)

Methodicals,

here is the key to the feedback with a few expanded points:

• +ac =  more academic in register: choose more formal, academic expressions
• +alt inter = more alternative interpretations: offer more than one interpretation in context of why language choices might be the case 
• +anon = anonymise the data as fully as possible, replacing names with codes and removing identifying details 
• +clar = clarify (make clear) what you've said, thinking about the reader's needs
• +con = express more concisely what you are trying to say - no padding!
• +contx = more contextual comments needed - GRRAMPES and wider context (there are many marks available for this)
• -emp = avoid empty sentences - give details/overview
• +foot = use footnotes to back up theory and contextual points with precise references to other texts
• +GRRAMPES = get higher contextual marks by thinking about the subtler aspects of GRRAMPES and how they might be affecting language choices - offer alternative interpretations, tentatively
• +org = organise ideas in the most helpful order for the reader and make sure of flow/cohesion
• +para = include more paragraphs to help the reader
• +sub= use subtler points to hit the higher bands - use your imagination about the context and add higher level terminology to explore quotes with deep analysis
• +ten = be more tentative in your expression of ideas to get into the top two bands (offer alternative interpretations where possible - are you seeing a pattern?)
• +term = more terminology - crowbar it in wherever you can but I've put this where it is drastically in need

Start to think now about the whole investigation - remember, it is not an essay, it is a presentation of your findings.

What is going to go in your appendices? Unannotated data, bibliography, tables, research that isn't easily accessible etc.

Also start to think about the whole folder.

Bring in the whole investigation, printed out, for peer analysis on Tuesday 7th Feb.

computer room lesson 27 Jan/30 Jan

Perfectnesses,

here are some checklists for improving your conclusion/evaluation and methodology before handing in at the end of the lesson:

Methodology:

• sub-headings for 'reliability', 'comparability' (if relevant) and 'ethicality' (briefly state if it is not an issue and why) - all your clever thinking about how to mitigate the observer's paradox, increase generalisability, select helpful comparability factors and increase ethicality e.g. how you can overcome problems e.g. about informed consent and anonymity
• data description table - lay out for me what you've collected and any helpful contextual detail with clear codes to refer to each piece of data so I can read the investigation without ever looking at the data if I want to and know what it is
• is it concise, using bullet points etc to help?

Conclusion/Evaluation:

• check it is tentative and that you have mentioned problems with generalisability, reliability etc despite your careful methodology
• link back to quantified data and theory to evaluate how far your hypothesis is supported (tentatively!)
• contextualise speculatively considering GRRAMPES and wider context that might have affected the data e.g. age, dialect, social group etc. 
• what would you need to do to make a more effective investigation? e.g. more data, more focussed hypothesis, another section/technique etc.
• don't be self-critical but do be evaluative of the investigation

terminology - apposition (top band grammar)

Here's another I know you'll love!

Apposition.

Terminology - parallel structure (top band)

This is a link to a clear explanation of this term which is mentioned in the top band mark scheme - seems straightforward to be able to spot non-standard uses in texts and comment on them but it seems too straightforward to be worth dissecting if it is accurately used - try proving me wrong in an essay!

Here are some elegantly used examples in literature.

Prescriptive Guardian article - slang

The Guardian is not normally so prescriptive but this article is quite useful for slang terms that have attracted criticism.  Learn a few for the exam.

Hay festival work experience - journalism, broadcast media, press office, events management

Fantastic opportunities for students to work at the Hay Festival :
www.hayfestival.com/wales/jobs.aspx




Students are provided with travel expenses to get to Hay and food and accommodation during the festival. 

Opportunities are available in Journalism, Broadcast Media, the Press Office and Events Management.

If you are interested, let me know.