A-LevelEnglishLanguage: September 2015

Monday, 28 September 2015

Terry the Odd Job Man

https://www.youtube.com/user/terrytheoddjobman

Learn to speak Bristolian- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD95D24BBC66A46E7

Steven Pinker

What our language habits reveal- https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought#t-55996

John McWhorter

Txting is killing language. JK!!!- https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Diary Entry

http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories05/daysofhorror.html

F- Dairy entry
P- To look back on
A- The writer

Newspaper Article

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/aug/12/not-typical-anorexic-eating-disorder-service-overstretched

F- Newspaper article
P- To inform
A- People who have or are interested in eating disorders

Script

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html

F- Script
P- To entertain
A- People who are studying or interested in Shakespeare

Music Review

http://www.nme.com/reviews/miley-cyrus/16231

F- Review
P- Give opinion
A- People interested in buying the music

Dialogue

http://www.easypacelearning.com/all-lessons/english-lessons-level-3/1190-conversation-between-2-friends-making-plans

F- Dialogue
P- Communication
A- The reader

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

8 pronunciation errors that made the English language what it is today-

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/11/pronunciation-errors-english-language

I found this article extremely interesting as a lot of these pronunciation errors I make myself.

Friday, 4 September 2015

Framework/Linguistic level

Phonetics, Phonology and Prosodics
-How speech sounds and effects are articulated and analysed.
-How we organise the sounds of our language to produce certain effects including rhythm, rhyme, intonation, stress, pauses etc (phonology).

Graphology
-How the design of a text can contribute to meaning including use of fonts, graphics, colours etc.

Lexis and Semantics
-Vocabulary of English, including social and historical variation.
-Word choice. Meaning at word and phrase level (lexis).

Grammar, including Morphology
-Structural patterns and shapes of English at sentence, claus, phrase and word level.
-How the language is built i.e.the structure and rules which underpin how we form sentences (grammar).

Pragmatics
-How we know what language means when it is used in a specific context, sometimes described as 'reading between the lines'.

Discourse
-How longer stretches of text are organised (cohesion- how it holds together e.g. use of discourse markers).
-The way texts create identities for particular individuals, groups or institutions e.g. the discourse of law, politics, the media.

Linguistic Concept

-How language varies in relation to audience, purpose and context e.g. a formal letter uses different register to one written to a friend.

Mode

-How the language may vary according to the channel of communication (speech, writing, and mixed modes) e.g. how you would write something down as a message would be different from how you would pass it on orally.

Idiolect

-The way of expressing themselves that a social group have in common e.g. we could generalise the way teenagers speak, aristocrats speak, students speak etc.

Dialect

-The variation in word choice and grammatical structure due to where someone lives e.g. "cheers drive" is a Bristolian saying, as is the grammatical structure "where's she to?"

Here is a website that contains an English language glossary that could be very helpful throughout this course- http://www.slideshare.net/BCALevels/alevel-english-glossary

Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Multi-ethnic dialect

All raait! It's a new black-white lingo-

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article209405.ece
This is an article about the dialect and slang used by teenagers everyday. It talks about Britain's first multi-ethnic dialect which has been determined by Linguists as a "variant of English that includes words and sounds from cockney, Jamaican creole, Bengali and other languages." It also states that they believe it will become a part of everyday English over the next 20 years. This is because it is thought to be "fashionable and cool" as well as something people can use to mark themselves out "culturally and socially." Another reason is because it is being supported by well known rap stars such as, Dizzee Rascal.

This article also contains useful quotes from Professor Paul Kerswill who is a sociolinguist at Lancaster University. He describes the new kind of English as their "completely internalised way of speaking" that is "parallel to a local dialect like cockney." This new dialect was identified by Kerswill's team durning a three year study into teenage english, which consisted of the analysation of the conversations between "32 teenagers aged 16 to 18." They came to the conclusion that all teenagers used the same multi-ethnic dialect, no matter of their background. Also, they found out that there were many different influences on the accents of teenagers for example, the word "pound" was often pronounced as "paaand" which is the traditional cockney pronunciation.

However, although the multi-ethnic dialect is said to be a positive thing that will allow "different ethnic groups to communicate" and help with the "racial divide" there have been some concerns about it. At Lilian Baylis school it has been "banned from the classroom" and the students are taught that different dialects are acceptable in certain circumstances. The article finishes with a message from the head teacher Gary Phillips, who says that "We're not trying to devalue patois, we're trying to teach the kids that there is a time and a place for it."

From the mouths of teens-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-the-mouths-of-teens-422688.html
This is also an article that talks about the slang and patois used by teenagers everyday in the UK. The article begins with a conversation between two teenagers, which consists on many slang words including, "nang" and "wasteman." This conversation is then decoded by a 13-year-old boy, named Gus. He says that, "nang" for example, "just means good" and "wasteman" is something you say to someone when your "fed up with them." Just like the other article, this one also tells us that using slang is the "cool" thing to do and if a teenager was to not speak like this they would be "uncool." Gus also says, "everyone in my school speaks like this" showing that this multi-ethnic dialect is becoming increasingly popular. It then goes on to say, that researchers have found out that most cockney speech patterns have followed traditional cockneys even after they have moved to another part of the UK. Whereas, in inner London peoples speech patterns are becoming based on common culture rather than "ethnic or social" backgrounds.

This article also contains useful quotes from Sue Fox, a language expert from London University's Queen Mary college. She is conducting a three-year project called "Linguistics Innovators" and one of her "most interesting findings" was that people from many different backgrounds all spoke with the "same dialect" which is extremely similar to Professor Kerwill's results. She also says that "people are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background" therefore, they like to use the term "Multicultural London English (MLE)" when talking about the common dialect. Teenagers have intentionally used language to assert their "own territory" for the the first time through the use of MLE.

This article also contains further quotes from Professor Kerswill, who says that, "teenagers should be the early adopters of MLE" because language is the same as music or fashion; they all "change rapidly" in the teenage generation. He then describes MLE as a "real dialect rather than a simple mode of speech." Similarly to the other article, he then goes on to say that MLE is "considered cool" and that well known rap stars and radio stations like "Dizzee Rascal" and "1Xtra" are using it, which has helped to improve its popularity. Lillian Baylis School is also talked about in this article, just like the first one. At the end of the article Kerswill says, that they "do not know whether kids will un-acquire MLE as fast as they've picked it up" but he can be certain that "English is one of the most dynamically protean of all languages."

Overall, both of these articles are extremely similar. They also contain many useful quotes that could possibly be used in later work or in the exam.

A-LevelEnglishLanguage