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Language forms arent always one or the other some fall in between the extremes. Where on the continuum would you place the following?
The Bible A classroom discussion An internet chat room A Shakespeare play A tweet Text message advert An episode of Eastenders A shopping list Text message from a friend
Aural (its heard) Temporary only retained in the memory Personal: directed towards a known audience Immediate restricted to the time of the call
hi how ru gd wknd?
Write a fairly brief reply using a style that you would usually use when texting a good friend. Dont alter your style.
Wots ur ati2d to txt slng? Wot othr ati2dz av u hrd? Wot abt slng in gnrl? Do u uz bare sik wurdz? Or do you prefer Standard English? Why/ why not?
Read the first four paragraphs and make a note of the different attitudes to texting that are mentioned. 2. Try to come up with as many different ideas for who which groups in society may have each attitude and why. Make a note of ideas so you can feed back to class. 3. 3. Read to the bottom of page 2. Discuss the reasons why David Crystal disagrees with negative attitudes to texting. 4. 4. Read from Why abbreviate? on p3 up to the text poems. Discuss why people abbreviate texts (remember texts used to be expensive) and play with language. (Remember Ludo?)
1.
Plenary
What might a grandmas thoughts on this text be and why? Analyse possible attitudes to specific linguistic features.
Standard English: the form of English accepted as the national norm; everyone understands it. It is often considered to be the correct form. It has higher prestige than other dialects. It is taught in school.
Dialect: a variation of language spoken by a group, generally geographical. There is some overlap with the term sociolect.
Sociolect: the language variety associated with any particular group in society.
The pastimes and leisure activities that people take part in will affect language use. Who, where and why a person is talking to someone else will affect language use. Where a person is from (geographically) will affect language use as well as accent The job or career that a person does will affect language use. The social, educational and economic position that people are born into / live in will affect language use. Any less savoury activities that an individual is involved in will affect language use e.g. Bumping people off or doing porridge A persons ethnic background (for example, British Asian) will affect language use. How old or young a person is will affect language use.
Deviance
occupation
Region
Social class
context
In your book, write down examples of words and phrases which may be used due to each of the factors below
Age Gender
Hobbies Ethnicity Deviance occupation Region Social class context
Accommodation theory
Who proposed this idea? Howard Giles What is it? Giles proposed that when speakers seek approval in a social situation they are likely to (consciously or unconsciously) change their speech so that it is similar to their listener. However, if the speaker wants to disassociate him / herself from the speaker, they may change their speech to show that they are different. Task: In pairs, try to think of situations at school, real or invented, which could be explained by this theory.
Feature
Description
Example
Purpose(s)
Acronym
A word formed from LOL the initial letters of a phrase. Pronounced as a word.
The initial letters of a phrase. Not pronounced as a word. GCSE, BRB
Initialism
Clipping
Omitting last letter/ Teaching - teachin letters of words But bt Metaphor mtphr
Description
Example
Purpose(s)
A face/ image :-) created with keyboard characters Words spelt as they are pronounced Words or letters are replaced by other symbols which sound like them Words left out of sentences What - wot R u there? Tru d@ 2 l8 m8 I will be round your house at six. I will bring the books. Will be round at six. Will bring books. R U OK No way michael!!??!
Ellipsis
Example analysis
B replies to As question hows u? with the response gud thanx, u? Firstly, B uses a nonstandard feature, not using a capital letter. This is slightly quicker and easier than using a capital letter as she doesnt need to press the shift key. It is also very informal. Whilst internet communication is often less formal than other forms of writing, this is so informal that it suggests A and B are good friends with each other. Secondly, both gud and thanx are spelt phonetically, which could be seen as something done for brevity, as both words have one less letter than usual and again, it suggests informality. However, this kind of phonetic representation is fashionable among teenagers (age suggested by History coursework,) and this may be an example of B adapting her language because of her age and fashion, probably unconsciously. Additionally, phonetic features such as this can be interpreted as an attempt to represent the sounds of natural speech in order to make the conversation seem more like a real conversation. As a multi modal text, the conversation shares features with both written and spoken texts, and this phonological feature may be an attempt, probably unconscious again, to make the conversation seem closer to speech. Finally, the non Standard spelling is mildly subversive: this type of language may be used so heavily by teenagers because it is almost a form of rebellion. It rejects Standard English, and teenagers may be taking the opportunity to rebel in a new way at an age when rebellion is so attractive to them. It is a way of rejecting the habits of adults. A and B and many teenagers might see the use of such features as fun and a way of expressing themselves. However, other people see it as a threat to the language and literacy. They believe a generation is growing up unable to spell correctly because of SMS messages and the internet. Alternatively they may think that as with speech, Non Standard forms suggest that a person is uneducated or of a low class. This seems over the top and unfair to say the least! In fact, there are other people, such as David Crystal, who believe that...
Task
Select one quotation which contains an interesting example(s) of language used in internet communication. 1 Explain and analyse how the feature has been used. 2 Consider how the feature relates to ordinary speech would it be used? Why/ why not? 3 Consider possible attitudes to the feature what might different people think?
How many different spoken language features can you identify using the correct terminology?
Why does the examiner think the notes were unhelpful? What should you put on an effective notes page?
The exam board said: The candidate's notes do not seem particularly brief. The concern, however, might be that they are not very useful because of the considerable amount of technical terminology that covers the page. The candidate's response, at about 1400 words, is significantly longer than is suggested in the specification and while there is no penalty for this, it may be worth discussing whether the length of the response works in the candidate's interest, and whether the large amount of detail in the notes is a contributory factor to this length.
AQA said: In responding to the first data set the candidate confidently identifies, names and comments on a range of features. (B4) The focus is always on the task title and although it may seem a little like a list in the way features are identified, there is some confident explanation (B4), for example of the use of 'x'.
An essay to explore how I use different forms of language when I use multimodal communication such as texting, tweeting and blogging to communicate with a range of different people. Write about the following: a) What different types of multimodal forms of communication they use, explain why they like using them. b) How they would classify themselves as a case study are they typical teens ( using texts and social networking sites to communicate) or are they unusual in the way they use them? c) How does their background, age, gender, ethnicity influence the sites they use/forms of multi modal communication sites they visit regularly? d) The language they have used in three transcripts- analysing how they and their peers/others use and adapt spoken language for different purposes (What is the effect of these choices? PEE from their transcripts and explain/explore the language used by them. Hopefully one text transcript will be to a peer, one an adult, one a person they hold in respect eg a teacher using standard English in a formal way even though it is an email This is the body of the essay ) e) Their analysis of how texting is a positive/negative way of communicating what is lost/gained? What do they think about public attitudes towards the way teenagers text/tweet and use new idiolect? How do they see the future evolution of multi modal technologies? Will the spoken word ever stop evolving?