Language investigation course book Contents Introduction..................................................................................... page 2 Exam board outline.............................................................................page 3 Assessment objectives..........................................................................page 3 Investigation overview.........................................................................page 4 Choosing your investigation...................................................................page 5 Collecting your data............................................................................page 6 Handling spoken data..........................................................................page 7 Creating questionnaires.......................................................................page 8 Finding a focus.................................................................................page 10 Data analysis...................................................................................page 11 Formulating frameworks......................................................................page 14 Structuring your investigation...............................................................page 15 Creating your media text.....................................................................page 17 Skills practice 1: Mills and Boon.............................................................page 18 Skills practice 2: Hairdressers and florist..................................................page 19 Skills practice 3: Kodak advertising.........................................................page 19 Skills practice 4: Facebook and Myspace...................................................page 20 Skills practice 5: Government advisory adverts...........................................page 21 Skills practice 6: collecting spoken data...................................................page 22 Referencing guide.............................................................................page 23 Bibliography....................................................................................page 24 Appendices: a) b) c) d) e)

Student record form......................................................................page 25 Teacher record form.....................................................................page 26 Past investigations........................................................................page 27 Transcript conventions.................................................................. page 31 Example style model for media piece: Crystal on texting.........................page 32

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Language investigation course book

Introduction During your English Language study so far you will have acquired a broad knowledge of a range of factors that impact upon our language use. You will also have acquired the skills to comment upon this language and will be able to using a range of terminology accurately and effectively. Over the next few months you will be working towards completing your ENGB4 Investigating Language module. During this time you will be expected to use and develop your knowledge of the English language to produce an independent investigation into an area of language that interests you. In addition to this, you will create a media text that provides an insight into the area that you have been investigating; introducing and commenting upon this area of language for a non-specialist audience. This module requires a great deal of independence, organisation and focus. You will be expected to spend approximately 60 hours completing your final pieces so it’s important that you chose a topic that grabs your attention. You won’t be abandoned though. Your teacher(s) will be there to provide guidance and advice through a combination of whole-class lessons, individual tutorials and informal chats. You need to keep a record of these meetings and submit this as an appendix in your final coursework folder (see appendices A and B for the forms to help you do this). In addition, this booklet will help to guide you through the whole process from start to finish. It is designed to be a step-by-step guide to the general approaches that you will need to employ and will help you to structure your work efficiently and effectively.

Language and occupation/ power

Language change

Language and gender

Language acquisition English Language

Language and technology

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Language and dialect

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Language investigation course book Exam board outline for ENGB4 The aim of this unit The aim of this coursework unit is to develop your ability to explore and analyse language data through a variety of methods. It should enable you to build upon the key concepts and ideas gained during the course of your studies, as well as providing you with the opportunity to demonstrate expertise in an area of individual interest. Your coursework file will comprise of two individual pieces of writing:  

a language investigation a media text.

Language investigation You should choose your own area for study in consultation with your teacher(s). The topic selected should be manageable given the time and word limits. Investigations may be based on areas that have been studied during the course so far; or may be based in any area that is seen to yield interesting questions about language study. The length of your investigation should be 1750-2500 words, excluding appendices and data. Media text You will use the broad subject focus of your investigation to produce a media text (e.g. newspaper article, magazine article) highlighting the language ideas and issues surrounding your chosen topic. This task will encourage you to develop your editorial writing skills (these have already been tested in ENGB2). This piece should be based on your knowledge and should be aimed at a non-specialist audience. This piece needs to be linked to your investigation but does not need to reflect your findings. You will be able to undertake wider reading and you should provide a bibliography to identify your preparatory reading material. The length of this piece should be 750-1000 words. Assessment objectives The following objectives are assessed through your completion of your ENGB4 Investigating Language coursework. They are weighted in different proportions. AO1

AO2

AO3

AO4

Select and apply a range of linguistic methods, to communicate relevant knowledge using appropriate terminology and coherent, accurate written expression. Investigation: 20% Demonstrate critical understanding of a range of concepts and issues relating to the construction and analysis of meanings in spoken and written language, using knowledge of linguistic approaches. Investigation: 20% Analyse and evaluate the influence of contextual factors on the production and reception of spoken language, showing knowledge of the key constituents of language. Investigation: 10% Demonstrate expertise and creativity in the use of English in a range of contexts informed by linguistic study. Article: 30%

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Language investigation course book Investigation overview: preparatory stages

Choose the area that you will be researching for your investigation

Collect your data. Complete any background reading and undertake any other research

Refine your title – give yourself a clear focus for your investigation

Identify the key frameworks you will use to help you structure your investigation

Investigation overview: analysis and organisation

Carry out a detailed and logical analysis of your data

Draw your ideas together and decide upon your conclusions

Reflect on the validity and effectiveness of your data and methods you have chosen to explore it

Write up and re-draft your investigation, assemble appendices and present your final piece © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book This is one way in which you can ‘chunk’ your work. Breaking-down your project will help to ensure that the major task of creating your investigation is made manageable and logical. Rather than rigidly adhering to this process you should use it as a series of guidelines. Notice how much preparation is required prior to writing your final piece. Choosing your investigation Selecting an area for your investigation is a matter of personal choice. This is often the most daunting part of the whole process, so don’t worry if you feel a little overwhelmed and undecided. You will need to think carefully about what aspects of your English language study have so far interested you. This project will take a lot of time (approximately 60 hours of work) and the more enthusiastic you are about your chosen area of study the better. Think about what you enjoy doing, what interests you and what you have enjoyed studying. You also need to think about practical issues. For example;    

Will you be able to collect suitable data? Will you be able to refine your ideas? Will you be able to create a focused and interesting title for your investigation? Do you have a good understanding of this area? Or, will you be able to acquire the knowledge base needed?

When making your choice, it’s worth considering the following questions to help you think of possible areas that may yield an effective project:             

Do you have a part time job? Do you have a hobby? Do you like to read magazines? Do you listen to the radio? Which television programmes do you watch? Do you watch or play any sports? Do you belong to any clubs or organisations? Do any of your friends or family members speak differently to you (accent/dialect) Do you have younger brothers/sisters? (language acquisition) Do you have your old primary school exercise books/reports? Do you know anyone who speaks English as a second language? What topics interested you the most last year? Do you enjoy analysing speech or writing? See Appendix C for a comprehensive list of areas used by students in previous investigations.

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Language investigation course book Collecting your data Once you have decided upon an area for your investigation, you will need to collect your data. It is important that your data is carefully and accurately collected; the success of your investigation depends upon it. How you collect your data will vary depending upon your chosen area. It may be quite complicated and can be quite time consuming so make sure you are prepared for this. You may need to:      

record and transcribe spoken data (from audio or screen) collect a range of written texts visit local libraries search the internet create questionnaires set up interview scenarios.

Once you have collected your data you should ideally have it electronically stored so that you can easily make multiple copies. You may need to scan pieces onto the computer but should always keep the originals as well. You will need to include in your final project appendices:  a clean (original) copy of your data  an annotated version of your data. Anomalies When collecting your data you need to ensure that your collection is consistent and keeps anomalies and variables to a minimum. You need to think very carefully about any other contextual factors which may prevent you from accurately comparing data, or may prevent it from being truly representative. Ethics When collecting your data you need to ensure that you have permission to use it in your investigation; you may need to send letters or emails to do this. You should also ensure that all your data is ethically collected. For example, you should not record people speaking without their knowledge. Any letters/emails that you write should be included in your appendices along with any responses that you receive.

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Language investigation course book Handling spoken data Some of the most rewarding and interesting projects require students to analyse spoken texts. Recording and transcribing data can be a time consuming process but is one that can yield interesting, unique and lively data. See Appendix D for a list of Transcript Conventions. Your spoken data may be transcribed from a media source, for example:     It    

a television programme live sports commentary advertisements a radio show. may involve the use of real speech for example: teacher talk in the classroom responses to a series of questions where the focus may be dialect the speech of a child talking to their parents children retelling a story.

It may involve represented speech:  characters in a soap opera speaking  news readers telling the news  a politician making a speech. In all the cases you should consider the following: 1) Quantity: It is likely that you will record a lot more data than you will need in the end and transcribing everything that you record will take hours. So, the first step is to select which parts of your recordings are most relevant to the question that you are exploring. 2) Detail: You then need to consider how much detail you will need to include in your transcript. A transcript should enable the reader to recreate the spoken data in their head without the need to refer to the original recording. 3) Conventions: There are no absolute rules that dictate how a transcript should be presented and what it should include. In all probability you will need to show aspects of speech, through the use of symbols that would not be obvious on the page. For example; pauses, hedges, intonation. However, what you show will be very much dependent on the area of language that you are exploring. You may like to adopt the conventions demonstrated in the Appendix C. In all cases you should use a key. 4) Phonetic alphabet: Often transcripts will require you demonstrate how something is said rather than simply what is being said; in many cases you will indicate this using standard conventions of phonetic spelling e.g. yeah instead of yes. However, for some areas of exploration, particularly if you are focusing on dialect or acquisition, you will need a more accurate and rigorous way of showing demonstrating pronunciation. For this you will use need to use the phonetic alphabet. See Appendix E. © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book The factors that impact upon spoken language

Prosodic features

Paralinguistic features

Features of interaction

Spoken language

Grammatical features

The context

Creating questionnaires Questionnaires can be a very useful way of collecting a variety of interesting and relevant data. However, the quality of your data will only be as good as the quality of your questionnaire so they need plenty of thought and some careful creation. You will also need to ensure that you can collect enough data to make your findings valid. In the ‘real world’ this often means hundreds or thousands of responses; in the world of your investigation you should aim to look at approximately 50 sets of responses. This is a brief outline of the process you will need to go through to create a good questionnaire.

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Language investigation course book

Objectives

Sampling group

 

You need to identify the objectives of your survey This will probably require you to complete background research and identify theories you would like to test



You will need to identify who will ask to complete your survey; are you looking at a wide range, small range or random sample? Consider: age, gender, interests, context





Creating 

Conducting your questionnaire

Interpreting your results

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 

  

Make sure your questions are clear and obtain information that is useful to your investigation without being leading Consider: wording, layout, anonymity, clarity,

How will you conduct your questionnaire? Consider: obtaining a range of responses, the personal information you may need to collect (e.g. gender, age)

How will you collate your results? Consider how your results would best be presented e.g. tables, graphs, charts Is there any statistical analysis that you can perform?

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Language investigation course book Finding a focus for your investigation Once you have collected your data you will need to look at creating a defined question for your investigation. It is worth remembering that the best approaches are often quite narrow allowing you to explore an idea in real depth. The first steps towards this are:  to familiarise yourself with your data and consider its most defining features  to undertake any background reading required, research the area that you will be investigating. In light of this you will then need to formulate a title/question to address. In effect you will be creating an abstract or hypothesis for your investigation. This isn’t a complicated process but it does require some thought and there is no individual model that will fit every task. At the outset it is worth considering these simple questions in relation to your chosen area:  what?  how?  why? You may also like to think about:  when?  where?  who? Often projects take one of the following forms, or use the following phrases in their title: An analysis of

implies close attention to detail

A comparison of

looks at two or more sets of data which have similarity and difference

A study of

implies wider ranging consideration

An exploration

implies something wide ranging with discovery as an end result

An enquiry into

implies that you have an open question which you will attempt to answer

Research into

implies that the data collection is in itself important

The language of

implies that the investigation will attempt to define the trends in language use in one particular area

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Language investigation course book Data analysis In light of your question and focus you will now need to approach your data in depth. To do this you should undertake some, or all, of the following processes:      

analyse and annotate your data in detail order and organise for data logically group ideas, comments, quotations and examples appropriately compare and contrast the data that you have collected perform a statistical analysis on questionnaires/‘counted’ parts present results in an appropriate manner.

Using diagrams This may be an English language investigation but there is no reason why you can’t include tables, graphs or pie-charts if you feel that this would be the most appropriate way to present your data effectively. Take a look at the following examples, these come from the real investigations of previous students: Example A Project title A study of legalese in the ‘Weekly Law Reports’. Comments This investigation demonstrated the genuine interest of the student in the law. A detailed and focused piece, it examined the use of legalese in real depth. The data was taken from the weekly law reports which are short summaries of influential cases written by lawyers for their peers and the judiciary. These written texts were taken from the internet and required the student to obtain permission from the editor of the reports to reproduce and use these texts in her project. She undertook a great deal of personal research to help support and explain her findings. The framework headings chosen     

Latin and archaic features legal terminology and jargon grammatical structure how discourse features aid the purpose of the weekly reports Tradition and purpose vs. plain English campaign.

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Language investigation course book Report number 1

Examples of archaic lexis So held, thus, monies, whom, gave rise, intention of which

Latinate lexis dicta

2

So held

Per se, prima facie

3

In so far as, so held, nor

onus

4

Whom, so held it mattered not

Via, inter alia

5

So held

Per incuriam

So held, thus (x2), thereafter So held, thus, behest, whereby, so as to allow, in which it was

6 7

Specific occupational terminology Defendant, actionable, statutory rights, tor, liability Pecuniary, liable, legitimate, pursuant, codefendant, recorder Reserved judgement, claimant, ‘stop notice’, legislature Contravention, defendant Interlocutory appeal, appellants, crown, contraventions

In Re

Pursuant

In personam, in re, bona fide

Creditor, respondent, fiduciary duties, trustee, legislation

Thanks to Krysia for allowing parts of her investigation to be used in this booklet. Example 2 Project title An investigation into the language and presentation of Dulux advertising within a colour guide booklet. Comments This investigation was great! Original, lively and focused it handled the subject area with confidence and explored ideas in real depth. What really made this project stand out was the fact that the student researched very carefully the language of advertising and applied broader theories to their data with real sensitivity and intelligence. The data used comprised of the Dulux colour guide booklet (very easily obtainable from B&Q), as well as the results of approximately 50 responses to a questionnaire* that the student designed with a variety of theories in mind. The analysis used a number of graphs and tables (see examples below) to efficiently illustrate its findings and it drew some interesting and substantiated conclusions. *The questionnaire has been used as an example of research methods and can be found in the appendices of this booklet. This questionnaire was distributed to a variety of people of both sexes and all ages. The framework headings chosen     

connotations and denotations of paint names the persuasive techniques used in heading descriptions lexical techniques within paint names graphology and discourse structure throughout the colour guide pragmatics and the cultural significance of paint names and pictures.

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Language investigation course book A graph to show the connotations of the paint colour name ‘Red Stallion’. 30 25 20 15 Male 10

Female

5 0

A graph to show the number of people who considered the paint colour ‘Red Stallion’ to be gender specific. 40 35 30 25 A Graph to show the number of people who consider the paint colour 'Red Stallion ' gender specific.

20 15 10 5 0 Masculine

Feminine

Neutral

Thanks to Jade for allowing parts of her investigation to be used in this booklet.

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Language investigation course book Formulating frameworks In order to write the analysis section of your investigation and to ensure that your final coursework is structured appropriately you will need to define the frameworks you are applying to your data very carefully. Throughout your course so far you have already become adept at applying language frameworks to any texts that you encounter. The difference here will be that you need to select the frameworks that you believe are the most relevant to your data and your investigation yourself. These frameworks will vary widely depending upon the area that you are investigating. Your application of the frameworks should be systematic, exploratory and sensitive. As a general rule you should choose to focus on four/five key frameworks. These will enable you to divide your analysis into sections and encourage you to work ‘across’ texts rather than in a linear fashion ‘through’ texts. Each of your framework choices should be formed as a sub-heading or question. Within each of these frameworks you will then be required to analyse your data in detail drawing on your knowledge of linguistic terminology to give accuracy and precision to your comments. You will also be required to use frequent, specific examples from your data to support your comments. The following table shows the over-arching concepts under which you can form more specific questions. framework Discourse Structure Graphology Pragmatics Syntax Morphology Lexis/ semantics Phonology Orthography

questions How is the text arranged, sequenced and organised? How is the text presented, visually, on the page? What visual components is it dependent on? How do these help to establish meaning? What actual and implied meanings do texts have in the particular contexts in which they are written? What is distinctive about the sentence structure and word order in a text? What is interesting about the structure of individual words in a text? What is distinctive about the vocabulary used in the text? How does the text use language to create meanings? How are the meanings and connotations produced in a text? What is interesting about the sounds involved in a text? How is the text written (typeface/hand-writing etc.), spelt and punctuated?

In your project you should aim to demonstrate your understanding of a range of different approaches to language. For instance, there is little mileage in your whole analysis concentrating on graphological features. However, two of your frameworks may fall under one of the broad headings named in the table above.

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Language investigation course book Structuring your investigation Your final investigation should be clearly structured in the following way. It should include the following sections in this order. The title page Very straightforward, you simply have to let us know who you are and what your investigation is about so check that it includes the following information:      

title of your investigation your full name module name and code (AQA A2 English Language; Unit 4 Investigating Language; ENGB4) candidate number centre number school name.

Contents page As with your title page, this simply gives clarity to your work so ensure that it fulfils these criteria:  

provides a clear outline of the structure of your investigation lists the content of your appendices.

Introduction The introduction is an opportunity for you to outline your reasons for selecting your task and provides the chance to give a little background information to help contextualise your ideas and approaches. You should include:     

your reasons for choosing this focus for your investigation your hypothesis/research question how your topic fits into a wider context for language use how your research relates to some theoretical aspects of language, including reference to what you have read on these aspects Your aims and objectives.

Methodology In this section you should outline how you have collected your data and how you went about ensuring that your data collection was not open to anomalies. You should include:   

the methodology that you have chosen for your data selection problems (if any) that you encountered during the process of collecting your data techniques that you used to ensure that your data was valid.

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Language investigation course book Analysis This section will use the majority of your word count. In most cases your analysis should be clearly divided into manageable sections, with clear sub-headings. In some cases writing the analysis as one ‘essay’ can prove more effective; if you think this is going to be case make sure that you plan your ideas carefully and maintain a clear structure in your work. Either way your analysis should:     

demonstrate a clear exploration and analysis of your data use appropriate linguistic terminology and concepts demonstrate a critical understanding of the relevant ideas and theories surrounding the topic area demonstrate an analytical understanding of the key contextual influences upon the data. be clear and logical in its structure.

Conclusion Your conclusion should draw together the key ideas that you have identified and explain you major findings. It will include your interpretation of your data. Evaluation You should evaluate how successful you feel your project has been and identify any areas that you feel you could have improved. This section can be incorporated into your conclusion if you prefer. Bibliography Include a list of all the texts that you have used, including internet sites. Make sure these are correctly referenced. For guidance see the bibliography/reading list at the back of this booklet. Appendices Any material that you would like to reference. This should include your data. Media text In the same file as you investigation, you should include your media text and any style models that you have annotated to help you complete this piece.

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Language investigation course book Creating your media text The second section of your coursework requires you to create a media text. Your media text could be one of the following:  a newspaper article for a specific publication  a magazine article  a website entry. You should link your article to the area of focus that you have chosen for your investigation and should write approximately 750-1000 words. Whilst the area that your article discusses should be linked to your investigation you don’t need to include your investigation’s findings in your article; in fact you could explore the same rough area from a completely different angle. This task builds on the skills that you will have acquired during your ENGB2 Creating Texts coursework. You will use your knowledge of a particular area of language, and your editorial skills, to create a text which (primarily) informs a non-specialist audience about a specific language issue. You will need to consider the following when creating your media text:  audience  purpose  context  graphology  lexical choice  discourse structure  pragmatics. Style models Media texts which discuss language are wide ranging and you will find plenty of examples on the internet. You should find at least two articles that can act as style modes for the type of text that you are aiming to produce; you should look at articles that do not cover the same area of language as you will be writing about. These texts should be annotated and included in the appendices of your coursework. Pay close attention to the stylistic features of your style models and consider how you can achieve similar effects in your own writing.

  

Useful websites: www.guardian.co.uk www.timesonline.co.uk www.independent.co.uk

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Language investigation course book Skills practice 1: The language of ‘Mills and Boon’ book titles (adapted from Researching Language 2nd Edition by Angela Goddard) Data set Below are a list of titles from Mills and Boon novels: Rage Fever The Caged Tiger Desire Snow Bride With All My Worldly Goods Lord of the Land Midnight Lover Dear Villian Burning Obsession Night of Possession Kiss of a Tyrant

Summer in France Greek Island Magic A Modern Girl Dangerous Demon A Girl Bewitched Sweet Conquest Secret Fire Dark Tyrant Loving in the Lion’s Den Dangerous Moonlight Untamed Wildfire Encounter

The Fires of Heaven King of the Culla Bridal Path Always the Boss The Girl from Nowhere Makebelieve Marriage Pacific Aphrodite Savage Surrender Dangerous Compulsion Dear Demon

Task 1 Make notes on the following:  Can you find any patterns in the data?  Try to categorise the titles according to their meanings. This means you should attempt to link several titles together in groups via their connotations since they are trying to create similar pictures.  Consider if there are any common language or grammatical patterns in the data. Task 2 Create your own headings for the categories that you have found. Aim to create three or four headings. Task 3 Answer the following question: What do these titles tell you about the world of ‘Mills and Boon’ books? Research If it helps you may like to undertake some research about ‘Mills and Boon’. You could concentrate on the following ideas:  the intended audience and purpose of the books  the context and background of the books. © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book Skills practice 2: The language of hairdressing shop names Or The language of florist shops Task 1 Create a data set by searching the internet for names of either hair dressers or florists’ shops. You should aim to obtain a list of approximately 20 names. A good place to start is www.yell.com. Task 2 Make notes on the following:  Can you find any patterns in the data?  Try to categorise the names according to their meanings. This means you should attempt to link several titles together in groups via their connotations since they are trying to create similar pictures.  Consider if there are any common language patterns in the data. Task 3 Create your own headings for the categories that you have found. Aim to create three of four headings. Task 4 Answer one of the following questions: What do the various connotations and structures of the shop names tell you about hairdressers’ shops? Or What do the various connotations and structures of shop names tell you about florists’ shops? Skills practice 3: Language change in advertising Research Search the internet to find between five and ten print advertisements for one of the following companies:   

Kodak Coca-cola Levis

Your adverts should span at least 50 years. © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book Task 1 Look carefully at the advertisements. Create a title for an investigation that uses these adverts as its data. Task 2 Annotate the texts identifying their key features, consider:      

lexical choice pragmatics graphology discourse structure audience and purpose contextual issues.

Text 3 Create a list of four framework headings that would provide structure for an investigation that uses this data set. Skills practice 4: Social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace Investigation title: An investigation into the defining features of the language of social networking sites. Comments: This was a very successful project with a modern and youthful context, firmly based in the ever changing field of language and technology. It concentrated on defining the language and features of social networking sites and exploring whether common structures exist between sites. The investigation’s overall aim was to create a ‘list’ of identifiable and common features (if these existed). Task 1: Write a short introduction that outlines the aims and intentions of this investigation. You should also introduce the subject matter and provide any relevant background information. Task 2: Outline how you would go about collecting data for this investigation. You should consider:    

where your data will be collected from how many examples you will need permission and privacy considerations how you will present your data.

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Language investigation course book Task 3: Outline the reading and research you feel you would need to complete in order to complete this investigation. For this investigation, the following frameworks were used during the analysis:  the lexical choice of users  the psycho-social issues connected to the creation of an online identity  features of graphology and persuasion  language varieties connected to purpose and audience  personalisation and individuality. Task 4: Look carefully at the frameworks chosen. Is there anything you would change, alter or approach in a different way? Give reasons. Task 5: Collect some data that you think would be effective for this investigation, annotate and present this correctly. Task 6: Select one framework. Plan and write this section of the analysis. You should aim to write approximately 200-250 words. Task 7: Try to create a list of any key features of the language of social networking that you can identify from the limited data that you have. Thank you to Lewis for allowing parts of his investigation to b used in this booklet. Skills practice 5: The language of government advisory advertising. Task 1 Create a data set by searching the internet for examples of government advisory adverts. You could choose one area, or many, to focus on. Areas you could consider include:   

advice on smoking/alcohol advice on road safety for students, cyclists, car users advice on public health issues e.g. swine flu, MRSA, inoculations etc.

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Language investigation course book Task 2 Make notes on the following:  can you find any patterns or systems in the data?  try to categorise the adverts according to their semantic content  consider if there are any common grammatical patterns in the data  consider how else these texts may be linked. Task 3 Write a title for an investigation which uses this data. Task 4 Create your own headings for approximately four frameworks that that you feel should be used to aid your analysis of these texts. Skills practice 6: collecting and transcribing spoken data In order to practise collecting and transcribing spoken data try these quick tasks. Task 1 Ask a friend, or one of your family, to answer the following simple questions:   

What did you do today? What are your plans for the weekend? Ask any other questions which arise from the discussion and answer any questions you are asked.

As you are asking these questions, record the conversation (you can use a Dictaphone, digital recorder, or the record function on your mobile phone). Now, depending on the length of your recording, select a section to transcribe. In as much detail as possible create a transcript of the recording. You will find that you need to stop and start the recording frequently and listen to the recording repeatedly in order to ensure that you include as much detail as possible. You should ensure that you are consistent with you notation and that you focus on all key elements of the spoken data. Task 2 Select a programme from the television, record the programme, or use iplayer. Transcribe a short section from this programme in has much detail as possible. Good programmes to try are:    

soap operas dramas reality television the big brother diary room.

(See Appendix D for an outline of some common transcription conventions for conversational analysis). © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book Referencing guide In your investigation you will need to include a list of all the books, articles, TV/ Radio programs, journals, emails and web-sites that you have referred to. Ideally you should use the Harvard style of referencing; this is the most commonly-used style of referencing worldwide. These examples conform to the British Standard, but you may see slight differences elsewhere. You should include a full bibliography - listing all the sources of information you have consulted in your research; this list should also be arranged alphabetically. Below is a list of the most commonly used reference forms: Email FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title. [online]. Message to: Recipient. Date sent. [Date accessed]. Personal communication. Book Take the information from the title page and the reverse of the title page: FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher. Book (edited) Write ed. or eds. after the editor's name(s): FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). ed. Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher. Newspaper article FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title of article. Newspaper title. Date, page number of your quotation. Image (online) ORIGINATOR. Year. Title of image [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide Web: URL. Television advertisement COMPANY/PRODUCT. Year produced. Description of advert (duration). Television advertisement, channel. Screened dates. Television broadcast Series title and number and title of episode. Year. Transmitting organisation and channel. Date. Time of transmission. Website with author FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide Web: URL. Website with no author Title of website.Year as appearing on site [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide Web: URL. Wikis WIKI NAME. Year. Title of article [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide Web: URL. © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book Bibliography Moore, Andrew. 2005. Andrew Moore’s Resource Site. [Accessed 25th March 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: Norman, Ron and Watkiss, Anne.2001. English Language for AQA B. Oxford. Heinemann Goddard, Angela Fromkin, Rodman and Hymans.2007.An Introduction to Language: Eighth Edition. Boston.Thomson/Wadworth Publications from the University of Leeds Website; University Library pages 2009 [online]. [Accessed 30th March 2003] .Available from World Wide Web: WIKIPEDIA. 2007. International Phonetic Alphabet [online]. [Accessed 26 March 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: Crystal, David. 2008. 2b or not 2b: David Crystal on why texting is good for language. The Guardian. Saturday 5th July 2008. p. 2 of Features and Reviews. Available from World Wide Web: Beadle, Philip. Mind your Language- and know what it means. The Guardian. Tuesday 16th May 2006. p. 6 of Education Guardian. Available from World Wide Web: Eastman Kodak. 1900. Eastman Kodak Brownie. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available from World Wide Web. www.antiquephotoparlour.com/photohistory.php 1900 Eastman Kodak.1907. Vintage Kodak Girl. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: www.thephotographyfanatic.com Eastman Kodak. 1895. Vintage Kodak. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available World Wide Web: www.thephotographyfanatic.com Eastman Kodak.1932. Vintage Kodak Poster Advert. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available World Wide Web: www.twenga.co.uk Eastman Kodak. 1907. Vintage Kodak Poster Advert [Accessed 30th March 2009]. Available World Wide Web: www.twenga.co.uk

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Language investigation course book Appendix A: student record sheet Name:

Date:

Focus of meeting/preparation:

Targets/notes:

Teacher signature:

Student signature:

Name:

Date:

Focus of meeting/preparation:

Targets/notes:

Teacher signature:

Student signature:

You will have frequent meetings with your teachers about your investigation. Use these record sheets to keep track of your progress, any questions/problems that you encounter and any advice or targets you are given. These sheets must be kept and submitted with your final investigation.

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Language investigation course book Appendix B: teacher record sheet Name:

Class:

Investigation title and focus:

Date

Focus

Comments

Use this sheet to keep track of students’ investigations, the advice and guidance you provide and their progress.

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Language investigation course book Appendix C Past investigations Below is a list of areas that have proved successful for past investigations. You can use these to provide you with ideas for your own investigation. This list is far from exhaustive; the possibilities are endless, so think very carefully about what interests you. 1. Language change e.g. recipes, magazines, children’s books. 2. Comparison of language in news programmes – R4, Newsbeat, local radio, Newsround, BBC Six O’Clock News. 3. Interview techniques e.g. Paxman, Parkinson, Jonathan Ross. 4. The language of investigative journalism (TV). 5. Study of transcribed examples of regional varieties of spoken English – accent and dialect. 6. A study of how parents talk to their children e.g. when reading bedtime stories. 7. Analysis of a stretch of everyday discourse e.g. Big Brother, sales talk, greetings, gossip, occupational variations (politicians, lawyers, detectives, doctors, hairdressers … the list is endless). 8. Comedy styles – stand-up, sitcom, taboo. How an individual comedian creates comedy e.g. Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Harry Hill. 9. Analysis of differences between spoken and written English e.g. radio v. press, news or sports reports. 10. Observations of young children learning to speak read or write. 11. Exploration of stylistic features of media forms e.g. magazines, TV programmes and websites. Look at how language is related to the audience. 12. Do common linguistic definitions of gendered language match ordinary people’s perceptions? 13. The Language of toys for boys/girls in catalogues (Barbie vs. Action Man etc.) 14. The Language of nursery/playground rhymes, lonely hearts columns, match.com, car/food/cosmetics adverts, comics, political speeches, children’s books, fly-on-thewall documentaries, Big Brother diary room, children’s books, tele-sales, chat-rooms, birthday cards etc. 15. The language of war-related texts from 1939-1945.

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Language investigation course book 16. Teacher talk. Record a teacher working with their students. Examine power features employed. 17. Gender issues. Record a male group and female group discussing the same topic/stimulus. Compare the differences. 18. Taboo language. Record two different age/social/gender groups and compare their use of taboo language. Is it becoming more prevalent? More acceptable? 19. Occupational lexis. Record a person at work, or within any social group (e.g.: doctors/solicitors/mechanics/football fans) where specialised language might be used. Examine the functions of their jargon. How and why is it used? 20. Child language acquisition. Record children talking as they perform a task e.g. Lego building. Read them stories and ask them to re-tell it in writing, or on tape, compare via age. 21. The lexis of sports commentators. Record and transcribe a few commentaries. Compare extracts of at least three different speakers to investigate if there is a recognisable genre. 22. The language of football managers in pre and post match interviews. 23. Language change in advertising e.g. Coca-Cola, Kodak, Levis. 24. Technology based. The language of social networking sites, blogs, text messaging etc. 25. The prevalence of Black English vernacular in popular culture. Why is it fast becoming the most popular variety of English for teenagers today? Examine in terms of a few selected texts. 26. To what extent is there an increasing influence of Americanisms on the English Language? Examine in terms of three selected media texts e.g.: newspapers/magazines/music/radio and TV scripts. 27. Gender stereotyping in children’s literature. Select three extracts from texts from perhaps the 1940s/1950s (like Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five or Arthur Ransom’s Swallows and Amazons) and examine for gender bias. 28. Gender stereotyping in any type of text you would like to examine. This could be – tabloid newspapers, lifestyle/sport/car/fashion/music magazines. Analyse in terms of the target audiences and shared cultural assumptions. A good one to do might be superhero or fantasy-type comics, where stereotypes are often employed. 29. Focus on the representation of an individual at a particular point in time e.g. Barack Obama, David Beckham. 30. Change in tabloid and broadsheet papers as the war in Afghanistan develops. 31. The changing language of fashion advertising. © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book 32. Representation of sportswomen in journalism. 33. Gossip in the work place in soap operas. 34. Recreational magazines aimed at teenage girls in the last 40 years. 35. Influence of other children on the development of children's language. 36. Representation of women in a range of national newspapers. 37. Celebrity chefs: a study of the language of recipes. 38. A study of the language of press releases. 39. Newspaper accounts of England/Germany football matches over 40 years. 40. The language of American and English guitar magazines. 41. Development of children's writing, looking at writers over a number of years. 42. Conversation in real life and Eastenders. 43. TV and radio football commentaries. 44. Child language development, looking at one child over 3-4 months. 45. Representation of terrorism and terrorists in a range of newspapers. 46. Representation of 'war against terrorism' in newspapers for minority groups. 47. Media representation of certain celebrities. 48. Representation of occupation in …. (Scrubs, Holby City, CSI, Waterloo Road etc.) 49. Language and power in reality TV shows (who gains the power and how). 50. Comparison of the speeches made by Saddam Hussain and George Bush following the invasion of Iraq. 51. The language of crime scene programming. 52. The language of Jeremy Kyle/Trisha/Ricki Lake etc. 53. Investigating the language of propaganda-driven war posters (comparing English, German and Russian from WW1). 54. The language of car sales people. 55. The language of air-traffic controllers. 56. The language of driving instructors. © www.teachit.co.uk 2012

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Language investigation course book 57. Comparing teacher language in Y13 lessons to that in Year 7 lessons. 58. Persuasive techniques in film trailers. 59. The language of L33T speak/world of warcraft/MUDs/VGEs. 60. A comparison between the language used to name paint colours and lipstick colours.

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Language investigation course book Appendix D: transcript conventions for conversational analysis Symbol [ ] (1) , (.) word WORD ! ? : . (...) 

h

h W(h)ord   ( )

Meaning Point at which an overlap in speech starts Point at which an utterance stops Timed space in the utterance Indicates natural pause in utterance Indicates short pause (less than a second Indicates emphasis Indicates shouting Shifts in pitch higher or lower

What it shows? Sequence

Emphatic utterance Rising intonation (may be a question but not always) Sound prior to mark prolonged (the more colons the longer:::::: the sound) Prior sound cut off e.g. whFall in tone (not always the end of a sentence Fading away which is unintelligible Indicates utterance speeding up Indicates an in-breath (more hhh’s the more pronounced it is) Indicates out-breath (more hhh’s the more pronounced it is) Indicates breathlessness (laughing, crying etc.) laughter crying Unable to hear what was said

“ “

(wordword) Unsure whether word or phrase is what was said (best guess) (( )) Descriptions added by the transcribers not what was said (may include paralinguistic features or notes on prosody)

“ Timing “ “ Features of speech “ “

“ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ Transcribers doubts and comments “ “

Please note:  

You should always provide a key to explain the conventions that you have used in your transcripts; you can include this as an appendix with your data. These are symbols that are commonly used, but you can use your own symbols to draw attention to any features you would like to highlight. Just add them to your key.

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Language investigation course book Appendix E: style model for media text: Crystal on texting 2b or not 2b? Despite doom-laden prophecies, texting has not been the disaster for language many feared, argues linguistics Professor David Crystal. On the contrary, it improves children's writing and spelling … David Crystal The Guardian, 5th July 2008

Vandalism? Teenager texting on a mobile phone. Photograph: Martin Godwin Last year, in a newspaper article headed ‘I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language’, John Humphrys argued that texters are ‘vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours 800 years ago. They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.’ As a new variety of language, texting has been condemned as ‘textese’, ‘slanguage’, a ‘digital virus’. According to John Sutherland of University College London, writing in this paper in 2002, it is ‘bleak, bald, sad shorthand. Drab shrinktalk ... Linguistically it's all pig's ear ... it masks dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness. Texting is penmanship for illiterates.’ For the full article please see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/05/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview

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