Attitudes to Language Change and Technology

Hello

We are starting to look at different attitudes to language change. Some people are happy for language to change and take an interest in the variety within the English language without passing judgement. This is a descriptivist attitude. Others think language rules should be followed to the letter in a fully standardised form and pass judgement on those who do not follow those rules. This is a prescriptivist attitude.

• The following three articles are all about the relationship between language and texting. Read each of them and make notes on the viewpoints of the writers. Do the writers display a descriptivist or prescriptivist attitude? 
•  Either post a summary of the articles on your Blog or create a word document that you can save.
•  What is your opinion on text speak? Has it had a negative effect on language? How do you text?

John Humphries

John Sutherland on Texting

David Crystal on Texting

• This article is about how technology has influenced new ways of using language. Can you think of any other new words that have come from use of the internet?

Technology Influences

Below is a really useful link to a fantastic resource from the British Library with lots of texts from Old English to Twentieth Century texts. There are lots of exercises to get you thinking about language change and will certainly help you to put texts in social and political context.

British Library Link

Nina

Rhetorical Techniques

Hello

Read the following speech given by Gordon Brown, accepting the role of Prime Minister.  What different power concepts and theory would you refer to if you were writing about this speech? Respond to this on your blog.

Brown's Speech

Now download and complete the following table to explore the rhetorical devices used in the speech.

Rhetorical Devices

For information on convergence and Accommodation theory (Howard Giles), read through this Wikipedia entry:

Convergence and Accommodation Theory

We will discuss and clarify this next lesson!

Good Luck

Nina

AS Coursework Checklist

Hello all

Coursework deadline is looming (28th February). Please make sure that you have organised, checked and rechecked your work carefully.

Please make sure you have :

• two pieces of writing for different purposes and audiences, minimum 750 words each

• put a word count on each piece, including the commentaries

• put your name on all pieces of paper

• two annotated style models

• used appropriate graphological features so that a reader knows exactly where the texts come from

• acknowledged and referenced all your wider reading, including where you found your style models (refer to your coursework handbook for further guidance on this)

• two 500 word commentaries to go with each piece of original writing; make sure you have clearly discussed the relationship between the language you chose to use and the audience, purpose and genre of your text

• checked the accuracy of your spelling, grammar and punctuation

Good luck and contact me if you need ANY help at all!

Nina

AS Language Categorising Texts

Morning!

Your task today is to come up with an example response to one set of groupings from the texts we looked at last week.

First of all we are going to look at example grouping to see how it is done! Follow this link Text Groupings Example Paragraphs

Write your own ideas in a similar way and email to me at the end of the lesson. I will then put all the responses together and you should have a range of groupings presented to you (well, that's the idea anyway!)

ADVANCE WARNING: There will be no lesson on Monday 20th January as English Staff have a training day. You will need to use this time to finish off coursework. I will post a checklist on this blog, so watch this space!

Have a great lesson!

Nina

Political Correctness - A2 Language

Hello

Following on from today's lesson, here are a few articles to read. Please read them and make notes, outlining the any arguments and examples of political correctness. Post a comment on your blog with your opinions on political correctness.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/08/political-correctness-pc-comedians-slang

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/28/bbc-respect-political-correctness

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/21/philip-davies-political-correctness

Good Luck

Nina

Twitter

Hello AS Language Bods

Here is a link to an article on the language of Twitter. Have a read and make some notes to put in your file to support any analysis of Tweets!

http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/09/15/a-list-twitters-language/#!rMu1V

Enjoy!

Nina

Web Pages

Good Morning!

Following your assessment last week, I would like you to do a little bit more work on the audience and purpose of webpages. It is really important that you consider the context of a text in terms of what and who it is for. This should be at the heart of any piece of analysis. You also need to consider a much wider range of features when you are considering a text.

So, today you are going to explore the BBC homepages and complete the attached table in as much detail as possible. As you will see, you are asked to consider the impact on audience and purpose for each feature (and please feel free to add more features to the table!) The aim is for you to make the link between audience and purpose more consistently.

Download the following: Features Table Features Table

Link to: BBC Homepage

When you have done this, I would like you to post to your blog some advice about creating a successful webpage. This should be aimed at people who are fairly new to the internet! You have to make them understand the importance of audience and purpose. This can be completed this week and you can refer to advice already available online.

Have fun!

Nina