Social Attitudes Towards Spoken Language Variation

For your upcoming Spoken Language Controlled Assessment the mark scheme states you must make reference to ‘issues arising from public attitudes to spoken language varieties’.

• For Band 5 this must be ‘sophisticated analysis and evaluation of key issues’.
• For Band 4 this must be ‘confident analysis of some issues’.
• For Band 3 this must be ‘exploration of some issues’.
• For Band 2 this must be ‘some awareness’.

Use your notes from the lesson with the articles plus take a look at the following links:

Emma Thompson hits out at teenagers’ sloppy English

Hitting back at Emma Thompson’s rant and There’s nowt wrong with slang

David Crystal hits back at claims teenagers have a vocabulary of only 800 words

Slang has got to go

Evolution of the English Language

Is texting killing the English Language?

Take a look – try to make reference to one of these in your writing. Any questions just ask.

Miss O

Introducing the transcripts and clips

Year 10 – continue to work on the paragraph from yesterday’s lesson. Here are the sentence starters/points to include:

General points

• Where the clip/transcripts are from.
• Who features in the clip/transcripts.
• The fact that the clip/transcripts are spontaneous.
• How power is generally shown through language – linking to who has power in a school.

Sentence starters

• I will be focusing on transcripts and clips from Educating Yorkshire.
• Educating Yorkshire is…
• The transcripts and clips feature …
• They feature spontaneous speech however …
• Power in language can be shown through general factors such as ….
• However I will look at specific examples from the transcripts/clips.

See you on Friday.

Miss O

 

Spoken Language Transcript

Year 10 – I have provided you with two transcripts. In today’s lesson I would like you to have a go at producing your own transcript based on a clip from Educating Yorkshire.

Use the key from my transcripts:

• T: initial of speaker
• (.) micro pause
• (1) Longer pause – number of seconds of pause
• // Overlapping speech (this is also called simultaneous speech)
• CAPITALS  indicates raised volume (shouting )
• Bold words which are stressed for emphasis
• _______________  a rising tone
• (coughs) sounds other than speech in brackets

You have a choice of clips. Choose the sections were there is a conversation rather than the interviews for TV:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/educating-yorkshire/videos/all/s1-ep8-siege-mentality

Miss O

Spoken Language – Thursday’s Lesson

Year 10 – use the following to aid with today’s lesson.

Sentence starters

Power can be shown through …

A lack of power can be shown through …

This can be seen in the clip/transcript …

This suggests…

Try to make reference to social attitudes to spoken language variation. Here are links to the articles from Monday’s lesson:

‘Standard English in decline among teenagers’ from The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3254407/Standard-English-in-decline-among-teenagers.html

‘Yorkshire named top twang…’ from The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/apr/04/6‘By ‘eck accents are back in fashion..’ from Prolific North.
http://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2013/02/by-eck-accents-are-back-in-fashion-tha-nos/

‘Banning slang…’ from The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/banning-slang-harris-academy-alienate-young-people

Use the following to ensure you make reference to the social attitudes to spoken language variations.

It is generally considered … however recent research has shown …

Assumptions can be made because….

Accents are generally considered…

There is an assumption/stereotype …

In a recent article in ….. it was suggested …

By including the final point you are making reference to the social attitudes to spoken language variations – use your articles from Monday’s lesson to help you.  Key terms

• downwards convergence
• accent
• dialect
• asymmetrical relationship
• instrumental power
• turn taking
• back channelling
• false starts
• holding the floor

Miss O

Yorkshire Accent

Following on from Friday’s lesson where we looked at the Yorkshire Accent/Dialect here are a few pointers to help with your homework – write a PQE paragraph focusing on how the Yorkshire Accent/Dialect is shown in either the clip/transcript of Mr Mitchell and Tom or Mr Mitchell and Bailey.

Accent:

1. Short [a] in words like grass, bath, chance. Received Pronunciation long [a].
2. [i] as in right, can be pronounced and [a] as in the Received Pronunciation rate.
3. Glottal stop for /t/ sounds – getting becomes gerring. The glottal stop is a consonant sound produced when the flow of air is stopped by the glottis closing, and then released. Say – bottle. Do you pronounce the /t/?

Dialect:

1. Definitive article reduction – the becomes t’ e.g. t’other or to the becomes t’park.
2. Owt/nowt as opposed to anything/nothing.
3. Nouns describing units of value such a weight/distance have no plural marker such as ten pounds = ten pound and five miles = five miles.

A fab looking website to help you:

How to speak with a Yorkshire Accent

Some videos to help you:

See you tomorrow.

Miss O

Influences on spoken language

The two main influences on spoken language are speaker identity and context.

Certain aspects of a speaker’s identity may influence the language they use:

• Regional origin
• Social class
• Occupation
• Gender
• Ethnic identity
• Age

It is important to explore how speech changes to fit different contexts.

• Audience: the person addressed and the speaker’s relationship with them will influence how language is used e.g. convergence or divergence.
• Setting: the formality of the setting is key.
• Topic: the subject being talked about will influence the vocabulary used.
• Purpose: different kinds of language are appropriate to different functions of language.

In Wednesday’s lesson we watched clips of Mr Mitchell and Tom speaking in different contexts. Here’s the clip where Mr Mitchell is interviewed for BBC Breakfast. We discussed how in this context, he doesn’t hold the power in the conversation. The presenters are holding the floor as they are asking the questions and initiating/changing topics. Mr Mitchell’s register becomes less formal as can be seen by his instance on being called ‘Jonny’.

Similarly Tom’s language also changes due to the context. He is much more vocal with his friends; shouting out and using a lot of swear words. He is seen arguing with Mr Hussein, this gives a very different view of Tom’s spoken language. I cannot find clips on YouTube however you can watch the episode (Episode 3) via 4 On Demand – Educating Yorkshire Episode 3

In tomorrow’s lesson we will explore the clip/transcript featuring Bailey and Mr Mitchell as well as the features of the Yorkshire Accent.

Miss O

Year 10 Educating Yorkshire

Following on from today’s lesson where you analysed the transcript of Tom and Mr Mitchell’s here’s the link to the clip and for those of you who didn’t finish your table in class please complete for Monday’s lesson. Language features for you to focus on – repetition, downwards convergence, false starts and back channelling.

Also take a look at this blog for further description on key terms influential power and instrumental power – blog post on power

 

 

 

 

Miss O