Language Articles

SAT Exam
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/can-you-pass-year-six-52615


The Guardian- Pity our children
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/10/bad-grammar-gove-english-killing-children-love-language-adverbials-digraphs


Bedmo
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bedmo-backlash-bedminsters-nickname-traditional-53751

Michael Rosen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g5533


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ffvp6

Exam plan and paragraphs

Intro

• Statement is important but one might argue not the 'most'
• Joey 3yrs 5months- likely to be p.t (post telegraphic)
• Adult caregiver male- not dad so likely to be relative- Joey's home
• Playing- potentially close relationship 

I think that this statement is definitely important but I would argue that it isn't the 'most.' This transcripts shows a conversation between Joey and his caregiver. Joey is 3yrs and 5 months old. This suggests that he is in the post-telegraphic stage in regards to his language. It is clear that Joey's caregiver is a male. However, it is not his dad but it is likely that he is a relative as they are playing in Joey's house. This suggests that they have a potentially close relationship.

Para 1

• The specific way in which caregivers talk to children is described as child directed speech
• 'Prawns/crawns'- semantically knows what a prawn is but phonologically he says crawns
• 'Do I?'- tag questions 
• 5 second pause- mention elongated pause
• 'It breaks'- adult repeats what jokey says to encourage joey to explain what he means

The specific way in which caregivers talk to children is described as child directed speech. There are examples of this throughout the transcript. 'Do I?' Is an example of the use of a tag question. The tag question is used to reinforce Joey's language and guide him to communicate with the adult. Another example of CDS is 'it breaks.' This is the use of repetition as the adult is repeating what Joey says to encourage Joey to explain what he means.

Para 2

• Skinner- operant conditioning theory 
• Role play
• Bruner L.A.S.S (language acquisition support system)
• Process over content 
• 'Saucy pan'- humour
• 'Flop,flop,flop,flip'- verb- semantic field of cookery pancakes frying pan 
• 'Don't touch um, don't break them'- referring to his dads book imperative- feature of dads CDS

The secret life of 4 year olds: Episode 1

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-4-5-and-6-year-olds/on-demand/61827-001
• 'Here it is', 'Our playground'- 3mins 40s

Determiners

• 'Tia is quite over-powering'- 10mins 34s

If it was a boy would things be different- negative connotations

• 'Let me talk to you this instant'- 11mins 40s

Reinforcement copying what parents have said at home

• 'I telled him'- 12mins 50s

Regular simple past on an irregular verb
She's made a virtuous error but suggests intelligence
Chomsky- L.A.D

• 'Play with me'- 17m

Imperative

Steven Pinker- Linguistics as a window to understanding the brain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B_ONJIEcE

Horizon- who do we talk?

• Talking is a unique ability that defines us as humans
• We are the only ones on the planet that can talk
• Expressing thought processes
• Children learn to speak with minimal effort
• Despite decades of research, how we learn to talk is a mystery
• Is it something we are born with or what we learn
• Dr Deb Roy turned his home into a laboratory and captured his sons language from the day he was born until the age of three
• The parent simplifies language to match the child's language but when the child develops, the parents language becomes more complex

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/deb-roy-the-birth-of-a-word
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with video cameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." This astonishing, data-rich research has deep implications for how we learn.

• Dr Cathy Price work and research is highlighting that there are key parts of the brain linked with language
• Speech therapy- working with people, who had strokes
• The innate ability for language- we are born, able to pick up language- born with the ability to speak
• Noam Chomsky- language is innate and we all have L.A.D (Language acquisition device0
• We have the blueprint for language but need to be exposed to it early on
• Fx P2 part of DNA- supports Chomsky's theory that language is innate

Child Language Acquisition

• They see it more than hear it
• Need eye contact to communicate
• NVC (non-verbal communication) as the main source of communication
• Intonation- sound of words, rhythm, stress
• Lip reading
• At around 18 months, a child learns about 10 words a day
• Deaf children exposed to sign language show the same stages of language acquisition, as do hearing children exposed to spoken languages
• If a person develops his/her language after puberty he/she will never be able to fully acquire language
• Children at the age of 18 months will have a productive vocabulary of around 50 words
• A child can understand more words than he/she can speak
• If you can expose a baby to two languages at the sane time, he/she will learn both 

Stephen Fry- Planet Word- Origins of language

This is a documentary series on how we adapt to language.

• Over 7,000 languages used on our planet today
• 2 years old is a key stage when children speak 
• In the build up to that stage, they are listening and watching others 

Opinionated articles

Why save a language?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/why-save-a-language.html?_r=0


Language rules are meant to be broken
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/language-rules-are-meant-to-be-broken-20101202-18hry.html


Text speak: language evolution or just laziness?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/9966117/Text-speak-language-evolution-or-just-laziness.html


Straight from high school to a career
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/opinion/straight-from-high-school-to-a-career.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEducation&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection


A fair chance after a conviction
http://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/education

Why is there a lack of pupils wanting to take a language as a GCSE?

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/aug/20/why-drop-students-langauge-gcses-teachers-views
This article explores the issue of less and less pupils wanting to take a language as as GCSE.

The Guardian- ban on tackling analysis

Text A is an online article from The Guardian, informing people about banning tackling in school rugby. The audience are people who read The Guardian and possibly parents of children. I would argue that these people are middle class due to the fact that The Guardian is a professional newspaper, which is always written to a high standard. To add to that, the newspaper is online so you would need a computer to access it.



Text B is an online forum, where people can express their views on Text A. The audience are also guardian readers. However, instead of just reading the article, they also get the chance to comment on it and express their own views and opinions and discuss the article.



Text A contains a range of occupational lexis such as Ministers, chief medical officers, children's commissions. These are all authoritative figures/positions of authority, which highlights the formality of the article.



Text B contains a range of colloquial lexis such as 'can't hack it', 'drivel'. This language highlights that the text is a forum of informal register.

The Guardian- exclamation mark rules

http://www.theguardian.com/education/shortcuts/2016/mar/07/new-exclamation-mark-rules-proof-the-government-wants-to-penalise-enthusiasm

Top 20 words in English

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hbx0s
Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright guide us through the top 20 words in English

• Common- The, be, to, of, and
• Highlights- With, I, you, have
• Not interesting words
• No nouns, very few verbs
• Grammatical 
• And comes out at 'um' very often
• There's a reason they're forgettable- because you process them faster
• They are very important, hold language together and express meanings
• All english
• Anglo Saxon words

Word functions

Nouns

• Nouns are naming words
• They name people and places e.g George, Sally, Bristol, Venezuela 
• They name objects, materials and animals e.g pen, carpet, sugar, oxygen, dog
• They name ideas, feelings and qualities e.g education, beauty, anger, happiness, intelligence

Verbs

• Verbs are often called 'doing words'
• Most verbs refer to actions or events e.g run, read, drink, drink, dance, describe, analyse
• Many refer to states, mental processes or sensations e.g sleep, think, believe, love

Adjectives

• Describing words that modify the noun

Adverbs

• They tell us how an action is done, they modify the verb, quickly, effortlessly, elegantly
• They may give us information about the time of an action e.g yesterday, often, rarely

Pronoun

• Stands in the place of a noun
• Use them to avoid repeating a noun over and over again
• Personal pronouns include: I, me, you, we, they, them, ours, their etc
• Other pronouns include: it, this, that 

Prepositions

• A preposition is placed in front of something- a noun 
• It links the noun into the rest of the sentence, showing the relationship between the noun and the sentence

Determiners

• Help determine the noun you're talking about
• E.g when we are talking about dog.... Do we mean a dog, the dog, my dog, this dog 
• The words in italics are determiners

Conjunctions 

• They join things together
• Co-ordinating conjunctions join two things (nouns, adjectives, sentences) so we see them as equal e.g and, but, or
• Subordinating conjunctions join sentences (or clauses) to show a relationship between them, if, because, when, although 

Auxiliaries 

• They are little verbs, which are used alongside other verbs for grammatical reasons
• E.g she was writing a novel
• I don't like that film
• We might go back tomorrow
• The main auxiliary verbs are do/does/did, have/had/had, be/am/are/were

Mind your language

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language
The editors of the Guardian style guide write about language usage and abusage.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/27/eight-words-sexism-heart-english-language
This article explains how words reveal that sexism is very common as certain words make people think of certain things. e.g. 'nagging' is followed by 'wife'.

Sexism

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/oxford-dictionaries-accused-of-sexist-usage-examples-including-rabid-feminist-and-nagging-wife-a6832911.html
Oxford Dictionaries accused of 'sexist' usage examples including 'rabid feminist' and 'nagging wife'

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/dec/15/the-year-in-sexism-women-2015-feminism-misogynist
The year in sexism- how did women fare in 2015?

The Guardian Conversation Special

1. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/step-away-from-your-phone-the-new-rules-of-conversation
Young people in this day and age are so heavily influenced by technology that it is becoming rarer for them to engage in a physical face to face conversation. The more advanced generations view it as rudeness due to the lack of social skills. However, some agree that they are being hypocritical as they most likely would behave this way if they were brought up with this level of technology around them.
2. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/how-to-talk-to-anyone-the-experts-guide
How to talk to children/teenagers.
With the younger children, helping them to communicate visually is a good way of engaging with the child. As well as this, making eye contact makes them aware you are listening and that you are focused. However, with older children such as teenagers, it is better to do something alongside a conversation as it defuses the tension and makes the conversation more casual.
How to talk to strangers.
Don't stress about meeting new people, approach it with a positive attitude. If you are in a room full of people, you're bound to have something in common. If you try to make people more comfortable, it is not only a socialising technique but an act of kindness. If you are talking to someone, who you can't relate to, mention something someone else has told you about that subject to help you interact. When you are finishing the conversation, round it off with some information they told you so they feel as though you have listened to them.
How to talk to your doctor.
Make it clear why you're there and get to the point straight away instead of warbling on and leaving it to the last minute. Also, explain in detail your symptoms and don't be worried to mention if you have any worries about what may be the problem. You are speaking to a human, who is trained to deal with this type of thing so you can feel comfortable engaging with them.
How to talk to your date.
It is a good idea to pay attention to any negative comments your date makes, it may suggest that they are not ready for a relationship. Don't be worried about the fear of rejection, look at it in a different way by thinking that your deciding whether or not they are a good fit for you.
How to talk to your parents.
The older we get, the more our parents feel as though they are losing us. They want us to have independence but they still like to hear about our lives every now and then. As we grow up we see them as annoying as they seem to go on and on. However, that is not the case as it is us that are changing, not them and that voice was once helpful and useful but we become so stubborn as we go through out teenage years that we just see it as an annoyance. Parents like knowing about what we do out of interest so it is nice for us to sometimes update them with what is going on in our lives. It is not that they are being nosy, they are genuinely interested as they struggle to get a word out of us usually.
How to talk to your boss.
Before speaking to your boss, try and think about how what you say will affect them and even if they are being nice remember they are not your friend.
3. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2015/nov/28/the-conversation-that-changed-my-life




4. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/conversation-brian-eno-yanis-varoufakis-interview


5. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/conversation-chris-hadfield-randall-munroe-interview


6. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/conversation-chris-hadfield-randall-munroe-interview


7. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/28/conversation-jeanette-winterson-marlon-james-interview

Blurred lines- the new battle of the sexes

We live in a patriarchal society- a male dominated society (include in introduction/conclusion)

• In the 21st century, it seems to be that men feel able to be negative about women and I would argue that one of the main influences is technology.
• Kirsty Wark- journalist 
• Often, forms of prejudice stem from humour and then are brushed off as 'banter', almost turning it around to make out the other person is in the wrong.
• Is the language that is offensive to women socially acceptable? Is it ok to use it if it is a joke?
• Technology enables people to write and make comments- written language is more permanent.
• The difference between sexism now and sexism 20 years ago is that it is now written down. It used to be private whereas now it is public.
• 'Blurred lines'- lyrics in a song are different to someone going out into the world and carrying out these actions.
• Sexist humour can facilitate sexism- makes it more socially accepted.
• The online abuse of women in the public eye is only possible because of social media.
• Can women in the public eye, escape trolls?
• Is language different online? Is it less real?- Kirsty Wark
• Dr Clare Hardacre- gender focus analysis of trolls..
• Sexist views in the media become amplified online. Then there's a feedback loop and then it becomes more amplified in the media- often known as an amplification spiral.
• Who owns the media?- White men
• Internet hasn't created mesogyny- it has facilitated it.
• Taboo language e.g slag, slut, whore.

The Guardian- What language barrier?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/01/gender.books

Summary

• Brain sex/sex on the brain are books that explain that the difference between men and women is a product of nature, not nurture.
• The sexes communicate differently. The female brain excels in verbal tasks whereas the male brain is better adapted to visual and mathematical tasks. Women like to talk; men prefer action to words.
• Many employers share the call-centre manager's belief that women are by nature better qualified than men for jobs of this kind, and one result is a form of discrimination. 
• Male job applicants have to prove that they possess the necessary skills, whereas women are just assumed to possess them. 

Deborah Cameron wrote "the myth of Mars and Venus"  and it is simply the proposition that men and women differ fundamentally in the way they use language to communicate. All versions of the myth share this basic premise; most versions, in addition, make some or all of the following claims:

1.  Language and communication matter more to women than to men; women talk more than men.
2. Women are more verbally skilled than men.
3.  Men's goals in using language tend to be about getting things done, whereas women's tend to be about making connections to other people. Men talk more about things and facts, whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings.
4. Men's way of using language is competitive, reflecting their general interest in acquiring and maintaining status; women's use of language is cooperative, reflecting their preference for equality and harmony.
5. These differences routinely lead to "miscommunication" between the sexes, with each sex misinterpreting the other's intentions. This causes problems in contexts where men and women regularly interact, and especially in heterosexual relationships.

The book is patronising to towards men.

Deborah Tannen's book, 'You just don't understand' is all about her theory in which she adopts a neutral position on difference in genderlect, making no judgements about use of language by either gender.

Robin Lakoff suggested that socialisation played an important role in ensuring the female language remained less assertive when compared to that of men. She argued that the differences between male language and female language, are socially constructed rather than biologically based.

Past paper 2

http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-SQP.PDF - the paper itself


http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-COM.PDF - examiner expectations


http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-CEX.PDF - student response