Embedded Files
Lesson 1
Lesson 1
Use the list of Metalanguage from the Study Design to make a quick assessment of your knowledge and progress. Identify which concepts you know confidently, which you need to revise/sharpen and which you need to study in more depth.
If unsure, pretend you were asked the following question:
"Using an example, define and explain _______ and its impact when used by a speaker/writer"
2. Read the outline of Unit 4, the Area of Study 1 and the key knowledge under Outcome 1. Ensure you understand all terms and phrases, take notes on what you need to know and highlight useful phrases.
Unit 4: Language variation and identity
In this unit students focus on the role of language in establishing and challenging different identities. There are many varieties of English used in contemporary Australian society, including national, regional, cultural and social variations. Standard Australian English is the variety that is granted prestige in contemporary Australian society and it has a role in establishing national identity. However, non-Standard English varieties also play a role in constructing users’ social and cultural identities. Students examine a range of texts to explore the ways different identities are constructed. These texts include extracts from novels, films or television programs, poetry, letters and emails, transcripts of spoken interaction, songs, advertisements, speeches and bureaucratic or official documents.
Students explore how our sense of identity evolves in response to situations and experiences and is influenced by how we see ourselves and how others see us. Through our language we express ourselves as individuals and signal our membership of particular groups. Students explore how language can distinguish between ‘us’ and ‘them’, creating solidarity and reinforcing social distance.
Key knowledge
the role of Standard and non-Standard English in Australian society
the ways in which a variety of Australian identities are constructed and reflected in a range of texts
the characteristics of Australian English in contrast to Englishes from other continents, in phonological, morphological, lexical, and grammatical patterns
the features of Broad, General and Cultivated Australian English accents
how Australian English varies according to geography, including national and regional variation
how Australian English varies according to culture, including Aboriginal English and ethnolects
attitudes within society to different varieties of Australian English, including prescriptivism and descriptivism
the role of language in constructing national identity
metalanguage to discuss varieties of Australian English.
3. Begin watching 'The Sounds of Aus' and responding to the questions to the side:
Not seeing anything above? Reauthenticate
Lesson 2
Lesson 2
Finish watching Sounds of Aus.
2. Now read (or you can listen to the podcast if you like) Irene Poinkin’s review of Bruce Moore’s “Speaking our Language: The Story of Australian English” at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/speaking-our-language-the-story-of-australian/3181234#transcript
1. Where does Bruce Moore believe the Australian accent originated?
2. How does Moore account for the rise of a prescriptive approach to the Australian pronunciation? Reference received pronunciation and the development of a cultivated variety in your answer.
3. How does Moore explain the rise of a broad variety after the nineteenth century? What differing values did broad and cultivated express?
4. Explain the differences in pronunciation, citing one example to support.
5. How does Moore refute the idea of the Americanisation of Australian English?
Lesson 3
Lesson 3
Clarify the differences between languages, dialects and accents.
Aus English.pdfRead pg.152-162 of Living Lingo (blue textbook).
Introducing Australian English
1) Explain what is meant by a pluricentric language with specific reference to Australian English.
2) In what ways can a pluricentric language divide and unite?
Lexical Features
1) Give 2 examples (for each) of lexicon that has been adopted from Indigenous Australian language and British regionalisms.
Grammatical features
1) How is Australian English generally connected to one's social scale?
2) Explain 2 pronoun features of Australian English.
3) How are adjectives often used in vernacular Australian English?
4) Explain 2 verb features of Australian English.
Other Grammar (Negation, Clause combining & Discourse features)
1) What is a colloquial discourse feature often at the end of a sentence? Do you think it is best described as a 'hedge' or a 'discourse particle'? Explain.
2) What reason does Edward Wakefield give for doubting 'pure English' would ever become the language of Australia?
Morphological features
1) Explain the role of diminutives in Australian English.
Phonological features
1) What are the 'complex array of different factors' that influence the variation in vowel phonemes in the 3 varieties of Australian English?
2) What happens to vowels typically associated with the Broad end of the language spectrum?
3) Are Australians rhotic or non-rhotic speakers? Why?
4) What are 2 consonant features familiar to certain varieties of Australian English?
5) Assimilation, Elision, Deletion are commonly associated with what variety of Australian English? Give 2 examples.
Prosodic features
1) Explain H.R.T (High Rising Terminal) or 'Uptalk' and why males may tend not to adopt this linguistic behaviour.
2) How is uptalk connected to back-channelling and floor holding?
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