welcome to A-level English Language @ QMC
welcome to A-level English Language @ QMC
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WelcomeFest is now over - why not try our
Missed something? Here are the lesson-style activities you can try at home
Missed something? Here are the lesson-style activities you can try at home
Sample Activity 1 : Attitudes to Accents in the UK
Sample Activity 1 : Attitudes to Accents in the UK
Instructions
Instructions
Can you identify the 14 different accents from across the United Kingdom? Each of the accents in the word cloud features just once in the clip.
How would you rate these accents on a scale of 1-10 for things like trustworthiness, intelligence, friendliness, professionalism and level of education?
Do your judgements line up with those of your parents?
What do you think is underlying these judgements? Is this actually about the sound of the accents or are there other things that might explain our reactions to how different groups of people talk?
Sample Activity 2: Accent, Dialect and Identity
Sample Activity 2: Accent, Dialect and Identity
Instructions
Instructions
For this activity you will need:
The adjacent clip of Danny Dyer being interviewed
The Cockney Features Help Sheet below the clip
The transcript of the interview below the Help Sheet.
Watch the Student Pocket Theatre interview with Danny Dyer after the first night performance of a stage play. As you listen:
Try to identify some features of Dyer's Cockney accent (pronunciation)
Try to identify some features of Dyer's Cockney dialect (word and grammar choices)
Annotate the transcript of his speech as you go.
A lot of modern sociolinguistic research investigates how people use their language to create their identity, and how people are able to change this depending on who they are talking to.
Bearing this in mind, what kind of an identity would you say Danny Dyer is creating in this interview?
Consider the contexts influencing this, for example:
The interview genre
The fact that it's after a stage play rather than a movie premiere
The fact that it's filmed for a wide audience
The relevance of Dyer's public image
Dyer's fanbase and their expectations of him
Some Feedback on Sample Activity 2: Accent, Dialect and Identity
Some Feedback on Sample Activity 2: Accent, Dialect and Identity
Feedback - you could...
Feedback - you could...
Take a look at annotations on the google doc below the adjacent clip for some of the features of interest picked out of the interview.
Which of these did you notice?
Think about how these help Danny Dyer create his identity.
Now you could...
Now you could...
Watch the adjacent feedback clip which goes through some of these ideas.
Extension
Extension
Start paying attention to how you talk in your everyday life.
How does it change depending on audience and other contexts?
What sorts of different identities do you try to create?
How much non-standard English and slang do you use and where/why do you use it?
If you have a job, how do you talk differently there?
Do you talk differently to boys and girls, to older people and younger people?
How do you talk to your pet?
Sample Activity 3: Convergence - How People Talk Like Each Other
Sample Activity 3: Convergence - How People Talk Like Each Other
Clip of Miliband being interviewed on 'The Trews'
Edited clip with language features captioned
Instructions
Instructions
In the run-up to the 2015 election, the then labour leader Ed Miliband went on comedian and activist Russell Brand's youtube show, 'The Trews', to be grilled on Labour's policies and political beliefs.
Miliband got a lot of stick in the media for his 'Mockney' speech, as people noticed that he reduced his normally posh accent and dialect to sound more like (to converge with - evidence shows we all use convergence) Russell Brand. Note that:
Russell Brand: speaks with an Estuary English accent and dialect - a mixture between Cockney and Received Pronunciation (RP is traditional 'BBC English')
Ed Miliband normally speaks the Standard English Dialect with Received Pronunciation.
Task
Task
How does Ed Miliband adjust his speech to sound like - to converge - with Russell Brand? What specific features (you'll recognise these from the earlier Cockney features sheet) does he use and why does he do this?
Things to look out for:
body language
h-dropping
glottal stops
monophthongs for diphthongs
informal lexical choices
Anything else of interest
Feedback
Feedback
Watch the edited version of the clip which subtitles some of the features Miliband uses to converge with Russell Brand, then think about:
Is Miliband aware he is converging or is this happening unconsciously?
Is he trying to appeal to a particular demographic?
How have you converged with different people in different contexts?
Other resources
Other resources
what follows is general information on the course
what follows is general information on the course
Some of the topics we cover on the course include...
Some of the topics we cover on the course include...
Language Change
Language Change
In this unit we investigate why language always changes, despite people complaining about this and trying to stop it. Are there specific, predictable forces behind this change? What changes can we see happening right now?
Child Language Development
Child Language Development
In this unit we explore the everyday miracle of children developing their spoken language. Is it nurture, nature or both? How do they develop their sounds, meanings and grammar? What are the challenges children face and how do they overcome these?
Language and Gender
Language and Gender
Here we take on the controversial question of whether a person's gender determines, or at least affects, the way they speak. The research presents an interestingly complex picture so be prepared to be surprised.
Regional and Social Variation
Regional and Social Variation
In this unit we look at how people's dialects and accents vary across the United Kingdom. We also look at how people's membership of social groups affects how they choose to speak at different times. We also explore attitudes to language and why these are so strong.
Language Discourses
Language Discourses
Here we look at how language issues are spoken about in society. There are many discourses (i.e. societal conversations) but some very common ones include 'Young people are ruining language', 'English is under threat' and 'Men talk for power and women talk to build relationships'. You will analyse texts and write an article.
For a more comprehensive look at A level English Language, please look at the fact file below or even follow the link to AQA's website to take a look at their specification and past papers. If you're confident English Language is the right course for you, you could even look at our suggested reading list and get a headstart!
For a more comprehensive look at A level English Language, please look at the fact file below or even follow the link to AQA's website to take a look at their specification and past papers. If you're confident English Language is the right course for you, you could even look at our suggested reading list and get a headstart!
English Language A Level_1.pdfEnglish Language Fact File
AQA's website page for English Language
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