CONGRATULATIONS...

...on choosing to take the most exciting*, useful** and just plain excellent*** A level course known to humankind. We'd just like to take this opportunity to say "welcome" to all our new AS English Language students, and "welcome back" to those of you starting your second year of English Language at Strode's.

The purpose of this blog is to help you to keep up to date with current news articles, websites and other resources that focus on a wide range of topics, issues and debates surrounding the English language in all its forms and uses. Not only will this blog support your learning, but it is also guaranteed to stimulate your curiosity about language and provoke debate and discussion with fellow English Language students, friends and family alike. I often say that there is no such thing as an 'off-duty' English Language student, and you'll find that the links and comments on this blog will open up a whole world of issues in which you will quickly find yourself becoming immersed.

The blog is updated by members of the English Language team on a regular basis (although you might have noticed that there was something of a 'hiatus' last year!), so please do log in as frequently as possible (there's a link to the blog on the AS and A2 English Language VLE sites). If you've got something to say about the issues raised in one of the blog entries, please do feel free to post a comment. You could even start a discussion about the topic on the VLE. Similarly, if you happen to come across an interesting language-related resource/website/news item somewhere and you think other students would benefit from accessing it, then please email the details to your teacher at jjones@strodes.ac.uk, nwhillans@strodes.ac.uk or telliott@strodes.ac.uk and we'll post it up. You'll find that each entry is tagged for the particular aspect(s) or unit(s) of the course to which it relates, which makes it easy for you to search through older posts if you're looking for something in particular.

To get us started for this year, here's a link to an interesting article about modern slang that appeared in The Sun. "What???", I hear you cry, outraged, "An English teacher recommending something written in THE SUN??? Preposterous!". Well, yes, actually. As students of English Language we are interested in language in all its forms and uses, both formal and informal. Much of our work over the two years of the course focuses on what society in general thinks and says about language, and how language is used by a wide range of social groups, and those attitudes and uses can be found in all sorts of places and texts. This article about 'modern' slang is particularly relevant to both AS and A2 at this point in the year, as we begin to look in AS at our own language habits and in A2 at age variation in language.

Enjoy the course!

*probably
**no doubt about this one
***well, we like to think so

The writing's on the wall...

...OK, it's actually on paper, but that doesn't quite work as a blog post title, so you'll just have to give me some slack on this one.

I've always imagined the world of Forensic Linguistics to be an exciting one, but it's an area that I've never really had the opportunity to look into in much detail - until now. In doing one of my usual net-trawls for interesting stuff to post on this blog, I came across this article. It reports on the work of researchers at the Centre for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University, who have been carrying out detailed studies of the language used in hate mail. One of these linguists, Dr Tim Grant, comments in the article on the way in which his team have come to the conclusion that the 57 letters they have been studying could have been written by a woman. They have based this hypothesis on a range of observations about the language used within the letters, much of which conforms to what many linguists consider to be female linguistic traits. Dr Grant's comments contribute significantly to the debates that we've been having in A2 English Language about gender variation :

He said: "One of the things that were striking about the letters was the heavy use of expressive adjectives, which is more typical of women than men. You could say women use more adjectives because they can be more socially evaluative but we don't look at why rather than how the two different groups behave. We just know that's the case because we read a lot of letters and make statistical correlations. The words (in the letters) used were things like 'squalor', 'dirty' and some sexual adjectives which were suggestive of women's writing. Another thing we know is that women tend to use fewer first person pronouns, such as 'I'."

This line of argument of course flies in the face of some of the most recent observations on gender variation made by the likes of Deborah Cameron (who argues that the supposed differences between male and female linguistic behaviour are nothing more than myth). It'll be interesting to see if the boffins at Aston Uni turn out to be right...

If you want to find out more about the work of the Centre for Forensic Linguistics, then take a look at their website.

Accentuate the positive (or negative...)

With regional variation featuring as a significant element of the ENA5 Language Variation and Change paper and a possible focus of the ENA6 Language Debates paper, two articles on attitudes towards regional accents and dialects have made a timely appearance in the news media this week.

In the first article an MP from Wearside in the North-East of England argues that negative attitudes towards her accent once lost her a job. This might surprise you, given what we've been saying about the increased popularity of the varieties of the North-East over the past few years, and the article does indeed go on to acknowledge this, pointing out that the negative attitudes which this MP experienced actually occurred 20 years ago. It's a good example of how the fortunes of a regional variety can change in a relatively short period of time.

A separate article in this week's Guardian discusses the use of regional accents in advertising campaigns, observing that not everyone likes to hear their own accents used on TV:

The research clearly shows that the accent used in radio and TV advertising can
have an impact on how the ad is received," said Brian Jenkins, the head of radio
at the COI. "Regional accents can make a difference but not necessarily a
positive one. There was quite a negative reaction from people in Birmingham and
Bristol to their own accents," he said.
Jenkins added respondents in both
cities were "very proud" of the way they spoke, but seem to have been affected
by "other people's perceptions of their accent".

It's well worth reading the full article as it will give you some excellent ammunition when it comes to your exam.

At the end of the day it's not rocket science

According to a new book by Jeremy Butterfield of the Oxford English Corpus, phrases like the two that I personally (there's another one) have just used in the title (and now the content) of this post are among the most irritating expressions in the English language. As reported by yesterday's Telegraph, the top ten language sins at this moment in time (there I go again) are:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

You can add to that list misuses of the word literally and any number of cliches that are spawned by the world of corporate management (witness to incentivise, to action and synergy). The book's author says that "we grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language." Interesting fuel for a language attitudes debate.

So which cliches of the modern age get up your nose the most? Post a comment and let us know.

Speaking of the cliche 'it's not rocket science', have you ever wondered what actual rocket scientists say when they want to make a point about something not being incredibly difficult? No? Just me then...

Siarad Cymraeg...?

There's a bit of a language debate going on in the pages of the WalesOnline website this week. It's all about the proposals to expand the provision of Welsh-medium education in Cardiff, as reported here earlier this week.

In 2003 the Welsh Assembly Government published its National Action Plan for a Bilingual Wales, but only recently has a coherent strategy for Welsh-medium education been established. This has resulted in an increase in the number of schools teaching primarily (or, in some cases, solely) through the medium of Welsh.

The strategy has polarised the opinions of people living in Wales. In an opinion piece published in the South Wales Echo yesterday, Dan O'Neill speaks out against the "language loonies" and argues that the average citizen of Cardiff is "being bulldozed and bullied into a culture no-one here cares much a damn about". Mr O'Neill's view is that speaking Welsh is of little real benefit to anyone, and he argues that "our schools should be used for all-round education, they should be preparing kids for a tough life... they should not be pandering to a Welsh-speaking elite".

Today's South Wales Echo features a response to Mr O'Neill's opinion piece, written by Meirion Prys Jones, chief executive of the Welsh Language Board. Mr Prys Jones argues that there are "many advantages to being able to speak two (or more) languages... children are able to enjoy two (or more) cultures, and are able to mix and communicate with a wider variety of people". He also points out that "the fact that parents continue to campaign for more Welsh-medium and bilingual provision proves how successful the education is in these schools", citing studies that "show that children who study through the medium of Welsh do just as well, if not better, at school".

Interesting debate... and the stuff of which ENA6 is made! Watch the pages of WalesOnline over the next few days - you can bet there'll be more people pitching in with their own views on the matter.

Is 'fashion' undergoing new trends or going down the maxi?

Maybe it's because the fashions are going around a time loop and keep coming back (-and I should know because I was wearing maxi dresses back in....ah no, that would be giving it away!) that fashion writers are finding new fashions in language instead. Lisa Armstrong clearly had a good time writing her article for the Times today - check it out here. Spot the uses of the word 'fashion' and the 'on trend' use of fashion terms - what do you think? Is she being creative and genuinely using 'fashion' in new ways or is she recycling? Mind you is the latter a good thing too? After all green is the new black!

Storm Brews over Translation Proposals

They say there's no accounting for taste, and this is never more true than when talking about views on language use. Ask ten people to identify what they consider to be the most heinous 'language crime' and you'll probably get ten different answers. Different people's attitudes towards language use are as varied as their tastes in music or their favourite colour... and just as hard to account for.

Take, for example, the polarised reactions to plans to translate the Bible into Patois, the unofficial language of Jamaica. As reported in this article that appeared in last week's Telegraph, there are those who welcome the proposals, arguing that Patois is a "powerful tool of communication" among the vast majority of Jamacians and that there is "nothing wrong with translating the Bible into someone's native tongue". Those who oppose the plans, however, claim that "errors could be made, and essentially what is translated is not necessarily reflecting the true meaning of the Scriptures".

At the heart of this controversy lies a very common language debate. Many people are of the opinion that there are certain places in which standard English should be preserved - and, along with law, medicine and the world of education, the Bible is one such place. It's important to bear in mind that Patois is an unofficial language (English being the official language of Jamaica) and, as the article tells us, "only recently have the middle and upper classes been speaking it in public". So it would seem that this debate boils down to the age-old battle between prescriptivists and descriptivists, a fight between those who wish to preserve the standard form of language in formal contexts such as the Bible and those who see language variation as inevitable, desirable and part and parcel of everyday life.

So what do you think? Should texts like the Bible be translated into non-standard linguistic varieties? Should we do the same with, say, Shakespeare, or legal documents, or school and college text books? I'd be interested to hear your views... please feel free to express them in whatever linguistic variety you prefer.

Yoof slang sucks. End of.

This week's copy of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner (everyone's No.1 local paper) features a letter from a rather disgruntled Mr Dennis R Fisher, who makes some heart-felt observations on the 'state' of modern youth slang.

On the one hand Mr Fisher acknowledges that "language naturally changes and evolves over time", but at the same time he observes that "we are now beginning to sound like a nation of infantile losers and potato heads". At the heart of Mr Fisher's argument, it seems, is his view that the English language is being 'eroded' by a generation of speakers whose desire to be just like their favourite celebreties extends to mimicking their linguistic behaviour.

Have a look at the letter and let us know your views - is the English language being damaged beyond repair, or is this just another stage in its natural evolution? If you have something you'd like to say about this topic, why not post a thread on the VLE discussion forum?