Chris Hadfield meets Randall Munroe : 'Are we alone in this universe?' 

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

The Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield spent five months in 2012 and 2013 twirling around the Earth in command of the International Space Station. Hadfield guesses he made several thousand orbits of the planet during that time, and though he was never exactly bored, he certainly found some novel hobbies. The American artist Randall Munroe knows something, too, about capturing an audience in the age of the fast and fickle online share; “romance, sarcasm, math and language." He is a longstanding admirer of Hadfield, and asked Weekend to get in touch with the astronaut, which is where this link leads to, discussing the hobbies they enjoy more than anything. They talk about a range of things, starting at pop culture...progressing all the way to debating about the recent attacks in Syria and Islamic  states.

Step away from your phone

Face to Face conversation is changing as technology improves!! 

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/step-away-from-your-phone-the-new-rules-of-conversation

   

Young people today, along with their Snapchat and their selfies and their sexting, apparently engage in a practice known as “phubbing”. According to Sherry Turkle, the American sociologist of digital life, this involves maintaining eye contact with one person while text-messaging another. Are kids incapable of concentrating face to face with another person? 

If face-to-face conversation is dying , then it has something to do with our fear of feeling vulnerable. Nobody ever enjoyed feeling sad, or awkward, or stressed, or being put on the spot. But now we have a place to run and hide when those emotions arise: we can check out of the here and now, into digital space. We can edit our thoughts before we express them; we can hide our faces, and even our names; we can interact with others while holding them comfortably at bay. 

Leaving yourself exposed to the risk of awkward or upsetting conversations is bad, but picking up the bill, it seems, is even worse. In any case, those potentially uncomfortable conversations are what make life meaningful. Turkle quotes the comic Louis CK, in a routine on why he won’t let his daughters own smartphones, delivering, in the guise of comedy, a chilling warning: “Because we don’t want that first feeling of sad, we push it away with our phones. So you never feel completely happy or completely sad. You just feel kind of satisfied with your products. And then… you die." 

The world of social media gets criticised for ruining our traditional English language and altering it into absolute gibberish. It is also argued it is ruining our emotional connection to people as now all this is said and done online. 

Deficit 

Lakoff, 1975

Main features of women's language 

-Hedges and fillers 'sort of' 'kind of' 

-Empty adjectives 'divine' 'adorable' 

-Super-polite forms 'would you mind' 

-Apologise more

-Speak less frequently 

-Avoid coarse language 

-Tag questions 

-Hyper correct grammar and pronunciation (women perceive language to be inspirational)

-Indirect requests : 'I'm so thirsty' - asking for a drink. (pragmatics)

-Speak in italics (use tone of voice to emphasis certain words)

Criticisms of Lakoff 

-Since  her work there has been a lot of changes between the genders. 

- Her work lacks statistics 

Jenny Chesire, 1983

 (supports Lakoff's idea of 'hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation)

looked at certain grammatical variations in the speech of young children and found that boys used more non-standard English than girls. 

Difference 

(idea that women and men speak differently) 

Deborah Tannen , 1990 

-Identifies gender differences in terms of competitiveness (male) and co-operative (female). 

"There are gender difference in ways of speaking and we need to identify and understand them" 

Contrasts to differences 

Status vs Support - men use language and dominance. Women are likely to support and agree. 

Independence vs Intimacy - Men use language to show they don't need to rely on others. Women can connect with others. 

Advice vs understanding 

Information vs feelings 

Orders vs Proposals 

Conflict vs Compromise 

Language and Gender
Aqa Exam Question 

Question 

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

Mark Scheme 

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

Student Responses 

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

Improve Your writing
University of Bristol Guide to grammar 

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm

              A – Handy for revision

                    B - Punctuation /Structure 

·         Order of the text

·         Register

·         Layout

·         Context

·         Graphology

·         Discourse (how the text addresses the audience)

·         Form, purpose, audience

·         Syntax (sentences, type? Compound syntax, complex syntax, simple syntax)

·         Spoken language = speak in utterances

·         Functions of syntax – Imperatives (command), Interrogative (question), Exclamative, Declaratives (declaring something).

           C – Comparatives  

·         Homophones

·         Lexis

·         Semantics

·         Pragmatics

             D – Exam responses

                               E – Other pitfalls and problem

F – Style

                 G – handy for revision

10 Reasons why English is weird 

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2)The farm was used to produce produce.
3)The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4)We must polish the Polish furniture. 
5)He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6)The solider decided to eat desert his dessert in the desert.
7)Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 
8)A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9)When shot at, the dove dove into bushes. 
10)I did not object to the object. 

The Guardian Dear Ms Morgan: in grammar there isn't always one right answer. 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/03/morgan-grammar-test-right-answer-spag-english-spelling-punctuation-grammar