AQA English A-Level Frameworks and Specimen Papers
Sunday, 21 February 2016
Turn Taking and The Incredible Things We Do In Conversation
The article above discusses the amazing way conversation takes place and how we learn to do this from a young age. Communication skills (e.g turn taking) are important for our survival as are ability to put forward what we want keeps us alive and expressing our opinions enable us to do good for the world.
In the article it talks about timings in our conversations and our natural human response ; "On average, each turn lasts for around 2 seconds, and the typical gap between them is just 200 milliseconds—barely enough time to utter a syllable." It is said that turn taking is our fastest human response and while the other person is talking we sub-consciously are already thinking of our reply. "For a short clause, that processing time rises to 1500 milliseconds. This means that we have to start planning our responses in the middle of a partner’s turn, using everything from grammatical cues to changes in pitch."
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
Language and Gender // Theorists
Dominance - Sees women as the oppressed group in society, which they interprets differences in women's and men's speech.
Difference - sees women as belonging to 'different sub-cultures', who are differently socialised from childhood onward, therefore may have different problems in communication as adults.
Deficit - the idea that women speak politically incorrect (marked forms) and men correctly (unmarked forms) .
Robin Lakoff (1975) - Women's 'Politeness Features' (e.g Tag questions, Hyper-correct pronunciation and grammar) She argued that these features of speech make women seem more inferior, weak and prevents women's speech from being taken seriously. However her worked can be critiqued for being outdated as equality between the sexes has improved since 1975.
Zimmerman and West (1975) - there study showed that the men made the majority of interruptions and overlaps in conversation, supporting the idea that men are more dominant than women and they tend to believe they are the superior gender.
Deborah Tannen (1990) - suggests that men are more aware of status; interrupt more, give more direct orders, don't mind conflict. In contrast to females who are more interested in bonds - tend to talk less and agree more; polite indirect orders (e.g 'i'm really thirsty' with the real meaning of 'Can i have a drink please') Men are competitive and women are co-operative. She expresses her idea of the 'Six contrasts to differences' , including things such as 'Status Vs Support' (men use language to show power and dominance, whereas women are likely to support and agree') and 'Independency Vs Intimacy' (men use language to show they don't need to rely on others, contrasting to women that connect with one another).
Pamela Fishman (1983) - she suggests that women use tag questions (supporting Lakoff's work), BUT she says they are used to set the agenda and create a conversation rather than to be polite.
Jennifer Coates (1993) - She suggests that all female talk is co-operative, based on negotiation and support. She quotes the dominance approach 'sees women as an oppressed group, and interrupts differences in women's and men's speech in terms of dominance and women's subordination'. This stems from the idea we live in a patriarchal Western society that sees women as the subservient group that are over powered by men ( links to Zimmerman and West's idea).
Pamela Fishman (1983) - she suggests that women use tag questions (supporting Lakoff's work), BUT she says they are used to set the agenda and create a conversation rather than to be polite.
Jennifer Coates (1993) - She suggests that all female talk is co-operative, based on negotiation and support. She quotes the dominance approach 'sees women as an oppressed group, and interrupts differences in women's and men's speech in terms of dominance and women's subordination'. This stems from the idea we live in a patriarchal Western society that sees women as the subservient group that are over powered by men ( links to Zimmerman and West's idea).
Spoken Language, Genres of Speech
Conversations in daily life
·
Referential – planned interaction. Communicating the facts. E.g a
teacher giving a lesson to a class of students.
·
Expressive interaction – unplanned
interaction. Expressing are emotions to people. E.g talking in the morning to someone as the
conversation isn’t rehearsed.
·
Transactional exchange – planned/unplanned interaction. We
want to get something done. E.g buying
an item in the shop.
·
Interactional exchange – primarily social and they allow us to share our
experiences with those around us to help develop relationships.
Spontaneous speech
Informal register (usually with friends and family)
Topic of conversation isn’t thought of in advance
Conversation
flows freely and no-one assumes a particular role
Overlaps and interruptions between speak
Overlaps and interruptions between speak
Deictic expressions
Pre-planned speech
Not
in control of the response
Rehearse
what you want to say before the conversation starts.
Normally
contains a formal register
Fewer
non-fluency features
Address
tones/ordering
An example would be a news show , such as BBC NEWs, where they would
start of by saying ‘First tonight’ as it gives the audience a formal structure
of what is about to follow.
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Chris Hadfield meets Randall Munroe : 'Are we alone in this universe?'
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!!
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.
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
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
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