Opinionated Article

English opinionated article

Local teachers union furious after school inspectors tell teacher to speak using “Standard English”.

An Essex school have set the task of “Use more of a Central London accent and increase the use of Standard English” following reports from school inspectors. The woman was criticised for her strong “Typical Essex” accent and was labelled as a negative influence on her student’s vocabulary.

I believe this is a stupid claim that the inspectors have made as they are question the abilities of her teaching through the way she speaks. A spokesperson for OFSTED, the official invigilators for schools, claimed that “The objective we recommended was sensible, we believe that Standard English should be used by teacher’s when and wherever possible, the use of colloquial language to the extent that the teacher in question was using is excessive…Additionally, we believe that the accent that teacher spoke in hindered the learning of the children as it was hard to understand.”

 

From this statement, the school in question introduced the recommendations and it sparked outrage from the teachers union. “You could write it off as humorous at first sight but the more and more you think about it, the more offensive it comes across…Everyone who is a part of NASWUT gives every teacher in this situation, regardless of region, our full support”

The question I put forward is what can modern day Standard English be defined as. Standard English has developed drastically over the past centuries. The 21^st century has been a breakthrough for many elements of language, within the past 10 years emoticons and emoji’s (an emoji is a small image, mainly a face, which shows an emotion or depicts an object) have been used so often, that they have developed their own language. Just last week an emoji was voted as oxford dictionaries word of the year.

Additionally, modern accents have changed, the use of Received Pronunciation is in far less of an effect than it was over 200 years ago, nowadays it is associated with those of high status. The evolution of accent has meant that there is now a regional identity linked rather than that of a social class.

A statement from one of the schools members of the English department expressed “The assessment of accent is similar to assessing creativity, how can one determine the factors to asses each when every individual is different? What one person may see as right will be the complete opposed view of another.”

There is an ever increasing expectation for teachers to be perfect, due to new school standards and constant scrutiny from pupils’ parents. How do we expect our children to leave school with good grades if there is a frequent demoralisation of the ones we are expecting to get them there?

I feel that with the introduction of university fees, the government, schools and parents are becoming increasingly panicked about eventual outcomes. The government will lose a massive part of their annual funding, schools will not be able to increase their reputations by having plenty of star students and parents are worried about potentially forking out up £45,000 in university fees. So schools and school organisations look for excuses to take the focus away from them.

The school would have had to have gone through an interview process for potential candidates, during that, they would have heard the teachers accent and from the interview they made a judgement, if they felt it was a problem then they would not have hired her but as soon as a school organisation flags it up, the tip of the school hierarchy joins the band wagon.

The “neuvaux-cockney” accent in which the majority of Essex residents speak has built a reputation for those who use its accent are typically stupid. However the use of constant elision and non-frequency markers doesn’t necessarily conform to the stereotypes. I believe that since the introduction of The Only Way Is Essex, the Essex accent has been given a bad name, because of this, associations such as OFSTED are likely to flag a teacher up on using it, however it is uncontrollable.  

If the teacher were to use certain sociolinguistics whilst teaching her lessons, then there would be an understandable miscommunication. However if this were to be the case then the school have made the wrong assumption. The misconceptions between accent and dialect are commonly mixed up, accent is the way that someone speaks in and the dialect is the vocabulary associated with the regions of those accents.

Activity two

Accents and dialect:
Accent relates only to pronunciation and intonation as opposed to the grammar or vocabulary. Accents act as identifiers for social and regional origins for example, someone from central London will pronounce words differently from those from Newcastle. Additionally, foreign accented speech is negatively evaluated by native speakers of a language. This is because the native speaker believe that the way they talk is the “right” way to talk. There is no right or wrong way to speak in terms off accent, only in terms of grammar and vocabulary.
James Neuliep and Kendall Speten-Hansen Are two men who focused their works on ethnolect, the way in which people from different ethnicities speak. They performed an experiment on 93 men and women to see if there was a correlation between non-native and native speakers, their studies show that the correlation was negative.

Language and age:

With age, language has developed but with this development has introduced the use of non-frequency features such as fillers. These mainly occur during interviews and when questions are asked, they are used to mimic the thought process of an answer. Examples of filler are “um, err, like.” Studies of James Pennebaker showed that women tend to use the filler of “like” most often. However the studies showed that it wasn’t necessarily linked to gender, but to age instead. Older people, typically women, tend to use fillers more often or elongated fillers which conveys an extended thought process.

Language and power:
To exert power through language, most people go to offending others in order to convey power over an individual or group. Most language that is used tends to be taboo language. One researcher Adam Croon categorized powerful language into three groups. Descriptive, expressive and slurring. The example he gave is that if someone were to be named X and we were to describe them, the speaker would typically say “ X is African-English”- this shows no offence but is telling you what they are. For expressive, the speaker could describe “X is a prick”- an opinionated view, which may not been seen by others. However, “X is a nigger”. This is classed as slurring as it alienates and deeply offends the individual in terms of their race.
Nevertheless, some of these racial slurs have adopted a new positive connotation within the race in which it concerns.

London Multicultural language

London English has a new pronoun. Young people living in multicultural areas of the inner city use ”man” as an alternative to I.
Jenny Chesire researched the use of past BE terms (was/were).
1. Variable use of was with all subjects in positive contexts (e.g. I was but also we was, you was) and wasn’t with all subjects in negative contexts (e.g. I wasn’t but also they wasn’t, you wasn’t)

2. Variable use of was with all subjects in positive contexts (e.g. I was but also we was, you was) but weren’t with all subjects in negative contexts (e.g. we weren’t but also I weren’t, she/he weren’t)

The researchers found that adolescents in outer London (the borough of Havering) conformed to the expected non-standard British was/weren’t pattern but in inner London (the borough of Hackney) they found that the use of was in positive contexts was increasing but that there was competition between the two non-standard negative forms of was and wasn’t.

Overview on dialect

Overview on dialect

Hackney London accent notes

“The pronunciation of <th> as a <f> sound in words like thing or as a <v> sound in words like brother is a characteristic feature of London speech spreading across much of South East England and beyond. Notice, however, that Freddie occasionally produces a more ‘standard’ pronunciation of <th> and that, like other speakers prone to TH-fronting, he uses a <d> sound here for ‘grammatical’ words, such as the, this, that, they, them, those and there. In the second set, Freddie substitutes a sound that is more like a vowel or a <w> sound for a syllable final <l>. This process — known as L-vocalisation — is a long-established feature of speech across much of the southern half of England and, to a lesser extent, occurs in the speech of East Anglia and parts of the East Midlands”*

The Geordie dialect

“The dialect of the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the surrounding area is arguably the most distinctive of all British English dialects. It still has a rich vocabulary that includes words here such as our lass, gan, bairn, wrang, naebody, dae and clarts, meaning respectively, ‘my wife’, ‘go’, ‘child’, ‘wrong’, ‘nobody’, ‘do’ and ‘sticky or claggy mud’.”

“Geordies also share a number of instantly recognisable accent features. Perhaps the most distinctive pronunciation feature is the tendency for speakers across the whole of North East England to use glottalised consonants for the sounds <p, t, k>. This is an extremely subtle phonetic process, and most noticeable when the consonant appears between vowels in the middle of a word or at a word boundary between two vowels. We can hear this feature frequently in Mark’s speech here, but it is perhaps best illustrated by the way he pronounces these consonants in the following words: lucky, happy, attitudes, better, automatic and sometimes.”*

The Belfast accent

“Paul speaks with an instantly recognisable Belfast accent. First of all, he is a rhotic speaker — that is he pronounces the <r> sound after a vowel. Listen to the way he pronounces the words whatever, sort of, personal, later, three percent blue card holders, lecturers, Bangor Tech., computer studies, computer operator, eleven years, working, government, Board Room, upstairs, worked, ever, covert, as regards, by and large, personally, first, sorted out, information, signers, simplified version, learning disability, visual impairments, wheelchair users and broader picture.”*

An accent can determine the origin of the speaker, a locational marker. It is a way that a language is pronounced as the examples above show, the language is English in each example but as the evolution of language has developed, so has the accent. Accent is the culmination of many factors, as Britain was ruled by kings and queens from numerous different countries, the dialect in the regions of the UK are different. For example, The north has similarities to Scandinavian dialect whereas in central London, the dialect has adapted from miners and factory workers of Britain.

Some traits that come with accent are pronunciation features. In the Geordie accent the letter ‘T’in words will commonly be replaced with the letter ‘r’ for example. Getting here =Gerring ‘ere. Another trait that comes with accents is the speed at which someone speaks, typically the speaking the faster the person speaks the more north westerly you head. One of my examples is from Belfast northern Ireland, their accent is quickly paced and is very easily misunderstood by those more southern. In the south west E.G somerset, the accent tends to be slower. A final trait of an accent is the vocabulary used. Majority of accents contain words that have been created and used in everyday speech.For example, the term "innit" is a fromof elision as it has made two words "isnt" and "it" and formed them into one. 

Transcript work

English Transcript: Speech with further maths “Gods” –(Their words, not mine)

 

 

Ben: so a quarter N squared yeah (.) plus N plus 1 squared(.) plus three lots of half N

Will:  I thought N over two (1) open brackets (1) n plus one closed brackets/

Ben: (Laughs) no that’s the formula you pleb /

Charlie: yeah will that’s the formula/

Ben: its in the book /

Will: (moans) ahh its not in the formula

Ben: (sniggers) (3) then its general knowledge then then you’re a pleb (2)

Charlie: the N isn’t its N over two N plus one (2) so you get a quarter N squared plus one squared/

Ben: (cocky) this kid/

Charlie: (continuing) plus three N over 2 (.) n plus one plus two N

 

 

Analysis:

Apparent in the start of conversation is the use of elision.Ben says "a Quarter N squared" instead of having the word "of" inserted before. This has been used by ben to aid the flow of the sentence and make his speech faster. Secondly, Ben uses referential language in the form of conversational markers. Ben is uses the phrase "yeah" after each statement to check to see if the person he is addressing is understanding what is being asked, this also shows that Will is an active listener. Later on in the conversation there is the use of turn taking, by will speaking after ben has finished, the conversation is able to be shared between each person and adds to the co-operation between the two. However, we get the impression that Ben is the more dominant character as he interrupts will, mocking him with a laugh in the process. Also, ben uses a colloquial term in "Pleb" this informal lexis shows that Ben is not trying to be offensive but is trying to humour the group. Later on In the conversation, will uses a non-fluency feature in "ahh" this slows down the pace of the conversation and allows him to think of his answer, the use of the prosodic feature of moaning emphasises his disappointment in what he got wrong.

Conversational analysis

In the conversation taken place, it is apparent that Person A is the more dominating speaker. We know this as they are use interrogative sentences. "Did you see what happened?" This shows that Person A is trying to investigate what has been going on and that their agenda is to find out the necessary information. Additionally, the person has been very concise with what they said, the speech isn't long winded which conveys that Person A had planned out their speech. From these points we are able to assume that Person A is someone authority, possibly a police officer.

As Person A has asked a question, Person B is inclined to respond, from this response we are able to identify a location. "It was not long turned dark. and we'd been down the alley there and back..and..um...then" The use of non-fluency fillers conveys that Person B is nervous and that they have been shaken up by the incident. However, this is a form of referential language as person B is providing information so that person A can understand the situation. Additionally, we can gather that the incident has happened in a rural state as Person B speaks of an alley way.

Person B is seen as the more submissive character as they haven't managed to maintain their composure when speaking to person A. "...Bloody flying he was...I turned around and there was this bloody great crash" The use of informal lexis in "Bloody" could show that Person B is being watchful about how they address person A, instead of using a strong taboo synonym, they have chosen to use a term that is less offensive, this could be due to the witness being in the presence of someone of high importance. Furthermore, we can assume who has control in the conversation by the way their dialogue is structured. Person A has strong, power structure in the way they speak whereas person B lacks that due to the hesitation.

A: "Could you see if anyone was hurt?"
B: "Like I say, it was dark and there was all that smoke"

B shows that they are hedging as by saying "Like I say" has weakened the strength of what information is being given.

Euphemisms + poem Analysis

Euphemisms-

"To let someone go"- This means a fellow work colleague has been fired or a break up in a relationship. This euphimistic phrase is commonly used when talking to someone  in a conversation to de-intensify the severity of the incident.

"Friendly fire"- This means that allied forces have killed one another or badly injured their allies. This is mainly used in news reports as it hides the carelessness of those involved. The euphemism makes the incident seem like a total accident and not a misscalculation. This enables for the reputation of the armed forces to remain intact. The adverb friendly conveys an accident, that what has happened has not been commited out of spite but as a lightheartedness.

"Senior Citizen"- This euphemism is another term for describing the elderly. This could be used in a political speech as it gives the older generation a sense of belonging. By calling them senior, gives the impression they have an importance in the society that the politician is looking to create.




Poem analysis-

This is a poem about a peach,

Who was juicy, ripe and fresh

It found its way to a beach

as it escpaed its netted mesh

 

In the sand it rolled about

having lots of fun and glee

before a sniffing snout picked him out,

and found its way back to me

 

 

 

In the poem I have used an A B A B rhyme scheme, I decided to use this as it makes the read of the poem flow with ease and as the target audience was a childrens poem, i didnt want to make the read too complicated. This was helped through my use of basic vocabulary which consisted of mainly monosyballic terms. Another technique I used to enhance the flow was by using the same number of words within each line. Each line consisted of between 6-7 words which all sounded similar, this is an example of assonance. Within the 2nd stanza of the poem 3rd line down, I used sibilance with "sniffing snout" this was to give the reader the sense that they could hear the sound of the sniffing.

 



English notes for Mr.Clifford

English notes

Amy arrived

 

My friend Amy arrived early, so we went straight to the local beach.

 

Key:

­­___ = Determiner

­­___ = Noun

___ = verb

___ = Adjective               

___ = Adverb

___ = Conjunction

___ = Pronoun

___ = Preposition

 

Nouns:

“The major thoroughfare were already lit by the new gas, this was not the bright and even glare of the late Victorian period, the light flared and diminished, casting a flickering light across the streets and lending to the houses and pedestrians a faintly unreal or even theatrical quality.”

 

What is a noun?

A word used to identify any class of people, places or things. A noun is a naming word

 

Types of nouns:

Common- preceded by “the” (Concrete + abstract)

Proper- nouns for unique individuals

Concrete noun - something we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch

Abstract noun – A name/idea/concept

Collective noun – Refers to a group of things or people

Noun phrase – a noun and any words that modifies the noun

 

 

Noun phrases ext:

Whenever you modify a noun, it becomes a noun phrase. This changes the meaning of the noun E.G

 

Plane crash- Standard

Horrific plane crash- worse

The most horrific plane crash- The worst outcome

 

Noun importance-

• Work as lexical cohesion-Word glue
• Create an emotional response
• Can paint a picture

 

Adjectives:

“The weary painter took off his blue, green and white overalls and ate a day old Chinese meal because he felt ravenous”

Adjectives are words and phrases that modify or describe nouns or pronouns

Functions of adjectives:

• Descriptive
• Evaluative
• Emotive
• Attributive
• Predictive
• Comparative
• Superlative

 

 

Modal verbs:

Deontic = certainty

Epistemic= some room for freedom/choice

 

You must walk                                            Command intensity

You will walk

You can walk

You might walk

 

 

Verb phrases: Built around the main verb

• Modal auxiliaries can be placed along any continuum to show the degrees of strength
   

Verbs tell us when something happens:

Present tense – Has the –s inflections (sings, dances)

 

Past tense – Base form +ed inflection (jumped)

 

Future tense – Modal auxiliary will or shall + base form (will sing)

Auxiliary verbs: Primary auxiliary (be, have, was, has)

These distinguish tense E.G: he was running, he has run, he will be running

 

Modal auxiliary: (may, could, might, will, can, should)

Shows possibility/necessity

 

Clauses:

In the same way that words form phrases, phrases form larger structure called clauses. These are groups of words centred on a verb phrase.

 

Subject- The key focus

 

Verb – Includes adverbs and auxiliaries

 

Object – Identifies the object being acted on

 

1. I awoke ( S, V )
2. I turned on the TV (S, V, O)
3. Paul left his friend an Ipod (S, V, O, O)

 

Co-ordinated clauses- Two clauses joined together by using a conjunction

Co-ordinated clauses must make sense on their own if you remove the conjunction

“I opened my window because I was hot”

 

Subordinated clauses:

A clause that means that there will be a main clause followed by a phrase that can only make sense when linked to the main clause.

“I went to Nandos despite the fact it wasn’t cheeky”

 

Active + Passive voice:

Active voice – Ahmed kicked the ball – aggressive connotations

Passive voice – The ball was kicked by Ahmed - softer

Active voice:  Gives prominence to the actor/agency. Focuses on positives or negatives

Prime minister saves deal

Prime minister shags pig

(both active but convey positive and negative views towards the prime minister)

 

Passive voice: Used when we don’t know the subject, don’t want to talk about the subject or when the subject is not the focus

“John Lennon shot dead”