Thursday's lesson and homework for Monday

Hi folks,

Here is the PowerPoint from today's lesson, please read it thoroughly and ensure that you have fully understood the '3 D' theories, and that you have completed yesterday's blog work.

A reminder about your homework, which is due Monday:

Go online and search for a male version of an Anatomicals product, known as Manatomicals. This is the kind of thing you are looking for:

Do a language analysis of the product, identifying any techniques used (puns etc.) and then discuss whether or not you think the product conforms to the 3 D theories, or whether it disputes them.

Then, you need to do a compare and contrast between the male version and the female versions:

What do the different versions of the product, aimed at men and women, tell us about the way men and women are represented in society? Does this support the 3 theories?

To confirm: this is due on MONDAY and needs to be approx. 800 words.

The 3 Models - Language & Gender

Morning all,

Today you need to read through the 3 PowerPoints in this post which outline the 3 'D' theory models that we focus on in language and gender:

Deficit - Robin Lakoff
Dominance - Zimmerman and West
Difference - Deborah Tannen

Ensure that you understand the theories as much as possible, to the point that you can recall the main information off by heart when asked, i.e. who developed the theory and what it outlines. If you need more info, look up the theories online (Wikipedia is helpful). Summarise each model on your blog in your own words and whether or not you would agree with the theories with an explanation as to why. There are some questions on each PowerPoint, so think about them and note down a few responses in your summaries.

Additionally, try to identify what problems there are with the theories. For example, the Dominance model is a very outdated study and only focused on a very small number of participants, so can the findings really be reliable?

As an extension task, look up Deborah Cameron's research into language and summarise her opinions on the idea that men and women speak differently.

1. Robin Lakoff - The Deficit Model

2. Zimmerman and West - The Dominance Model

3. Deborah Tannen - The Difference Model

Language and Gender Introduction

Hi everyone,

Here is the PowerPoint I went through in class today (Monday). Please re-read over it and ensure you have understood the main principles of the language and gender module.

See you Wednesday

Claudia

TED Talk Lesson

Morning everyone, welcome back!

I hope you have had a good break, and that you are rested and ready for the new term

We are not going to be doing anything too taxing today, so with that in mind here are today's tasks:

Firstly, I need your holiday homework - the analysis of the Mirror Money article. Please had that to me straight away. If you don't have it, as per the homework policy you have 24 hours to hand it to me, however if it's not then handed in tomorrow you will be escalated along the disciplinary process.

Today you are going to be watching TED talks about language and making notes on the content. Follow this link to view all the TED talks which discuss language, and choose 3 or 4 to focus on. Whilst watching, make notes and then as a summary write up 1-2 paragraphs on the content and the message of the talk, also discussing what you have learned from watching it.

Any problems let me know.

Meanings & Representations

Morning everyone; we're nearly there!

This term has been very full on, so well done for making it to the end (almost!). We've got 2 lessons left before we break, so we're going to be doing one last push to consolidate our study of language & technology and put this into practice using PEE.

As I discussed on Monday, as well as needing to have the ability to analyse the language used in any given text, you also need to be able to comment in detail on:

• The affordances of a particular text
• The constraints
• The context
• The way in which the text creates meanings and representations

We did a lot of this on Monday, and now with that foundation knowledge in place, you should be able to take a stab at answering an exam-style question using this framework.

Task 1

Get out your Mumsnet A3 sheets you annotated on Monday  - you-ll need those today - and for the first task, take 5 minutes to re-familiarise yourself with the content and your annotations. Can you make any more observations about the text? Remember the question: 

How does the text use language to create meanings and representations?

Task 2

Now, take a look at the exemplar response to the question and the text we are working on, which would receive an A grade in a real exam. Look at the way this response is structured, and how the student is using the PEE format. You will be writing PEE paragraphs in class tomorrow, so take a not of how it is done, and how the candidate includes a topic sentence,  point, evidence from the text and the explanation. 

Also, look at the examiner comments at the side, as this is a good way to ascertain how and what the examiner rewards (but don't worry about AO1 and AO3 for now). 

Go through the text and highlight the following in 2 different colours:

• Any identification of linguistic techniques
• Discussion of context, affordances and constraints, and meanings and representations.

(Note: You are not expected to be able to write to this standard at this point in your study. You should use this as an opportunity to see the standard that you will be working toward throughout the year)

Task 3

Using your feedback from me and the exemplar response for support, re-write your paragraphs from Monday. You should aim for at least 2 paragraphs. Email these to me by the end of the lesson and post to your blog.

As always, come and see me if you have any problems!

Computer room lesson 12th October

Morning everyone!

After our day off on Monday normal service resumes today. As we are working our way towards writing a full essay for the language and technology topic (I'll set this after we come back from half term), you can use today as a catch up session to fill in any gaps in knowledge that you may have. Work your way through the tasks below:

1. Spend around 10 minutes playing some grammar games as you did last week. Click the link to access them.

2. There are a few of you who have as of yet not handed me in any written work. This is very detrimental to your progress and needs to be rectified. If this is you, complete task 3 and hand me in some PEE analytical paragraphs by the end of the lesson.

3. Wider reading is very important to your study of language. With this in mind, I'd like you to find 3 articles relating to technology's impact on language, all from different news sources (The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Independent, The Telegraph etc., just google 'language and technology the guardian'). You can start with this one from the Daily Mail.

Decide whether or not the article demonstrates a prescriptivist or descriptivist attitude, and how you know this. Then write a few paragraphs of analysis in response to the article with some focus on the way it uses linguistic techniques, similar to the work you did on the A Level article.

4. Finally, if you finish all of these tasks, start trying to learn and revise your terminology. I have card here for you to make some flashcards, so come see me if you want some.

Plenty to be getting on with! Remember tomorrow we will be finishing off your technology posters and you will be presenting them to the class in your groups.

Language & Technology - Introduction

Morning all,

Today we are going to be picking up from where we left off on Monday with our introduction to language & technology.

You have a few tasks to do today, so these should keep you busy fore the entirety of the lesson. If you finish early, click the links below to have a go at some online grammar games!

First of all, here is the PowerPoint we went through on Monday:

PowerPoint

And here is the language & technology terminology sheet:

Terminology sheet

Then, re-watch the 2 TED talks we watched in class on Monday:

Erin McKean

Jon McWhorter

And write 2 paragraphs in which you summarise the content.

Secondly, finish off the analytical task on Monday directed at your own text messages. Turn each box into a paragraph of PEE analysis (click this link for the sheet), using the techniques you have picked up over the last 2 weeks and ensuring you are using terminology. Use the sheets you were given on Monday for guidance.

As usual, any problems let me know!

Extension: Grammar Games!

Click the link to play some grammatical revision games.