Joos' Five Clocks

We looked today at Martin Joos' five-part system for analysing the register of a text, beyond just formal/informal, but instead classifying texts (or elements of texts, as we saw), along a five-position scale.


this article gives some further discussion of Joos' system., and lays out a helpful table of the five clocks against four features of texts. it includes some more examples and features that help identify the five clocks at work.


http://ww2.odu.edu/al/jpbroder/jpb_on_joos_1976.pdf

CLA Phonological Processes Chart

A beautifully-designed chart of the three major classes of phonological changes that happen in children's speech. This includes more than we tackled in class, alongside some ages at which the processes typically stop occurring. (If they're persistent, you might hire an expert linguist -- like yourselves! -- to help iron them out: you may not appreciate sounding 'cute'.)


http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/wp-content/downloads/forms/phonological_processes.pdf

Don't forget the Lesson Blog...

Just a reminder that the Park Language Lesson Blog is currently tracking the A2 year, and there is an archive of last year's AS course in its entirety:


https://parklang.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/new-blog-as-language/


That's the link to the first post, and if you click lower left you can march forward through the year.


This will make great revision for A2 students, especially those resitting the AS modules.


For A Level students, the concepts are the same and you might like the explanations there as a second way through the material we're covering. The sequence is slightly different, and crucially anything exam-specific will not apply to you, but it's still basically the same subject! Have a browse and see what's there.

Passive Form

Okay, cringey video, but some good advice and interactive practice to help get to grips with the passive form. It's very easy in fact -- it's just a verb form! -- as long as you don't try to make sense of it through the everyday meaning of the word 'passive', or try to take short-cuts in identifying it.


The page here helpfully discusses alternatives that might serve similar purposes, too.


http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/grammar-videos/passive-forms

Simple, Compound, Complex and Minor sentences

Really clear explanation here, in the context of considering your own essay writing.


Missing is the fact that sentences can be compound and complex at the same time, or multiply compound and complex -- with many clauses coordinated or subordinated. It also disregards the 'minor sentence' -- that is, a word, phrase or fragment on its own, marked out as a sentence but with less than a full clause.




http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/sentences.htm

Sounds Familiar...?

I found to my surprise that I hadn't posted a direct link to this fabulous resource from the British Library. The Sounds Familiar archive collects accent and dialect variation across the UK, with interactive maps, recordings, transcripts, collections of lexical variation and more.


http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/

Short TED Talks

You can search TED talks by length -- and the 0-6 minute talks are about the word count (600-750 words) that you're asked to produce for your Task 1 presentations.


Each talk has an interactive transcript, so you can see how the talk looks on the page (and click the transcript to hear how it sounds when delivered). You can also check the word count for a given speech. Around 5 minutes is approximately right -- but much depends on the pace of the speaker.


Loads of subjects covered here -- watch several! Pick up tips and good ideas on how to present!


https://www.ted.com/talks?duration=0-6&sort=newest

EngLangBlog: New AQA A level resources

The EngLangBlog, kept by Dan Clayton, is a great site for links and discussion of English Language issues -- and will also play host to some materials specifically for the New 2015 English Language specification.




EngLangBlog: New AQA A level resources

Aitchison: The Language Web

Superb revision material for A2s. Jean Aitchison covers language change as well as child language development in this series of radio shows which you can get at the BBC on iPlayer. They also have transcripts to read if you prefer:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gmvwx/episodes/player

A Neat Summary of Linguistics

Useful summary, at undergraduate level, of issues and descriptions addressed in the study of language. Pretty good revision reading, perhaps especially for A2s…

https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/NeatSummaryOfLinguistics.pdf

Dialects of American English

A useful and clear guide to a range of American dialects, and the history and development of American English.

 

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htm

Maps of English Diversity and Change

Nicely timed for A2s beginning study of English language diversity, here are a range of revealing maps that illustrate how English has formed, grown, travelled, varied, borrowed, divided, infiltrated and adapted through its history. 

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/3/8053521/25-maps-that-explain-english