Chapter 2 Flavors of English

Mini-Research Project How formal is the professors’ speech in each for your classes? Is there a difference by discipline? “ age? “ gender? “ original home? How does the style of your professor affect your own speech in class? your learning in a class? (Exercise 2.2)

Review: Re-write in “prestige” dialect I knowed you wasn’t from New Jersey Eddie and him drove home real slow We didn’t do nothing but sing When they was in the planning stages, they underestimated the costs big-time I can’t hardly believe what you said to the coach The boss asked Derek if he had did his clean-up Identify each prescriptive rule that is broken…

Question: How do you anticipate dialectal differences & grammatical skills affect WYWTBWYGU? E.G.: If you become a teacher how will you handle dialectal differences in your classroom? OR: If you go into business how will you expect dialectal differences to affect your work?

Group Work: (click in group answers) Which of your of these rules are prescriptive? (from a rule book) Which are descriptive? (describes what people really do) Mark each rule with “P” or “D”. (Click “A” for Prescriptive, “D” for Descriptive) Articles precede nouns Do not use unnecessary words A ‘WH’ word or verb usually begins a question Avoid frequent use of be as a main verb “It’s me” is too informal Imperative sentences don’t require subjects Adverbs (such as really) can be moved around in sentences Avoid using the passive voice whenever possible Use precise adjectives and concrete nouns

People in ___ have no dialect. Spartanburg New York Los Angles Michigan Everyone has a dialect

Which Contributes to a Dialect? Age Time Location Socio-Economic Community All of the above

It’s easy to tell where one dialect stops and another begins

Dialect Concentric Circles Fuzzy Circles Style Shifting Hypercorrection

Which is most prestigious? “Who did you say was calling?” “Whom did you say was calling?”

Which is most prestigious? “We will accept whoever applies.” “We will accept whomever applies”

Which is most prestigious? “Let’s keep this between you and I.” “Let’s keep this between you and me.” What’s the underlying source of the errors? (Exercise 2.1)

Second Language Acquisition Interlanguage L2 Interlanguage Fossilization Developmental Errors Natural Learning Transfer Errors Inference from L1 World Englishes L1½ Fossilization L1

This sign is at the bottom of a steep incline in downtown Beijing This sign is at the bottom of a steep incline in downtown Beijing. It means Caution: Slippery when wet.

Homework Read Chapter 3 TPQ on Chapters 1 & 2 ‘Tomorrow’…