Mode

Agenda Revisit homework: ‘My language biography’ Recap: text receiver/text producer and genre Mode

Key Terms –note these down as we go… Mode Oppositional view Continuum Blended-mode Prototype model

Starter: Language Biography Share your language biography with a partner. What metalanguage key terms have they used to describe their use of language?

Recap: text producers and text receivers, and genre Look at the examples of adverts you collected for homework. Can you identify their intertextual links within the genre of advertising? Are they ‘borrowing’ from other genres? = a way of grouping texts based on expected shared conventions and characteristics

Mode What do you understand by the word mode already? = The physical channel of communication: either speech or writing

How can we identify mode? Fill in the gaps. How can we identify mode? Writing is: Speaking is: Objective Interpersonal A monologue Ephemeral Planned Loosely structured Grammatically simple Concerned with the present Formal Decontextualised

How can we identify mode? Check your answers How can we identify mode? Writing is: Speaking is: Objective Interpersonal A monologue A dialogue Durable Ephemeral Planned Spontaneous Highly structured Loosely structured Grammatically complex Grammatically simple Concerned with the past and future Concerned with the present Formal Informal Decontextualised Contextualised

Have we missed any? Watch the video and add other characteristics: Writing is: Speaking is: This way of thinking about difference is called oppositional view. = a way of defining the difference between modes by arguing that the have completely different features

Discuss and compare these examples Writing is: Speaking is: Objective Interpersonal A monologue A dialogue Durable Ephemeral Planned Spontaneous Highly structured Loosely structured Grammatically complex Grammatically simple Concerned with the past and future Concerned with the present Formal Informal Decontextualised Contextualised

= a text which contains conventional elements of both speech and writing Blended-mode texts Many texts do not fit into the neat distinctions proposed by the oppositional view. For example, a birthday card sent by one friend to another is clearly interpersonal. What about these examples? Graffiti Political speech Telephone Conversation between friends

= a sequence in which elements that are next to each other are not noticeably different but elements at the opposite ends are very different from each other. Continuum An alternative way that avoids problems with the oppositional view is to consider speech and writing as ends of a continuum. Text X Text Y Text Z Writing Speech

Can you place the examples we’ve examined on the continuum? Text X Text Y Text Z Writing Speech

Does this text demonstrate characteristics of both modes? Where?

The prototype model = a model of looking at differences within a category or mode by thinking about typical and less typical examples. A final way of thinking about mode and distinguishing between types is to categorise and classify based on a prototype model. In any given category, there will be ‘good’ and ‘less good’ examples.

The prototype model ? Place the three texts we have looked at in their correct position on the prototype model. ? ?

Homework Explore mode by collecting some texts of your own. How spoken mode features in writing help to convey meaning How the language choices that text producers make depend on the convention of the medium they are writing in How the language choices text producers make depend on their own purposes for communicating