A2 ENGLISH LANGUAGE Language Investigation

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES How to approach the initial stages of your investigation

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Decide on an area you would like to investigate You may choose to draw on your knowledge of language and power from the AS course and to investigate, for example, the use of rhetorical techniques in the speeches of Barack Obama or the language of teachers in the classroom or the representation of power in a sit-com

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Complete some initial research You will still need to research this topic in detail, for example if you are unaware of the techniques of anaphora and hypophora, you will not recognise if these techniques are frequently used by Obama the research findings of Sinclair and Coulthard may help in determining which aspects of teacher talk you explore

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Consider which aspect of the topic you particularly want to explore e.g. if Obama’s techniques have remained consistent since gaining power or how his techniques compare/ contrast with another speaker if a teacher’s gender impacts on his/her language use or if the age of the pupils’ taught impacts on a teacher’s language use This will help you determine how to collect data and what you collect e.g. if looking at gender and teacher language you would transcribe parts of lessons conducted by both male and female teachers

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Collect data, taking care to limit variables where possible e.g. for speeches same type of audience for speeches similar topic e.g. for teacher language same part of lesson (e.g. first 5 mins) same/similar subject

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Determine what sort of questions you will be asking when analysing the data E.G. How does Obama seek to make this speech memorable? How does Obama address/seek to appeal to his target audience? How does the teacher control the agenda? How does the teacher exert power? The data and topic focus will help you to decide on a title and to determine which specific features to explore.

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Read through the data, using linguistic methods and research findings, to determine which specific features to explore. Be systematic in your initial exploration of your chosen linguistic features. It is useful to have several copies of the data to allow for detailed annotation.

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Determine which linguistic features you want to explore and why E.G. for speeches use of imagery to aid memorability (lexis & semantics) use of sentence types to address the audience/create an appealing tone (grammar) E.G. for teacher language conferral of approval/disapproval to assert control (discourse) use of questioning to control agenda (grammar)

INVESTIGATION THE INITIAL STAGES Each feature should be analysed in detail Why are you looking at this feature? Present your findings in some sort of list/table/graph, if appropriate. (So that your reader can readily see exactly what you have found.) Any patterns? Possible reasons? (Look at specific examples in your data.) Any exceptions and why? (Look at specific examples in your data.)