108 research outputs found
A corpus-based sociolinguistic analysis of indefinite article use in London English.
No full textA corpus-based sociolinguistic analysis of indefinite article use in London English Costas Gabrielatos & Eivind Torgersen (Lancaster University) This paper reports on the analysis of the use of indefinite article forms (a/an) in front of vowel sounds in spoken London English, which formed a part of the completed project Analysis of spoken London English using corpus tools (funded by the British Academy). The study used the Linguistic Innovators Corpus (LIC), a 1.4 million word corpus comprising the transcribed and marked-up interview data from the Lancaster/Queen Mary ESRC-funded project, Linguistic innovators: the English of adolescents in London (Kerswill et al. 2008), as well as the Corpus of London Teenage English (COLT) (Stenström et al. 2002). The research methodology combined approaches and techniques from sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics. Variables were examined individually and in cross-tabulations, using both manual/semi-automated and automated techniques (logistic regression analysis). The former analysis took account of the frequency of the a+vowel pattern relative to the number of opportunities for a choice between a or an (i.e. vowel-initial words preceded by the indefinite article) and the proportion of speakers who used the pattern. The study examined both linguistic and sociolinguistic variables, but only the sociolinguistic variables yielded statistically significant results. This suggests that the linguistic variables play a minor role, if any at all, in the choice between a or an in front of a vowel sound. The sociolinguistic variables comprised the speakers’ sex, age, ethnicity and place of residence, as well as the ethnic make-up of the friendship networks. In particular the speakers’ ethnicity and place of residence, emerged as the strongest predictors of the use of a before vowels. The comparative analysis of LIC and COLT showed an almost three-fold increase in the use of a before vowel-initial words by young speakers (19% and 8% respectively). Equally striking is the three-fold change in the proportion of young speakers who use the a+vowel pattern (58% and 20% respectively). More specifically, in LIC, the majority of speakers (52%) alternate between a and an, 43% use an+vowel only, and 5% use a+vowel only. In contrast, the vast majority of COLT speakers (85%) use only an+vowel, with a small minority (15%) alternating between a+vowel and an+vowel - no COLT speaker uses a+vowel only. The indefinite article form a before vowels seems to have undergone a process of reallocation (Britain & Trudgill 1999) in which its sociolinguistic status has been realigned. While the form a in front of vowels earlier seemed to have been avoided, either because it was socially stigmatised or only formed a part of child language and L2 varieties, it is now frequently found among adolescent speakers in inner London. We argue that the indefinite article form a before vowels forms part of Multicultural London English (Kerswill et al. 2008), along with other phonological and grammatical features that have already been documented
Reversing “drift” : Innovation and diffusion in the London diphthong system.
No full textThis study contributes to innovation and diffusion models by examining phonetic changes in London English. It evaluates Sapir’s notion of “drift,” which involves “natural,” unconscious change, in relation to these changes. Investigating parallel developments in two related varieties of English enables drift to be tested in terms of the effect of extralinguistic factors. The diphthongs of PRICE, MOUTH, FACE, and GOAT in both London and New Zealand English are characterized by “Diphthong Shift,” a process that continued unabated in New Zealand. A new, large data set of London speech shows Diphthong Shift reversal, providing counterevidence for drift. We discuss Diphthong Shift and its “reversal” in relation to innovation, diffusion, leveling, and supralocalization, arguing that sociolinguistic factors and dialect contact override natural Diphthong Shift. Studying dialect change in a metropolis, with its large and linguistically innovative minority ethnic population, is of the utmost importance in understanding the dynamics of change
Ethnicity as a source of changes in the London vowel system
No full textPrevious acoustic analyses of the short monophthongs of younger and older speakers in south-east England demonstrate a convergence in the vowel systems (Torgersen and Kerswill, 2004). Following Wells’s (1982) claim that London is the centre of accent innovation in the south-east, it was suggested that the change was driven by diffusion from London. Analyses of vowels of young and elderly informants in London suggest that, in fact, many young Londoners are engaged in a process of innovation and divergence, not levelling. We find variation between ethnic groups, and this points to inter-ethnic relations as a source of innovation in London English
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Internal and external motivation in phonetic change: dialect levelling outcomes for an English vowel shift.
No full textThis article is a contribution to the debate about the primacy of internal versus external factors in language change (Farrar and Jones 2002; Thomason and Kaufman 1988). Taking Labov's Principles of Vowel Shifting (Labov 1994) as representing internal factors, we examine a vowel shift in Ashford, south‐east of London. F1 and F2 measurements of the short vowels suggest a classic chain shift, largely following Labov's Principles II and III (though Labov's assumption that London short front vowels are rising is shown to be wrong). However, corresponding data from Reading, west of London, evidence no signs of a chain shift. The two datasets show identical targets for the changes in each town. Thus, there has been convergence between the two short vowel systems – from different starting points. We argue that a dialect contact model is more explanatory than internal factors in this case of regional dialect levelling in the south‐east of England
A corpus-based analysis of the pragmatic marker you get me
No full textThe chapter examines the use of the emerging pragmatic marker you get me (e.g. I'm just gonna give her a little backhand or whatever cos she needs to learn you get me?) in the 1.5 million word Multicultural London English Corpus (MLEC) (2008). The corpus contains 2 sociolinguistic interviews with London English speakers and the metadata provide information about a speaker’s ethnicity, sex, and age group. The methodology combines automated and manual analysis, and draws on two related previous studies (Gabrielatos, Torgersen, Hoffmann, & Fox, 2010; Torgersen, Gabrielatos, Hoffmann, & Fox, 2011), which used the Linguistic Innovators Corpus (LIC) (2005), a 1.4 million word corpus of sociolinguistic interviews with inner- and outer-London speakers, also marked-up for ethnicity, sex and age, as well as locality. The analysis focuses on the extent of use of you get me, as well as its its variants and discourse functions in relation to the sociolinguistic factors outlined above. The analysis also incorporates comparisons with the use of you get me in LIC, in which ethnicity emerged as the strongest factor.acceptedVersionThis is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of a chapter published in [Studies in Corpus-Based Sociolinguistics]. Locked until 31.1.2019 due to copyright restrictions
Pre-service Teachers' Beliefs Towards Oral Skills in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom
No full textDen nye læreplanen, LK20, for elever i norsk grunnskole, introduserer et større fokus på muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk, med spesiell vekt på å kunne kommunisere med språket. Tidligere forskning viser at elevene snakker for lite engelsk i klasserommet, og at lærerens tilnærming kan være med på å påvirke dette. Denne studien undersøker lærerstudenters tanker og holdninger til utvikling av elevenes muntlige ferdigheter i det norske engelsk-klasserommet. Hensikten er å få innsikt i lærerstudenters oppfatning om hvordan de som fremtidige lærere kan bidra til elevenes utvikling av muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk. I tillegg diskuteres deres valg av metoder i undervisning for læring av muntlige ferdigheter, både lærebøker og annet læringsmateriale. For å svare på forskningsspørsmålet ble syv lærerstudenter med fordypning i engelsk intervjuet. I tillegg ble en kvalitativ spørreundersøkelse sendt ut til resterende lærerstudenter i engelsk på samme universitet. Til sammen bestod datamaterialet av informasjon fra 23 ulike lærerstudenter. For å analysere datamaterialet ble en tematisk analyseprosess benyttet.
Funnene viste at alle deltakerne oppmuntret til et større fokus på muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk-klasserommet og påpekte hvor viktig muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk er. I tillegg så de fleste lærerstudentene ut til å foretrekke autentiske og selvlagde oppgaver og aktiviteter. De fleste lærerstudentene mente dramaaktiviteter og lek er de mest effektive muntlige aktiviteter for læring, men andre deltakere foretrakk standard undervisningsformer med muntlig elev presentasjon på slutten av et tema. Deltakerne i både intervju og spørreundersøkelse uttrykte bekymring for mangel på tid og ressurser, og fryktet at de må bruke læreboken mer enn de ønsker som nyutdannede lærere. Tanker og holdninger er individuelle, og det er derfor viktig for både lærerstudenter og lærere å være bevisst på dette når de underviser. Lærere har en viktig rolle for elevens muntlige språkutvikling og deres tilrettelegging for elevens læring kan påvirke muntlig språkutvikling i både positiv og negativ retning
Sexuality
No full textThe chapter examines the use of the emerging pragmatic marker you get me (e.g. I'm just gonna give her a little backhand or whatever cos she needs to learn you get me?) in the 1.5 million word Multicultural London English Corpus (MLEC) (2008). The corpus contains sociolinguistic interviews with London English speakers and the metadata provide information about a speaker’s ethnicity, sex, and age group. The methodology combines automated and manual analysis, and draws on two related previous studies (Gabrielatos, Torgersen, Hoffmann, & Fox, 2010; Torgersen, Gabrielatos, Hoffmann, & Fox, 2011), which used the Linguistic Innovators Corpus (LIC) (2005), a 1.4 million word corpus of sociolinguistic interviews with inner- and outer-London speakers, also marked-up for ethnicity, sex and age, as well as locality. The analysis focuses on the extent of use of you get me, as well as its its variants and discourse functions in relation to the sociolinguistic factors outlined above. The analysis also incorporates comparisons with the use of you get me in LIC, in which ethnicity emerged as the strongest factor
Pre-service Teachers' Beliefs Towards Oral Skills in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom
No full textDen nye læreplanen, LK20, for elever i norsk grunnskole, introduserer et større fokus på muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk, med spesiell vekt på å kunne kommunisere med språket. Tidligere forskning viser at elevene snakker for lite engelsk i klasserommet, og at lærerens tilnærming kan være med på å påvirke dette. Denne studien undersøker lærerstudenters tanker og holdninger til utvikling av elevenes muntlige ferdigheter i det norske engelsk-klasserommet. Hensikten er å få innsikt i lærerstudenters oppfatning om hvordan de som fremtidige lærere kan bidra til elevenes utvikling av muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk. I tillegg diskuteres deres valg av metoder i undervisning for læring av muntlige ferdigheter, både lærebøker og annet læringsmateriale. For å svare på forskningsspørsmålet ble syv lærerstudenter med fordypning i engelsk intervjuet. I tillegg ble en kvalitativ spørreundersøkelse sendt ut til resterende lærerstudenter i engelsk på samme universitet. Til sammen bestod datamaterialet av informasjon fra 23 ulike lærerstudenter. For å analysere datamaterialet ble en tematisk analyseprosess benyttet.
Funnene viste at alle deltakerne oppmuntret til et større fokus på muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk-klasserommet og påpekte hvor viktig muntlige ferdigheter i engelsk er. I tillegg så de fleste lærerstudentene ut til å foretrekke autentiske og selvlagde oppgaver og aktiviteter. De fleste lærerstudentene mente dramaaktiviteter og lek er de mest effektive muntlige aktiviteter for læring, men andre deltakere foretrakk standard undervisningsformer med muntlig elev presentasjon på slutten av et tema. Deltakerne i både intervju og spørreundersøkelse uttrykte bekymring for mangel på tid og ressurser, og fryktet at de må bruke læreboken mer enn de ønsker som nyutdannede lærere. Tanker og holdninger er individuelle, og det er derfor viktig for både lærerstudenter og lærere å være bevisst på dette når de underviser. Lærere har en viktig rolle for elevens muntlige språkutvikling og deres tilrettelegging for elevens læring kan påvirke muntlig språkutvikling i både positiv og negativ retning.The new curriculum in English for Norwegian primary and secondary education introduces a focus on oral skills and specifically the ability to communicate in English. In addition, previous research shows that students rarely practice oral skills in the EFL classroom. Further, several lines of evidence show that the teachers’ approach to oral skills in the classroom can impact the students’ development. The aim of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers’, from the new five-year education program, beliefs towards the development of students’ oral skills in the Norwegian EFL classroom. The purpose is to gain insight into the pre-service teachers’ views and their expectations as future teachers and their thoughts on how to develop students’ oral skills in English. A qualitative method was adopted to gather data which was comprised by seven qualitative semi-structured interviews and a qualitative survey with sixteen respondents. A thematic analysis of the data material was conducted.
The findings showed that all participants encouraged increased focus on oral skills in the EFL classroom and pointed out how important oral skills in English are. In addition, most pre-service teachers preferred authentic and self-made tasks and activities. While most pre-service teachers found drama activities and games being the most effective oral activities, others preferred the more standard oral student presentation at the end of a topic. The participants in the interviews and the survey expressed concern regarding the lack of time and resources and were worried they must use the textbook more than desired as new teachers. All beliefs are individual, and it is therefore important for both pre-service and in-service teachers to be aware of their own beliefs when teaching. Teachers are important in students’ learning of a new language; their beliefs can substantially impact students’ development in oral skills in both positive and negative regards
London’s Cockney in the twentieth century: stability or cycles of contact-driven change?
No full textacceptedVersion© Cambridge University Press 2017. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details
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