A Level English Language Exam Paper

Exam Questions at:

http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-SQP.PDF

Exam Commentary at:

http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-COM.PDF 

Student responses with examiner commentary at:

http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-CEX.PDF 

Bristol Uni Guide to Grammar and Punctuation

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm

This is the grammar and punctuation guide that Bristol Uni have made in order to prepare everyone for later life.

a) Handy for revision

b) Structure – punctuation, graphology, discourse, form, audience, purpose, context, syntax (simple, compound and complex) and (imperative, interrogative, explanative and declarative), utterance

c) Lexis, semantics, pragmatics

d) Exam responses

e) Grammar and lexis

f) Style, form, purpose and audience

g) Handy for revision

Spoken Language - Genres of Speech

·         Expressive Interaction – ‘This porridge tastes like cardboard’ - When we want to express       how we feel

·         Referential – ‘So the reason we call spoken language temporally bound is because it takes       place at a particular moment in time.’ - When we want to supply information

·         Transactional Exchange – ‘Do you have this in a size 10?’ responded by ‘yes I think so, let       me just check.’ - When we want to get something done

·         Phatic Utterances – When we want to make contact with people so say things like ‘hello’.       They don’t mean much in themselves but are used as a social gel

·         Interactional Exchanges – When we want to exchange ideas and social information with         friends. They help us form relationships

Speech

• ·         When you have a normal conversation it's not usually recorded – so it remains only in the memory of yourself and those who heard it. – There is no permanence
• ·         When we talk, we use facial expressions, different tones of voice and body language to convey our feelings
• ·         When you talk to someone, you do this during a particular time period – another way of expressing this is by saying that it is ‘temporally bound'.
• ·         In addition to being temporally bound, speech is also ‘context bound'. That is, it takes place in a particular situation with all the participants aware of who is talking to whom about what. This can lead to speakers not needing to be precise about certain details.
• ·         Speech is usually an interactive process between two or more people – it's active. Writing, on the other hand is not dynamic in this way – the audience is more distant.

Written

• ·         Writing can be re-read and remains a permanent record for as long as the text is kept. It's this feature of writing that has made the written mode so valued as societies developed.
• ·         Writing relies on expressive words, on punctuation and graphological features to try to convey feelings. For example, if you want to convey surprise, shock or an outburst of emotion in writing, you'll probably use an exclamation mark.
• ·         When you read something, the chances are that you weren't present at the time that the writing was produced. Therefore the spoken mode has an immediacy that the written mode rarely possesses.
• ·         A written text cannot easily get away with using these expressions and needs to explain more precisely who or what it is referring to
• ·         To try to achieve more interaction with the reader, writers have to use different approaches. For instance, using the interrogative mood and/or the second person.

The most free-flowing, informal conversations we have are with people we know well and feel comfortable with. The example of unplanned speech is the first you will hear when you click the audio button. In unplanned speech:

• ·         The register is informal
• ·         There’s a lot of interaction
• ·         There are a number of deictic expressions
• ·         There are interruptions

Planned talk is almost always written down first with the intention of being spoken later. The example of planned speech is the second you will hear when you click the audio button. Here are some of its characteristics:

• ·         Fewer non-fluency features
• ·         In ‘conversations' there are fewer overlaps and interruptions
• ·         The words that are used are very carefully chosen
• ·         In many cases the register is more formal

Summary

• ·         We encounter many different types of spoken language every day.
• ·         We learn how to use language differently in these situations and have expectations about what is appropriate in a variety of contexts.
• ·         The most natural and free-flowing speech is casual conversation. There are other situations which are not entirely planned but where speech is used in a more predictable way. To one extent or another, speech in all these situations contains non-fluency features.
• ·         Planned or scripted speech is much more ‘crafted' and non-fluency features are often absent. This speech contains many of the features of the written mode.

Typical features of planned speech

• ·         The use of the inclusive, first person plural possessive pronoun draws in the audience to identify with the speaker.
• ·         Listing in a pattern of three is another effective rhetorical technique.
• ·         Antithesis (there's a lot of it in this speech). This is where there is a sense of opposites or contrasts – here in the words ‘many' and ‘few'.

Rhetoric

• ·         The art of public speaking – or rhetoric – has been an important way of influencing opinion since the ancient Greeks. A lot of the terms we use to describe rhetorical features were invented by them. The precise context and purpose for the speech will influence its style
• ·         Rhetorical questions can be asked – there's no reply expected and the answer is usually obvious.
• ·         The speaker can also ask a question and then follow it up with an answer, thereby driving home a point.
• ·         Emotive language – powerful language with strong connotations – is designed to provoke an emotional response from the audience.
• ·         A sudden outburst of emotion – usually a single exclamatory statement – also makes the audience feel that the speaker is serious and concerned about the topic.
• ·         Hyperbole – or extravagant exaggeration – can also help to emphasise the speaker's point.
• ·         The use of listing (often in threes) adds weight to the line of argument and can often have the effect of building up to an important point. It can also act in a similar way to repetition by further emphasising an idea by accumulating more examples.
• ·         Carefully chosen metaphors and similes can help to enrich the message by leaving the audience with effective images.
• ·         Many political speeches emphasise, in some way or another, the speaker's credentials and his or her trustworthiness and ability to do a good job. Use of the first person singular pronoun (I) is particularly important here and will be placed very carefully in the speech for maximum impact.
• ·         Many political speeches involve criticism of the opposing viewpoint. There are numerous ways in which this can manifest itself.

Spoken Language - Conversation Analysis

When we are in a conversation, we look for certain signs which mean that it is our ‘turn’ to speak, these include:

·         Stressing the final word of an utterance

·         Dropping the volume level of their utterance

·         Asking a direct question of the listener

·         Using phrases such as ‘you know’ and ‘but…er’

·         Using tag questions to prompt a response

Most interaction begins with an opening sequence which signals to a listener that we want to talk. These opening sequences are carefully, yet often unconsciously, adapted to make them appropriate to the situation. Here are some examples:

·         “I'm Karen Marshall. Did you have a good journey?” = meeting a business contact

·         “Hiya. You ok?” = meeting a friend in the street

·         “Excuse me.” = approaching a stranger for information

Adjacency Pairs

·     Have each part of the pair spoken by a different person

·     Always have a link

·     Always involve a second utterance following on from the first (although it may not follow on directly – there could be a short interruption).

The ‘chains' of adjacency pairs can be broken up or interrupted. This might happen if, for example:

·      Someone comes into a room and joins in the conversation

·      The flow of the conversation is temporarily redirected for a few utterances, perhaps  so that clarification can be sought

·     These temporary interruptions are known as insertion sequences when someone from ‘outside' joins, and side sequences when, for example, there is a need to clarify something before the original thread of the conversation is resumed

How do participants maintain and change topic in a conversation?

·     The subjects of our conversations – what we talk about – are called topics. A topic is normally initiated by one person and pursued until that person, or someone else, wishes to end the conversation or move onto another topic.

·     When a change of topic takes place, it's known as a topic shift and the verbal cues to make the change are called topic shifters.

·    Control of topics can be a sign of conversational dominance – where one participant has more control over what is said than others.

Do the participants correct any repairs, and, if so, how do they go about this?

·     Repairs occur when there's a need to correct a mistake. Sometimes the speaker will ralise that s/he needs to make a correction, sometimes another participant will correct. Here's Tracey and Faye, both repairing a couple of Tracey's mistakes:

·         T: “I got this really nice top from Next (.) no not Next (.) from what you call it (.)? Wallis (.) it's just off Surrey Street”

·         F: “you mean Norfolk Street?”

·         T: “yeah (.) that's the one”

 

In what ways do the participants feedback to one another?

·         Give minimal responses like hum and uh huh

·         Utter words such as ‘really?', ‘right', ‘OK' etc. (also known as back-channelling)

·         Provide non-verbal responses like nodding

How do participants bring their conversation to a close?

·    When we're aware that we're coming towards the end of a conversation, we usually try to bring it to a close in a way that is socially acceptable and ‘polite'. To end too abruptly is usually a sign that something has gone wrong.

A linguist called H.P.Grice developed the idea that there are 4 maxims for successful conversation:

·         The maxim of quantity.
Say just the right amount for the situation.

·         The maxim of relevance.
What you say should be relevant to the topic being discussed

·         The maxim of manner.
You should speak in a clear, orderly way.

·         The maxim of quality.
What you say should be truthful.

In her work on ‘The Politeness Principle', Robin Lakoff (1970s) maintained that speakers usually try to follow three rules when talking to others. These rules were:

·         Don’t impose

·         Give options

·         Make your receiver feel good

Brown & Levinson (1980s) maintained that positive politeness is shown when we:

·     Show people that we like/admire/have sympathy with them and make jokes (that we know the person will like)

·     Avoid disagreements – e.g. by choosing ‘safe' topics to talk about, or by softening our own disagreements

·    Assert what we have in common and are in agreement

Brown & Levinson thought negative politeness is shown when we:

·      Are indirect to avoid intrusion

·      Use hedges or questions

·      Defer to someone by giving a superior form of address – e.g. ‘sir'

·      Are apologetic

·     Brown & Levinson's ideas were more complex in that they also suggested that different cultures place more emphasis on some of these forms of politeness than others.

10 Reasons Why English Is Weird

1)  We automatically know the difference between the verb and the noun. This helps us pronounce them in the correct ways too, making the sentence make sense.
2)  Again, the first 'produce' is the verb and the second is the object of the sentence, with 'farm' being the noun.
3)  We pronounce the different 'refuse' differently by exaggerating the 're' of the noun, making it easier to know what we are talking about
4)  Even though the words look exactly the same. the verb and the noun have completely different meanings

The same with all of the other sentences, we establish the difference between the words without even realising it because it just comes naturally to us. However, I can definitely see how people new to the English language could find this confusing as there are many meanings to the same word. I think it is very clever how we just know what they mean, just by the slight exaggeration or pronounciation of a word.

Dear Ms Morgan: in grammar there isn't always one right answer

This article on the guardian written my Michael Rosen speaks about the decisions of the 2016 sample test for key stage 2 English grammar. I quickly realised that some of the questions included in the exam are completely ridiculous and contradict the requirements from exam boards, but see for yourself.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/03/morgan-grammar-test-right-answer-spag-english-spelling-punctuation-grammar

 

'Though this test’s apparent purpose is to examine children’s knowledge of language, I think its main purpose is to grade children. That’s why some of the questions are based on stacked-up levels of abstraction and some are trick questions.' This gives off the impression that they don't really care about children learning properly and gaining something out of tests. This is further supported when the article says a lot of teachers use the “If you are in doubt about an answer, tick any box – you have a one in four chance of being right." This just proves that they are not interested in what you know about the subject, just tactics on how to pass the exam.

 

He finishes off the article with 'but are the people who devised this test really interested in writing? I doubt it.'

'Femvertising'

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/12/femvertising-branded-feminism

This article written by Nosheen Iqbal highlights the issue of feminism and how marketing campaigns are focusing on empowering women, not degrading them.

The first point made is that '1 in 7' stem based careers are taken up by women. Is this because the stereotypes we put on people are stopping women for working at more science based jobs? Or because we are bringing them up to like more girly, creative subjects? If so, this is causing them to be plainly not interested in the highly academic and theoretical jobs.

As our world is rapidly changing, it is clear that feminism is becoming a rising issue in our modern society. Twitter trends and hashtags such as '#GirlsCan' by the cosmetic brand 'CoverGirl' are attracting a lot of attention and aiming to empower women. One quote which I really love is

 'Your personality needs layers, your face doesn't.'

However, the winner of 'femvertising' still remains as Always, with their video about being '#LikeAGirl'. They 'recruited women, men, boys and pre-pubescent girls and asked them to show what it physically meant to run like a girl or throw like a girl'. The result of this being that the young girls threw hard and fast, in comparison to the adults who were weak and embarrassed. The aim of this was to force viewers to see females as strong, not pathetic.

I think that this is the whole purpose of 'femvertising' in the first place. To change our perception of women in a positive way, and seek for equality between men and women.