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AQA EngB3 2016

Hey ya'll!

Couldn't find a threat for ENGB3 so here it is, if you need help or whatever :smile:
My predicted grade is an A, feel free to put yours,

The exam is on the 15th June 2016 in the morning for 2 hours and 30 minutes, this'll mean it'll be from around 9:30am - 12:00am

Good luck everyone! :biggrin:

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Reply 1
Do you have any pointers? I'm predicted an A also but my flaws lie in language acquisition


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Reply 2
any help with language change would be much appreciated! what are the key contextual dates we need to know apart from the printing press in 1476 and the dictionary in the 1700s?
Reply 3
I'm predicated an A as well and need this for uni but I'm really scared I won't get this! I got a high B in my coursework but in previous mocks my grades have been random like an A then a D coz it just depends on the text given :frown: if anyone has any tips please help (especially with language change)
Original post by daiskow
any help with language change would be much appreciated! what are the key contextual dates we need to know apart from the printing press in 1476 and the dictionary in the 1700s?

Bit of advice: the dates aren't as important. most examiners reports say that students put these dates in for no reason. they want you to analyse the language, I.e. noun use, auxiliary verbs, grammar, sentence structure, use the relevant social contexts to give reasoning and so forth (especially for question 3).

1476 is before the time that is actually studied. And the dictionary didn't standardise language; it was written by people who wanted to show what the words were at the time, to keep a record. There were a few that wanted to make sure language didn't change too much so that it could be read by future generations. Also, the theorists they generally want are those from AS. :smile:
Reply 5
Hi, this is the exam that I struggle the most with.
I'm accepting my fate that I won't do very well with Acquisition.
For Lang Change, my teacher told me to do this structure:

- Intro: state that English is constantly changing, through triggers such as invasion, technology, globalisation, colonisation etc.
-P1: OLD ENGLISH, triggered by invasion, what this brought to our language and evidence of this in the text
-P2: MID ENGLISH, triggered by Norman invasion, what this brought to our lang and evidence of this in the text
-P3: EARLY MOD, """"

Looking at exemplar texts this is really not how you do it at all and it's stressing me out - any advice on structure???
I'm so desperate now hahaha
Original post by hannw
Hi, this is the exam that I struggle the most with.
I'm accepting my fate that I won't do very well with Acquisition.
For Lang Change, my teacher told me to do this structure:

- Intro: state that English is constantly changing, through triggers such as invasion, technology, globalisation, colonisation etc.
-P1: OLD ENGLISH, triggered by invasion, what this brought to our language and evidence of this in the text
-P2: MID ENGLISH, triggered by Norman invasion, what this brought to our lang and evidence of this in the text
-P3: EARLY MOD, """"

Looking at exemplar texts this is really not how you do it at all and it's stressing me out - any advice on structure???
I'm so desperate now hahaha




Not trying to be face threatening (lightening the mood with an AS pun), but this really is not how you structure a language change essay. BUT, don't worry, it's actually really easy to structure it. So...

Introduction:
For my introduction I literally just refer to the genre, audience, purpose, anything specific about dates, context of production (what was it made in response of), context of reception (how is it being received by the text receiver), and then I would either state if it's diachronic language change (comparing two texts together) or synchronic language change (comparing one text with modern day). Finally, I'll quickly list what I'm going to talk about '...there seems to be very dramatic language change in terms of register, lexis, grammar, discourse, power, gender...' and this will form the paragraphs of my essay.

So my first paragraph would probably start off with register (nice and easy.)

Paragraph One (Register)...
-I would state the register that seems to be mainly adopted by the text e.g. formal.
-I would then talk about what makes it formal: passive voice? low frequency lexis?
-I would then contrast it with modern language by simply saying 'this would not be expected in modern texts because of increasing informalisation that is perhaps effected by...'
-I would then say something like 'BUT, it does seem to show some aspects of modern language as much of the lexis adopted in the text is still in high-frequency today e.g..., which could be because standardisation is a slow process.'

Then I'd move onto lexis cos I feel like this helps you move on nicely...

Paragraph Two (Lexis)...
-I would talk about archaisms, hyperbole, perjorative or ameliorised lexis, coinage, hyphenated words, and then even like things that may look sexist or something.
-I'd talk about verb choices so like auxiliary verbs? deontic modality? epistemic modality? what effect does this have on the overarching text?
-Tbh lexis should be easy its just words so I cba going on about this and I'll get onto the more difficult stuff.

Paragraph Three (Grammar)...
-So, usually in older texts you will either see proclitic elliptical contracts like 'tis', 'work'd', and so on, through the omission of the 'e' vowel, and talk about the reasons for this. Is it just simply the way people wrote at the time? Is it to convey spoken language?
-In modern texts you will usually see enclitic contractions which is stuff like 'there's', 'where's', 'it's' and 'he's', which may usually create informality.
-Then I'd talk about syntax. Do you ever see a sentence and think that sounds weird? If you do and you don't know why, just say what it would be written like in the modern day so there's a past paper which says 'having never been a woman-hater', but in the modern day this would be formulated to say 'I have never been a woman hater.'
-THEN (the easy part of grammar), just ramble about interrogatives, imperatives, declaratives and exclamatives.
-I'd then talk about punctuation, random use of capitialisation, etc.
-Also talk about ligatures and the long s/curved c

Paragraph Four (Discourse)...
-This is just blatantly the easy part. Just talk about a lack of paragraphs
-Talk about the lack of subheading or use of it
-Just talk ahah

Paragraph Five (Graphology *if applicable*)...
-Logo's? Emboldening? Italics? Images? Colour? etc.



Right, and then it depends what you are more comfortable with, but I'd either do a paragraph completely separate from the rest on power and gender, or if you could just weave it in that would probably look more sophisticated.

In terms of power there is always loads in language change such as...
-Face Theory
-Accomodation
-Synthetic Personalisation
-Power behind Discourse/Power in Discourse
-Instrumental/influential/knowledge/social power
-There's loads more so just have a flick through your AS book.

I'm a bit sh*t at gender because I never done it for my AS but...
-I would talk about dominance cos that's easy to apply
-And then I'd talk about Lakoff's view of womens language and that



Hope this helps. If you would like me to send you an exemplar script I could do that if it would help you see what to do more clearly cos mine are all typed.
Original post by hannw
Hi, this is the exam that I struggle the most with.
I'm accepting my fate that I won't do very well with Acquisition.
For Lang Change, my teacher told me to do this structure:

- Intro: state that English is constantly changing, through triggers such as invasion, technology, globalisation, colonisation etc.
-P1: OLD ENGLISH, triggered by invasion, what this brought to our language and evidence of this in the text
-P2: MID ENGLISH, triggered by Norman invasion, what this brought to our lang and evidence of this in the text
-P3: EARLY MOD, """"

Looking at exemplar texts this is really not how you do it at all and it's stressing me out - any advice on structure???
I'm so desperate now hahaha



I've also made a plan for myself for Language Acquisition which is just dead general, but thought I'd throw it in here for good karma.


General Child Language Acquisition Essay Plan.

Introduction...
Genre, Audience, Purpose, Number of Participants
Stage of Child e.g. Telegraphic or Post-Telegraphic Stage
Give evidence for the stage such as enclitic elliptical contractions or connectives.

Paragraph One (Context)...
Where is the child: Her house? Family members house? School? Friends house?
What is the child doing: Playing? Conversing? Reading? Drawing? Eating?
What time is it: Morning? Afternoon? Bedtime? Talk about the effect of this.
Who is the child talking to: Mum? Dad? Brother? Sister? Nan? Friend? Effect of this.
Does the child seem comfortable? Uncomfortable? Why?

Paragraph Two (Caregiver)...
How many caregivers? Who is the main caregiver?Caregivers act as a Language Acquisition Support System (Bruner) through Scaffolding.
Turn-taking is implemented through closed interrogatives, interrogatives, etc.
CDS: Diminutive forms? More simplistic elliptical sentences? Tag questions?
Power: Instrumental Power? Influential? Knowledge? Authority? IRF Model?

Paragraph Three (Lexis)...
Verb choices e.g. deontic, modal, etc.
Use of imaginative lexis that may coincide with playing with toys as pivots.
Use of diminutive lexis e.g. daddy.
Consonant cluster, substitution, addition, categorical overextension.
Polysyllabic lexis which highlights strong phonological ability.
Understanding Intonation which would be supported by Cruttendan.
Attempting to say things which evidences the existence of a Language Acquisition Device.
Pronoun development which would be supported by Bellugi.
Colloquial Lexise.g. dialect, sociolect

Paragraph Four (Grammar)...
Use of imperatives which would be supported by Halliday's instrumental function.
Use of interrogatives that would be supported by Instrumental Function.
False starts, may suggest that still acquiring grammatical structures.
Elliptical sentences that omit auxiliary verbs.
Compound sentences? Simple sentences?
Use of tense? Is it correct or not? Piaget would support this.

Paragraph Five (Pragmatics)...
Understanding wider world issues.
Being able to use humour effectively.
Being able to link semantic qualities in texts.

Paragraph Six (Reading *If Applicable*)...
Synthetic phonics approach.
Analytic phonics approach.
Look and say approach.
Stage of Reading.

Conclusion...
Talk briefly about the development of the child.
Talk briefly about the effect of the caregiver.
Talk about the child's strongest points.

This may help but not as detailed as it was made for me hahaha
Original post by HeatherLaff
Not trying to be face threatening (lightening the mood with an AS pun), but this really is not how you structure a language change essay. BUT, don't worry, it's actually really easy to structure it. So...

Introduction:
For my introduction I literally just refer to the genre, audience, purpose, anything specific about dates, context of production (what was it made in response of), context of reception (how is it being received by the text receiver), and then I would either state if it's diachronic language change (comparing two texts together) or synchronic language change (comparing one text with modern day). Finally, I'll quickly list what I'm going to talk about '...there seems to be very dramatic language change in terms of register, lexis, grammar, discourse, power, gender...' and this will form the paragraphs of my essay.

So my first paragraph would probably start off with register (nice and easy.)

Paragraph One (Register)...
-I would state the register that seems to be mainly adopted by the text e.g. formal.
-I would then talk about what makes it formal: passive voice? low frequency lexis?
-I would then contrast it with modern language by simply saying 'this would not be expected in modern texts because of increasing informalisation that is perhaps effected by...'
-I would then say something like 'BUT, it does seem to show some aspects of modern language as much of the lexis adopted in the text is still in high-frequency today e.g..., which could be because standardisation is a slow process.'

Then I'd move onto lexis cos I feel like this helps you move on nicely...

Paragraph Two (Lexis)...
-I would talk about archaisms, hyperbole, perjorative or ameliorised lexis, coinage, hyphenated words, and then even like things that may look sexist or something.
-I'd talk about verb choices so like auxiliary verbs? deontic modality? epistemic modality? what effect does this have on the overarching text?
-Tbh lexis should be easy its just words so I cba going on about this and I'll get onto the more difficult stuff.

Paragraph Three (Grammar)...
-So, usually in older texts you will either see proclitic elliptical contracts like 'tis', 'work'd', and so on, through the omission of the 'e' vowel, and talk about the reasons for this. Is it just simply the way people wrote at the time? Is it to convey spoken language?
-In modern texts you will usually see enclitic contractions which is stuff like 'there's', 'where's', 'it's' and 'he's', which may usually create informality.
-Then I'd talk about syntax. Do you ever see a sentence and think that sounds weird? If you do and you don't know why, just say what it would be written like in the modern day so there's a past paper which says 'having never been a woman-hater', but in the modern day this would be formulated to say 'I have never been a woman hater.'
-THEN (the easy part of grammar), just ramble about interrogatives, imperatives, declaratives and exclamatives.
-I'd then talk about punctuation, random use of capitialisation, etc.
-Also talk about ligatures and the long s/curved c

Paragraph Four (Discourse)...
-This is just blatantly the easy part. Just talk about a lack of paragraphs
-Talk about the lack of subheading or use of it
-Just talk ahah

Paragraph Five (Graphology *if applicable*)...
-Logo's? Emboldening? Italics? Images? Colour? etc.



Right, and then it depends what you are more comfortable with, but I'd either do a paragraph completely separate from the rest on power and gender, or if you could just weave it in that would probably look more sophisticated.

In terms of power there is always loads in language change such as...
-Face Theory
-Accomodation
-Synthetic Personalisation
-Power behind Discourse/Power in Discourse
-Instrumental/influential/knowledge/social power
-There's loads more so just have a flick through your AS book.

I'm a bit sh*t at gender because I never done it for my AS but...
-I would talk about dominance cos that's easy to apply
-And then I'd talk about Lakoff's view of womens language and that



Hope this helps. If you would like me to send you an exemplar script I could do that if it would help you see what to do more clearly cos mine are all typed.


can you explain me the diachronic and synchronic change and how would i include this in my introduction? so diachronic is when for example, one text is from 1888 and the other is from 1998?synchronic is when there is one text eg. a letter during ww2 and compare with today? An example paragraph would help.
Original post by jsantos09
can you explain me the diachronic and synchronic change and how would i include this in my introduction? so diachronic is when for example, one text is from 1888 and the other is from 1998?synchronic is when there is one text eg. a letter during ww2 and compare with today? An example paragraph would help.


Your explanation of it is spot on. It really isn't that important if you put it in or not, but I think it looks a bit better and more sophisticated. This is an example intro from my ENGB3 JAN 2011 Past Paper:
'Text F and Text G are both records of court cases held at the same location, the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London which immediately in contextually significant because it allows us, the reader, to see differences within that particular court over time. The two texts, being produced nearly 200 years apart allows the text-receiver to see diachronic change between the two texts; and further allows the differences in the conventions of court cases over time to be seen, with Text F being very detailed and reading almost like a narrative, and Text G appearing more concise and consisting of the main information that contributed to the person being pronounced guilty. The immediate audiences of these two texts would have been those physically present in the court of law during this time; but these sorts of documents would not be studied by other seeing as they are records that have been kept for a long time, such as Law students in Universities. The purpose of the texts then, again share a similarity, in that they are both created to preserve records and perhaps inform the reader of what happened within these cases. So, although the genre, audience and purpose of these texts are very similar, there is clear language change demonstrated between them which seems to ultimately be a result of social and technological changes, and also language change processes such as standardisation.'

So it literally only has to be like a skim over it
Original post by HeatherLaff
Your explanation of it is spot on. It really isn't that important if you put it in or not, but I think it looks a bit better and more sophisticated. This is an example intro from my ENGB3 JAN 2011 Past Paper:
'Text F and Text G are both records of court cases held at the same location, the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London which immediately in contextually significant because it allows us, the reader, to see differences within that particular court over time. The two texts, being produced nearly 200 years apart allows the text-receiver to see diachronic change between the two texts; and further allows the differences in the conventions of court cases over time to be seen, with Text F being very detailed and reading almost like a narrative, and Text G appearing more concise and consisting of the main information that contributed to the person being pronounced guilty. The immediate audiences of these two texts would have been those physically present in the court of law during this time; but these sorts of documents would not be studied by other seeing as they are records that have been kept for a long time, such as Law students in Universities. The purpose of the texts then, again share a similarity, in that they are both created to preserve records and perhaps inform the reader of what happened within these cases. So, although the genre, audience and purpose of these texts are very similar, there is clear language change demonstrated between them which seems to ultimately be a result of social and technological changes, and also language change processes such as standardisation.'

So it literally only has to be like a skim over it


ok thanks!
Reply 11
This thread is the best thing I've actually seen


Posted from TSR Mobile
Guys, you don't need an Intro! The examiner reports say they don't matter and are a waste of time :smile:
Does anyone know for language acquisition if you're able to just revise 2 bits in detail? Like speaking acquisition and reading acquisition? Or speaking and writing? Since there's a choice of two and there's normally always a transcript?
Original post by HeatherLaff
I've also made a plan for myself for Language Acquisition which is just dead general, but thought I'd throw it in here for good karma.


General Child Language Acquisition Essay Plan.

Introduction...
Genre, Audience, Purpose, Number of Participants
Stage of Child e.g. Telegraphic or Post-Telegraphic Stage
Give evidence for the stage such as enclitic elliptical contractions or connectives.

Paragraph One (Context)...
Where is the child: Her house? Family members house? School? Friends house?
What is the child doing: Playing? Conversing? Reading? Drawing? Eating?
What time is it: Morning? Afternoon? Bedtime? Talk about the effect of this.
Who is the child talking to: Mum? Dad? Brother? Sister? Nan? Friend? Effect of this.
Does the child seem comfortable? Uncomfortable? Why?

Paragraph Two (Caregiver)...
How many caregivers? Who is the main caregiver?Caregivers act as a Language Acquisition Support System (Bruner) through Scaffolding.
Turn-taking is implemented through closed interrogatives, interrogatives, etc.
CDS: Diminutive forms? More simplistic elliptical sentences? Tag questions?
Power: Instrumental Power? Influential? Knowledge? Authority? IRF Model?

Paragraph Three (Lexis)...
Verb choices e.g. deontic, modal, etc.
Use of imaginative lexis that may coincide with playing with toys as pivots.
Use of diminutive lexis e.g. daddy.
Consonant cluster, substitution, addition, categorical overextension.
Polysyllabic lexis which highlights strong phonological ability.
Understanding Intonation which would be supported by Cruttendan.
Attempting to say things which evidences the existence of a Language Acquisition Device.
Pronoun development which would be supported by Bellugi.
Colloquial Lexise.g. dialect, sociolect

Paragraph Four (Grammar)...
Use of imperatives which would be supported by Halliday's instrumental function.
Use of interrogatives that would be supported by Instrumental Function.
False starts, may suggest that still acquiring grammatical structures.
Elliptical sentences that omit auxiliary verbs.
Compound sentences? Simple sentences?
Use of tense? Is it correct or not? Piaget would support this.

Paragraph Five (Pragmatics)...
Understanding wider world issues.
Being able to use humour effectively.
Being able to link semantic qualities in texts.

Paragraph Six (Reading *If Applicable*)...
Synthetic phonics approach.
Analytic phonics approach.
Look and say approach.
Stage of Reading.

Conclusion...
Talk briefly about the development of the child.
Talk briefly about the effect of the caregiver.
Talk about the child's strongest points.

This may help but not as detailed as it was made for me hahaha


Just thought I'd add my plan for q1 of the exam (as obviously not everyone does it the same):


Paragraph one: Discourse
-turn taking
-questions
-role of each person in the transcript and context for this
- Also look at ZPD if relevant and scaffolding through discourse structure.

Paragraph 2 & 3: Grammar & Lexis (I like to combine them)
-Different word types (Halliday)
-pronoun use
-preposition use (some children change the preposition when repeating themselves)
-Noun types/verb types/structure of these in a sentence
-The syntax of some sentences (i.e. if the syntax is some of the time but not others) (NEVER TALK ABOUT WHAT THE CHILD IS LACKING)
-morphology of words they are using and their understanding of these.
-also things like reduplication, virtuous errors, and so forth.
-any lexical fields due to context

Paragraph 4: Caregiver
-use of CDS by caregiver
-the effects of recasting and whatnot
-also, use of CDS by older children when caregiver isn't around
-context of situation giving meaning to the childs speech (i.e. if they're in an unfamiliar place they may not be comfortable speaking).

Throughout each paragraph I'd give clustered examples and embed context (at least 3 points per paragraph). Also, any theorists that are applicable to the text.

I know it's not as an extensive plan as yours, but I find that is works :smile: I'm also spending 45 minutes planning each question and the rest writing.
Original post by _evnicole
Does anyone know for language acquisition if you're able to just revise 2 bits in detail? Like speaking acquisition and reading acquisition? Or speaking and writing? Since there's a choice of two and there's normally always a transcript?


yes. I'm just doing spoken, as my teacher never taught written. Question 1 is always spoken and question 2 written. Question 1 is also more popular :smile: Stay in your comfort zone
Original post by Gapyearstudent54
Guys, you don't need an Intro! The examiner reports say they don't matter and are a waste of time :smile:



Just to clarify (because I get what you mean), but there doesn't have to be an introduction per se, BUT, for those who have trouble getting contextual factors in for Language Change you should put GAP and all that stuff to try and get you at least a couple of context marks, and similarly for CLA, just talk about the context... but doesn't have to be a general intro. :smile:
Reply 17
Help
Child language acquisition.
'WIV' instead of 'with' is an example of what early mistake? and how can I relate it to theory?
Reply 18
Original post by cr767
Help
Child language acquisition.
'WIV' instead of 'with' is an example of what early mistake? and how can I relate it to theory?


I'd maybe say that they've replaced the consonant cluster of 'th' with 'v' (cluster reduction) because the 'th' cluster is usually one of the last phonemes developed. However, 'v' is also one of the hardest to pronounce so the child is pretty advanced in their phonological development with the use of fricative sounds like 'v' but is yet to develop consonant clusters. You could then tentatively analyse this with 'berko&brown' fis phenomenon by suggesting that the child will recognise and understand the mistake in the pronunciation but the phonemes they can actually produce have a much smaller range, so is unable to change to the correct pronunciation yet.
Original post by hannw
Hi, this is the exam that I struggle the most with.
I'm accepting my fate that I won't do very well with Acquisition.
For Lang Change, my teacher told me to do this structure:

- Intro: state that English is constantly changing, through triggers such as invasion, technology, globalisation, colonisation etc.
-P1: OLD ENGLISH, triggered by invasion, what this brought to our language and evidence of this in the text
-P2: MID ENGLISH, triggered by Norman invasion, what this brought to our lang and evidence of this in the text
-P3: EARLY MOD, """"

Looking at exemplar texts this is really not how you do it at all and it's stressing me out - any advice on structure???
I'm so desperate now hahaha


Hi, not to panic you but as already said by others this isn't the best way to structure as the history may not be applicable to the text and on many examiner reports it states that many students lose marks because of random historical context. I usually follow this structure particularly for the questions with one text e.g a 19th century text

1 - Lexical field
2 - How the genre has affected the text + pick of key features e.g the use of superlatives in an advert
3 - Formality / Informality
4 -Archaic / Obsolete lexis
5 - Graphology
6 - Orthography & tie in spelling / grammar changes
7 - Change in Tech / social / culture etc

This might not work for everyone / every question but just thought it might help.
This is an example of a paragraph from an essay which my teacher gave me 37 (A) for

Text F is an advertisement produced for J.Sainsbury in 1894. By analysing the text, it is clear that the lexical choices, graphology and technical changes in Text F greatly juxtapose those in an advertisement nowadays.
One key feature that shows how language has changed over time is the lexical choices such as specific lexical field of food. Throughout the text, the writer uses listing in order to emphasise the amount of choice and variety the company has to offer such as ‘new-laid eggs’ and ‘Continental cheeses’. The use of the adjectives and modifiers ‘new-laid’ and ‘continental allow the writer to persuade the reader to shop at Sainsburys as these words connotate the idea of fresh and new products. The use of the lexis ‘continental’ seems to be the most significant as the idea of foreign foods would have been highly exciting for anyone in the 19th century as the start of globalisation enabled those of the working to middle class to have access to foods that were once exclusively upper class. Perhaps this suggests that key social changes affect language as new words are ‘borrowed’ and become part of our vocabulary. An example of this in Text F is the list of cheeses such as ‘port du salut’ and ‘camembert’ which I assume is ‘borrowed’ from the french language and have known been integrated into the english language. Perhaps this suggests that the changes in travel i.e ships have enabled new food and subsequently new lexis to our vocabulary.

Hope this helps, I struggle with language change too :frown:
(edited 7 years ago)

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