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English Language: Language Investigation

Hi guys,

Now we are getting the exams out the way, our teacher suggested we start to think about our Language Investigations we will start in the summer term.

I am doing AQA, spec. B which explains we need to carry out a language investigation.

I am just wondering, have any of you done this investigation, what did you do? or any ideas you may have, or suggestions on topics or things to look at?

Our teacher told us one student did a language investigation into several swear words.....

Thanks for your help/suggestions in advance.

Reply 1

jmj

Hi, my name's jmj and I handed in my coursework 1-2 months ago. For my investigation I analysed humour and whether it has to cross social boundaries- basically I analysed Fawlty Towers to see why it was funny. It was a fun topic to do but was quite hard- I ended up doing 4/5 drafts and my eng teacher had to help me out loads.

My advise is choose something you're interested in. There's no point choosing something you aren't interested in because then it'll be boring and a chore and it'll make it much harder for you to be motivated when the lovely deadlines approach if you don't like what you're doing.

The fact is you can do anything you want in this coursework- it makes it quite hard to choose something, yes, but it's quite good in the end when you know you're coursework is individual and not like anything else.

So, look towards your own interests- is there anything you're really interested in, and then base your coursework on that. Also it helps if you already have the data- for example, one of the reasons I chose Fawlty Towers was because my uncle had made a marathon tape of Fawlty Towers and I thought 'hey, I love Fawlty Towers, and I've got the data' and that was that. Be a little aware though that films and TV shows take AGES to transcribe- you'll only want a little snippet.

Good luck

Reply 2

Joe_JBB

jmj

My advise is choose something you're interested in. There's no point choosing something you aren't interested in because then it'll be boring and a chore and it'll make it much harder for you to be motivated when the lovely deadlines approach if you don't like what you're doing.

I agree. I did a topic into Language Change from Beowulf because I thought it would be easy and I didn't need to do much because it was all 'at a desk' - eg. I didn't need to go into schools, transcribe things from TV etc. I was wrong. It was very hard and boring. Boooooo :frown:

Although by the end of it, I'd forced myself to become interested.

So yep, do something you find interesting.

Joe

Reply 3

PinkPigeon

Mine was 'the language of music reviews' which was a fairly easy topic- basically practical analysis like you do at A/S and A2 anyway on various music reviews and discussing why the language and style of writing varied so much between publications- beware, you think 3,000 words sounds like a lot but in reality, doing a project like that, it's very hard to keep it down, I really had to restrict myself and still ended up chopping off 2,000 words at the end.

So pick a nice, tight topic that doesn't cover too much of a wide range.

Reply 4

cinder

I loved my investigation, I looked at "Trainspotting" and the adaptation of pragmatic features, socialect, accent, dialect and taboo from one medium to the other. I love the film and adored the book so it seemed like a sensible choice...it was fun. I've been marked almost full marks by the teacher so fingers crossed I get a nice examiner who, if anything, decides to award me full marks instead.

We had someone in our class analyse language on gravestones...morbid. Someone else who looked at new lexis entries for the 60's, alot of people looked at child language aquisition and it REALLY gave them a boost in other units.

Reply 5

beanie

As others have said, choose to do something you enjoy or will find interesting... remember its an investigation so you can find something out about language that you didn't know before, so pick something that you would like to know about!

You literally can do anything, and done well practically any topic can make a grade A coursework. Its how you conduct your investigation which will get you the marks, not what you do it on. One girl did hers on the language her dad uses when he talks to their dog, someone else went into loads of lingere shops and did it on the changes in the assistants speech and comments when she was on her own as a teenager, with a friend, with her boyfriend, with her mum/dad and then she dressed up as a business woman. It was so interesting reading her analysis!

Don't start off with a rigorous idea of what you want to do, mine changed as I was doing it and got into my analysis, then I altered my title at the end. Try and get something a little different, loads of people do CLA topics, text messaging, newspaper based topics etc. Take time doing it, I started mine in the summer holidays last year (about 4 months before the rest of college)
and finished it in april. Im still doing bits now and want to do some more work on it before I go to uni (I'm doing linguistics at uni, I love this kind of thing). the A2 coursework isn't the kind of thing you can produce overnight, I got 60/60 on mine so the work paid off.

Reply 6

~CAROLINE~

I did Language Change in cosmetic adverts and it was so borin! There was no data so spent literally days searchin for adverts! Make sure u can easily get the data cos it so annoyin when u cant!

Reply 7

Kerris007

I looked at the way children's spelling develops between years 7 and 9.

But def. choose something you're interested in, but also something you can get lots of data on, because otherwise you'll never make the word count.

Good Luck!!! :biggrin:

Reply 8

suga_fly_77

Yeah, it's definitely important that the title you choose is something you're interested in, otherwise you'll have less motivation to do it and it'll really show through in your writing.
My title was "An Investigation Into The Different Ways The Bronte Sisters Portray Relationships Through Language." I chose it because I've read a lot of their books, and the whole gender issue is something that really interests me. It got full marks, and I loved writing it! So make sure you pick something that you'll genuinely enjoy.
Also, try and make it a bit original - so many people pick similar topics that it gets boring. Don't try and cover loads of different things within it, because you'll end up with a very superficial analysis. It's much better to pick a few things to look at in depth. You'll definitely pick up more marks that way.

Hope this helps! xx

Reply 9

hailz202

As above, DEFINATELY do something your interested in! I did the linguistic features of editors letters from magaizines with a female audience, compared with magazines aimed at men. Just found out i got an A for it :biggrin:

yay lol

People in my group did things like analysing the speech of world leaders in times of disaster (9/11, London bombings etc), linguistic features within the comedy 'The Office', the language of shop assistants, the linguistics features and imagery used in the lyrics of disney songs.....basically it can be anything you want! just make sure you are interested in it and there is enough data to go into depth.

Reply 10

SugarExplosion

I actually analysed to the use of language on faceparty profile :biggrin:

comparing the language of males and females and also across 3 different age groups. I actually really enjoyed doing it, so much that I did about 10 long sections and only handed in about 4 (word count) but still continued doin it just for my own benefit. If you enjoy doing it you'll put in the time and effort.

Reply 11

BenNotts

I did the Language of Stand up Comedy - ended up getting 50/60 so it pays to do something you enjoy.

Reply 12

Catch88

Hey,
I'm on the same boat as you, just starting this year, although I passed my English exams in Jan, so I've had a bit more time to think about it.
The advice we've been given is to make it an investigation, rather than a study - for example there's no point 'investigiating' the differences between spoken and written language, as you probably already know the results. Alss, examiners like it when you collect primary information, such as transcipts and conducting interviews etc. although it wont gain you marks.
My initial idea is to investigate something about personal ads, but then expand this into language and identity etc. If you want to keep in touch then just PM me, especially if you have any interesting ideas!

Reply 13

Boosh13

BenNotts

I did the Language of Stand up Comedy - ended up getting 50/60 so it pays to do something you enjoy.

I know you posted this ages ago, but I was wondering what exactly you investigated to do with stand up?
I want to do something similar but haven't quite managed to piece together an idea yet... :o:

Reply 14

warsama123

Re: English Language: Language Investigation
As above, DEFINATELY do something your interested in! I did the linguistic features of editors letters from magaizines with a female audience, compared with magazines aimed at men. Just found out i got an A for it yay lol

People in my group did things like analysing the speech of world leaders in times of disaster (9/11, London bombings etc), linguistic features within the comedy 'The Office', the language of shop assistants, the linguistics features and imagery used in the lyrics of disney songs.....basically it can be anything you want! just make sure you are interested in it and there is enough data to go into depth.

What was your Hypothesis?