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March 29, 2024, 07:56:27 am

Author Topic: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here  (Read 31579 times)  Share 

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exit

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #15 on: December 20, 2016, 09:43:38 pm »
0

Howdy, exit! :)

I'm not sure I quite follow the question (explanations of what?), but to be honest, you don't need much else. Examiners won't be marking you highly for using fancy words; they'll be marking you highly for being clear.



Hey Joseph,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking there would be more words like 'interlocutor' that are commonly used in EngLang essays. But I guess not!

What resources are available to practice discourse analysis and short answer questions? There are practice exams as well as the green 'exam guide', but are they truly enough? I was wondering also if it's a good use of time to resubmit essays after correction from the teacher, striving for something perfect.
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Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #16 on: December 20, 2016, 09:51:02 pm »
+1
Hey Joseph,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking there would be more words like 'interlocutor' that are commonly used in EngLang essays. But I guess not!

Right, right - I see what you mean now. Interlocutor is a good one, but I'll have a think and get back to you (I tried thinking just then but I'm too distracted by the cricket hahaha).

Quote
What resources are available to practice discourse analysis and short answer questions? There are practice exams as well as the green 'exam guide', but are they truly enough? I was wondering also if it's a good use of time to resubmit essays after correction from the teacher, striving for something perfect.

Yeah! I absolutely love this method; I think it's really, really useful.

Put it this way: I'd rather submit an essay, get feedback, improve it, submit it again, get feedback, improve it, and submit it for a third time, than write three new essays (I hope that sentence made sense). I just think you learn so much more by actively addressing your mistakes, and it gives you great insight into what a really, really good piece of work looks like. And the more you do that, the more natural it becomes to produce that quality of work the first time around. :)

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Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #17 on: December 23, 2016, 10:19:11 am »
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Hey Joseph,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking there would be more words like 'interlocutor' that are commonly used in EngLang essays. But I guess not!

What resources are available to practice discourse analysis and short answer questions? There are practice exams as well as the green 'exam guide', but are they truly enough? I was wondering also if it's a good use of time to resubmit essays after correction from the teacher, striving for something perfect.

I was thinking about this last night when I remembered that VCAA actually lists a whole bunch of terms! They may not be exactly what you're talking about, but it's certainly a good start to be very familiar with these concepts (further to the metalanguage specifically listed under the subsystems):

Spoiler
- register
- overt and covert norms
- Standard and non-Standard English
- political correctness
- jargon
- slang
- colloquial language/colloquialisms
- double-speak
- taboo language
- public language
- rhetoric
- positive and negative face needs
- situational context
- cultural context
- social purpose
- ethnolect; sociolect; idiolect

Source: study design, page 18.

Feel free to clarify anything here. :)

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Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #18 on: December 24, 2016, 04:27:20 pm »
+1
Apologies for the triple post; I'll merge them when somebody replies.

But I just found this resource, which looks great and I'm sure would go some way to answering the question(s) above. :)

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peanut

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #19 on: January 02, 2017, 04:18:16 pm »
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Hi,
Thanks everyone (especially Joseph41) for putting out all these English Language resources. I have a quick question:
What "name" is given to these things? I always see them grouped together, so I figured there might be a collective name for all of them.
Function, field, mode, setting and audience (including the relationships between participants)

Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #20 on: January 02, 2017, 07:26:10 pm »
+1
Hi,
Thanks everyone (especially Joseph41) for putting out all these English Language resources. I have a quick question:
What "name" is given to these things? I always see them grouped together, so I figured there might be a collective name for all of them.
Function, field, mode, setting and audience (including the relationships between participants)

Hey peanut,

No problem! The EngLang board was a little sparse, do you not think? ;)

I'm not really aware of a specific term, to be honest - does it specify one in the study design? Otherwise, I think contextual factors would probably suffice. I mean, these are all the types of thing that you'd include in an introduction to an analytical commentary, and they're all sort of setting the scene, as it were.

What do others think? :)

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mtDNA

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #21 on: January 10, 2017, 10:51:30 pm »
+1
Hey, I just wanted to ask what the difference is between a phoneme and a phone? The current definition I have is:
Phone: the smallest structural unit of sound that is produced in an utterance
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound that can produce contrasts (?)

But with these definitions, I don't really understand the difference...  :-\

Thanks in advance  ;)


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dan0038

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #22 on: January 13, 2017, 05:53:31 pm »
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does anyone have any links to past practice exams for english language that isn't from VCAA? Cheers
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peanut

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #23 on: January 14, 2017, 06:44:35 pm »
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According to VCAA, does register refer to the level of formality or the specific variety of a language used for a particular purpose? For example would "highly informal" or "legal English" be a register?

Individu

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #24 on: January 14, 2017, 08:58:29 pm »
+2
Register is essentially the degree of formality. The text's register is influenced by contextual factors such as the interlocutors involved (e.g. are they close friends or is there a level of social distance?), the setting (court, school etc.) and some other factors.

'Legal english' or legalese would be a type of jargon - a specialised type of language used amongst people of a certain field or hobby. Examples include medical jargon and gamer language. Different types of jargon have different registers - legalese and medical jargon would have a formal register whilst gamer language tends to be more informal.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2017, 09:05:25 pm by Individu »

mtDNA

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #25 on: January 17, 2017, 12:53:18 pm »
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In regards to finding quotes for section C, are there any recommended linguistic books to read? I've heard of Mother Tongue, Mastering Advanced English Language, etc., but are they really worth it? If so, which ones are the best resource? Moreover, what are the alternative methods for finding quotes?

Thanks in Advance  :D


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literally lauren

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #26 on: January 24, 2017, 10:24:02 am »
+4
Hey, I just wanted to ask what the difference is between a phoneme and a phone? The current definition I have is:
Phone: the smallest structural unit of sound that is produced in an utterance
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound that can produce contrasts (?)

But with these definitions, I don't really understand the difference...  :-\

Thanks in advance  ;)
Hi there!

That definition you've got of phonemes being sounds that can produce contrasts is the most important distinction.

As an example, consider the letter 'p' and the sound it makes. Now, while holding your hand in front of your mouth, say the words 'pin' and 'spin' a couple of times each.

Notice how when you say the word 'pin,' a puff of air hits your hand? That's because the 'p' sound is aspirated (meaning it's accompanied by an outwards breath of air) - denoted as ph. But there's no aspiration in 'spin.'

Now, phones are our way of classifying all the different types of sounds, so 'p' and ph are two different phones. This is true no matter what language you're talking about - these will always be two distinct types of sounds.

However, in English, we don't make a distinction in meaning between aspirated and non-aspirated sounds. If you pronounced 'spin' with an aspirated 'p', people would still know what you were saying. This means that 'p' and 'ph' are the same phoneme in English.

Contrast that with something like voicing (i.e. the vibration in your throat when you produce certain sounds). If you already know about this, then you can skip the explanatory bit, but if you hold two fingers to your throat and say the words 'pat' and 'bat' you'll notice a vibration feeling when you produce the 'b' sound. We know 'p' and 'b' are different phones because there is this difference between them (i.e. 'p' is unvoiced, 'b' is voiced) but they're also different phonemes because there is a difference in meaning between 'pat' and 'bat' BUT there is no difference in meaning between 'spin' and 'sphin'

So phones = the smallest unit of sound that we can isolate

And phonemes = sound units that produce contrasts in a language.

Hopefully that makes sense!

In regards to finding quotes for section C, are there any recommended linguistic books to read? I've heard of Mother Tongue, Mastering Advanced English Language, etc., but are they really worth it? If so, which ones are the best resource? Moreover, what are the alternative methods for finding quotes?

Thanks in Advance  :D
I'd recommend trying to narrow down your search first - if you want some very general material, then just googling 'books about language' or 'quotes about English language' should give you a starting point...

But it'd probably be more efficient to come up with a list of key themes or sub-ideas within Englang and then brainstorm quotes for each one. For example:
     - quotes about formality/informality in English
     - quotes about taboo language
     - quotes about language change
     - quotes about political correctness
     - quotes about language identity
     - quotes about language learning
...and so on. :)

mtDNA

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #27 on: January 25, 2017, 01:48:24 pm »
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Hi there!

That definition you've got of phonemes being sounds that can produce contrasts is the most important distinction.

As an example, consider the letter 'p' and the sound it makes. Now, while holding your hand in front of your mouth, say the words 'pin' and 'spin' a couple of times each.

Notice how when you say the word 'pin,' a puff of air hits your hand? That's because the 'p' sound is aspirated (meaning it's accompanied by an outwards breath of air) - denoted as ph. But there's no aspiration in 'spin.'

Now, phones are our way of classifying all the different types of sounds, so 'p' and ph are two different phones. This is true no matter what language you're talking about - these will always be two distinct types of sounds.

However, in English, we don't make a distinction in meaning between aspirated and non-aspirated sounds. If you pronounced 'spin' with an aspirated 'p', people would still know what you were saying. This means that 'p' and 'ph' are the same phoneme in English.

Contrast that with something like voicing (i.e. the vibration in your throat when you produce certain sounds). If you already know about this, then you can skip the explanatory bit, but if you hold two fingers to your throat and say the words 'pat' and 'bat' you'll notice a vibration feeling when you produce the 'b' sound. We know 'p' and 'b' are different phones because there is this difference between them (i.e. 'p' is unvoiced, 'b' is voiced) but they're also different phonemes because there is a difference in meaning between 'pat' and 'bat' BUT there is no difference in meaning between 'spin' and 'sphin'

So phones = the smallest unit of sound that we can isolate

And phonemes = sound units that produce contrasts in a language.

Hopefully that makes sense!
I'd recommend trying to narrow down your search first - if you want some very general material, then just googling 'books about language' or 'quotes about English language' should give you a starting point...
(Image removed from quote.)
But it'd probably be more efficient to come up with a list of key themes or sub-ideas within Englang and then brainstorm quotes for each one. For example:
     - quotes about formality/informality in English
     - quotes about taboo language
     - quotes about language change
     - quotes about political correctness
     - quotes about language identity
     - quotes about language learning
...and so on. :)

THANKS SO MUCH - this makes so much sense now  ;D


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ekay

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #28 on: January 28, 2017, 04:01:45 pm »
+1
In regards to finding quotes for section C, are there any recommended linguistic books to read? I've heard of Mother Tongue, Mastering Advanced English Language, etc., but are they really worth it? If so, which ones are the best resource? Moreover, what are the alternative methods for finding quotes?

Thanks in Advance  :D

Whilst ideally it'd be good to read a linguist's whole book for quotes, in Year 12 you want to maximise your study time as much as possible so I'd say it's better to read up on articles/papers/case studies that linguists have written which are relevant to your essay topic instead, because:
1. They're usually not that long so it doesn't take too long to read
2. You're more likely to find relevant evidence and quotes that you can use in your essays

Students often also use linguist quotes banks that previous students have collated or watch YouTube videos/TED talks by linguists to get quotes as well. Newspaper articles sometimes have good quotes too!
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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #29 on: January 28, 2017, 04:36:04 pm »
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does anyone have any links to past practice exams for english language that isn't from VCAA? Cheers
One of the rules on here is generally that copyrighted materials are not allowed to be shared (no lawsuits please), but I can recommend you check out TSSM, Engage Education and VATE as very good sources for company exam papers. Unfortunately most of those require a little money, but nonetheless, if you're willing, they should be quite adequate for your VCE English Language needs.
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