Colloquialisms In the University of Birmingham A study into how well-recognised common student colloquialisms are to native English speakers and international students ELRS Group 2
1. ELRS Group 2 A study into how well-recognisedcommon student
colloquialisms are to native English speakers and international
students
2. Results we wanted to generate: What common colloquialisms
were used by students Whether all native English students were
familiar with these common colloquialisms What colloquialisms
international students struggled to understand Whether or not the
growing use of colloquialisms, slang words and abbreviations are
difficult for international students to master
3. Meetings Weekly basis One hour Quiet area Group
discussionMinutes Follow-up to meetings Posted on blog Tasks
4. New method for us to learn as a group Individual and group
use What did we post on our blog? Development of blog posts
Technical development What did we use it for?
5. We began with the idea of focussing on Mandarin Chinese to
form the basis of our investigation, with a view to concentrate on
phonetic and grammatical constraints facing Chinese students when
learning English. In order to uncover these issues, we decided that
sending a questionnaire that we would later create, to a selection
of Chinese students studying at the University, would highlight
sufficient problems for us to analyse and understand.
6. After much reflection and advice from Alison regarding our
original proposal, certain issues came to light, which meant that
perhaps this research proposal was too ambitious for us in the time
that we had available. Issues included: the amount of competency
Chinese students would already have in English Language, studying
at a predominantly English speaking University, and the sheer
logistics of interviewing large samples of people, thus
transcribing the results.
7. After many meetings, we agreed to take our investigation in
a different direction. Ultimately, we chose to concentrate on
colloquialisms used within the English Language, between both
native English speakers and international students. With the final
research question reading: Compare the familiarity of English
colloquialisms between native English speakers and students who
have learnt English as a second language, at the University of
Birmingham. We believed that this topic would play to our strengths
more, and we felt more confident in tackling this investigation.
This led to a more thorough and accurate investigation.
8. Sealey, A. (2010) Researching English Language: a resource
book for students. London: Routledge www.urban dictionary.com
Nordquist, Richard Colloquialism [online],
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/colloquialismter m.htm [Accessed 22
October 2012] Barford, Vanessa (2009) Mind Your Slanguage
[online],http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8388545.stm [Accessed
22 October 2012] Arua E. Arua, Modupe M. Alimi The Creation of
Students Academic Slang Expressions in the University of Botswana
[online], http://www.linguistik- online.de/40_09/aruaAlimi.pdf
[Accessed 22 October 2012] http://rsel2012.blogspot.co.uk/
https://sites.google.com/site/researchingenglishlanguage/
9. This resource has been extremely useful for bridging the gap
between last years Independent Study module and this much bigger
project. Helped us chose a topic Showed us how to write a research
proposal Highlighted the importance of reading around our topic
Made us realise that we wanted to collect out data through a
questionnaire
10. www.urban dictionary.com Gave us a better knowledge about
the words we were analysing Good source because it is interactive
and constantly being updated by people who use the words
11. Nordquist, Richard Colloquialism [online],
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g /colloquialismterm.htm [Accessed 22
October 2012] Barford, Vanessa (2009) Mind Your Slanguage
[online],http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazi ne/8388545.stm [Accessed
22 October 2012]
12. The questions were written, with it in mind that we needed
to discover several things It would illuminated some words which we
may not have thought of due to not being familiar with the regions
slang As some of these results were quite obscure we put them in a
multiple choice format Our presearch had a feedback question on so
we could doctor our final questionnaire to be as clear as
possible
13. QUESTION 1: -Most popular words circled were Smashed,
Hammered and Wasted - Un-circled words were battered, intoxicated
and tipsy QUESTION 2: -Most popular words suggested as words we
could have included in the question above were Messy and Pissed
-Other suggestions included mortal, trollied, car parked, twatted,
rat-arsed and para QUESTION 3:- Most popular word for describing
drinking before going out to a club was pre-drinks followed by pres
- other sugegstions were pre-lash and prinks QUESTION 4:- Words
students said they had learnt since being at the University of
Birmingham include Terrored, Allow, Hypeting, Haps, Amazeballs and
parr QUESTION 5:- Sentence examples using the word bare included: -
im bare cold -He got bare annoyed -Got bare work to do -Chatting
bare breeze QUESTION 6:- Sentence examples using the word Sick
included: - Thats so sick -I feel very sick -Those are sick shoes -
Went out last night, it was so sick QUESTION 7:- Words used to
describe somebody who is good at something were top quality, Class,
Don, Beast and Pro - Most popular word suggested was Boss QUESTION
8:- Words suggested to replace the word money were dosh, papers,
pennies and quid - The most popuar term suggested was Dollar,
followed by cash, moulas, dough and wonga QUESTION 9:- Words used
to describe someone ugly included Hideous, Meff, Sket, Fugly, Dirt,
Grenade, Nasty, Butterz, Filth, Cruttas and Dog -The Most popular
suggestions were Dirty, Minger and Munter QUESTION 10:- Words used
to describe someone with a good body included Bangin, Lush, Peng, A
Tank, Tidy, Stacked, Racked, Ripped, Wedge, King Prawn and Sexy -
Most popular words were Fit and Hench. QUESTION 11:- Words that
people shorten are as follows: -Totally=totes - Laugh out loud=LOL
- Amazing= Amaze -Amazing= Amazeballs -Obviously= Obvs -Ridiculous=
Ridic -Selly Oak=Selly -Fab and Fresh= Fab -Because= Cause - Sorry=
Soz QUESTION 12:- Suggestions to improve our questionnaire: -
Questions need to be less vague more specific -Repitition of a
similar structure for questions when the format of questions should
vary - Also, we needed to consider whether or not our questions and
phrasing could be deemed offensive to other cultures.
14. -QUESTIONS KEPT: Have you learnt any new words since coming
to UOB from your peers? Give an example sentence using the word
bare Give an example sentence using the word sick What would you
call someone who is good at something? List some words for money
List some words for ugly What would you call someone with a good
body? Do you shorten any particular words? NEW QUESTIONS: Is
English your first language? What words or word would you use to
say you were relaxed or are relaxing? What term would you use to
collectively describe your group of friends? What is your opinion
on slang words? Do they confuse or enhance spoken language for you
personally? Who do you use colloquialisms/slang words with in
conversation? Which of these words used to describe people are
negative and which ones are positive?
15. We sent out a few pilot versions of our questionnaire to
make sure it could be understood and was accessible to everyone Our
pilot questionnaire seemed to work well Therefore, we distributed
the same questions through email for our final questionnaire
16. Two of the International students answered this question
with sexy and one answered with fit Fit is the word used by both
groups of people Hench and peng are words only used by Native
English speakers
17. We could have sent out our questionnaire much earlier We
could have publicised our questionnaire more in order to get more
results We also felt that we could have narrowed the questions down
We could have made our questionnaire easier and quicker to fill
out
18. Our results and analysis show that international students
are not as familiar with University slang words and colloquialisms
as native English speakers Some international students used the
words in different contexts However some words were understood by
both groups of people
19. Rose Ecclesfield Lizzie Hubbard Hannah Mason Josh Roy Becky
Stevens Yasmin Zahran