1. TopicRelate the topic you have chosen to your ownexperiences of spoken language. Become consciousof the way you talk and the way people around youtalk. Think about how actors and presenters speakon TV as well as what they are saying. For example:

• if you are studying the language of a specificoccupation, make it relevant to your part-time job,eg the way your colleagues deal with difficultcustomers in a restaurant or the way yourteachers talk when they are introducing a lesson

• if you are studying the use of idiolect, keep arecord of the words you tend to use most often.What do you say when something is fantastic, or terrible? Is this the same word that your parentsor your friends use? Are there any words you usethat are unusual?

3. DataYou need to collect up to half a page of transcribedtext. You can record people on your phone (ask theirpermission first) or use TV or the internet to find asuitable clip of people talking. You should then‘transcribe’ or write down everything that is said. You will have to listen to the recording over and overagain to record it accurately. You do not need to use full stops and commas – you will use pauses instead.

4. Analysis: soundConsider what the following things show in relation toyour ideas about what is happening in your data:

• loudness

• pitch

• tone

• intonation

• accent.

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The Spoken Language Study will be part of AQA’s EnglishLanguage GCSE from September 2010.

The assessment is worth 10% of the GCSE and the focusof the study is investigative. Students submit one spokenlanguage study, in a written response, prepared undercontrolled conditions and chosen from the topics issuedby AQA.

In terms of Subject Content, within the broad categoryStudying Language, learners should understand howspoken (and written) language evolve in response tochanges in society and technology, and how this processrelates to identity and cultural diversity.

2. FocusConcentrate on what you find interesting about thistype of spoken language and come up with three or four key ideas about it. For example:

• when studying the power balance in the relationshipwhen more than one person is talking, your ideasmay be as follows:

– the teacher is in control – the teacher uses questions a lot – the teacher repeats things the class say but

uses more formal Standard English

• when studying whether ‘created’ speech seemsreal, your ideas may be as follows:

– there are no overlaps or interruptions– there are no false starts or repetitions – there is slang but it is out of date.

Spoken L anguage

Study

Steps to approaching…

More specifically, within Studying Spoken Languagelearners should:

• reflect critically on their own and others’ uses of languagein different contexts and how they adapt to differentlisteners and tasks, exploring these experiences in thecontexts of wider language use and variation

• engage with real life uses of talk and audiences beyondthe classroom and consider aspects of spoken language,eg how language changes over time, attitudes tostandard and non-standard forms and regional variations.

AQA will set tasks for assessment on topics within thisbroad area.

For more details on GCSE English Language and theSpoken Language Study, visit AQA’s English ResourceZone at www.aqa.org.uk/englishzone

Spoken Language Study

5. Analysis:vocabularyWhat do the speakers’ choices of words show inrelation to your ideas? Think about:

• Standard English

• dialect

• slang

• jargon

• vague language.

6. Analysis: fluencyAre the speakers fluent or hesitant and what does that show? Think about their use of:

• repetition

• false starts

• pauses

• fillers.

7. Analysis:interactionHow do people make a conversation work well or how do they dominate a conversation? Think about:

• questions

• interruptions

• ways of getting other people involved or stopping them from taking part.

8. ConcludeEvaluate whether you have found it useful to studyspoken language in this way and what it has taughtyou about your chosen topic.

Glossary

Turns and turn-taking these are a vital part of interactive talk, whichcan be studied both in speech and in computer-mediated ‘chat’.

Feedback the ways in whichspeakers support each other andshow they are listening andunderstanding, ie ‘I know’, ‘yeh’.

Interaction/interactive not all talkinvolves somebody responding toyou simultaneously, so the extent to which there is interaction, and towhich technology allows interaction is worth thinking about.

Power there is lots of potential inseeing how power relationshipsimpact on talk. This can involvesymmetrical power relationships(where all participants are roughlyequal) and asymmetrical relationships(where one or more hold power overothers).

Formality most people know theterm, but it is very hard to define,partly because formality operates ona ‘cline’, which is a sort of continuumor gradient. Formality is veryimportant though, because it allowsyou to get personal relationshipsright, as well as allowing you to getthem wrong (sometimes deliberatelyso). Formality is one of the key linksbetween language use and context.

Discourse(s) this word has manymeanings, but as used here it refersto routines of language use. So, for example, we go through arecognisable language routine whenwe visit our doctor, or get sent to seethe head of year – which clearlylinks to aspects of power.

Pragmatics another quite complexterm, but put simply it is to do withthe meaning that is communicated,rather than the apparent surfacemeaning of the words. So if a teachersays ‘it’s cold in here’ and a studentturns on the heater, a pragmaticunderstanding has taken place.

Vague language a useful term to describe the way we makestatements unassertive: ‘sort of’,‘like’, ‘whatever’ are examples. Thereis also a wider application aroundspecific and non-specific terms:‘lots’, ‘plenty’, ‘several’, etc.

Fillers words and sounds which haveno meaning but which give thinkingtime, and keep your turn going: ‘er’,‘sort of’, ‘like’ are examples. Notethat ‘sort of’ and ‘like’ are describedas both vague and as fillers, but theyare probably doing slightly differentjobs in each case.

Dialect the distinctive grammar andvocabulary which is associated with a region and/or social group.

Standard English The term‘Standard English’ refers to a dialectwhich has acquired the status ofrepresenting the English language.

Accent the ways in which words arepronounced. Again the grouping canbe regional and/or social.

Idiolect this refers to an individual’sdistinctive style of speaking, so mayinclude aspects of both dialect andaccent.

Repertoire this term connects to theidea that we are all ‘performers’ ofmany different types of speech,according to context – so ourrepertoire is the many different voicesin which we speak during a singleday. Although a full repertoire wouldbe a bit much for a GCSE study, asingle ‘performance’ might beinteresting!

Sound representation this refers tothe ways we represent the sounds of speech when writing (or moretypically typing), eg ‘EEK’, ‘woooow’.

Transcript this is a way of writingdown speech so that it can bestudied closely and referred to inwritten answers. There are manyways to transcribe talk, and in part itdepends on the focus of your study.At GCSE level there is no need forcomplex transcription procedures,although a key to your method shouldalways be supplied.

The glossary below is a short list of some key terms which can be used whendescribing spoken English. Students do not need to use these terms, even at thehighest level, but if they do, they should do so by showing that they understand them.

Please note that any glossary which defines terms tends to separate them when in fact they frequently overlap. The terms given here are not listed alphabetically butare grouped together logically.