Teens' Language Representation: Slang, Youth Culture, and Social Identity

1. How are teens represented by language, and the language they use? “Very hooded” – Best story ever!

2. Read the article • What attitude is being expressed towards young people’s language? What phrases stand out? • Is the opinion valid? • Do you agree that teenagers having their own language is their way of saying “we are different”? • What is your opinion on the comment that ‘some disadvantaged children don’t know that there is a different way of speaking in a job interview?

3. Help Me – What slang do ‘young people’ currently use?Let’s investigate the origins….

4. Key Questions and Ideas… • Young people are intrinsically linked to developing and using ‘slang’ • Why do you think this may be viewed negatively? • Why do you think young people may use slang more than other groups?

5. Key Terms • Sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a variety of language (a register) associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group (precisely termed ethnolect), an age group, etc • Idiolect the distinctive and individual speech habits of a particular person • Slang a type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people. • Prescriptivism Prescriptivism is the attitude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to others and should be promoted as such. Also known as linguistic prescriptivism and purism. An ardent promoter of prescriptivism is called a prescriptivist. • Descriptivism Descriptivism is a non-judgmental approach to language that focuses on how it is actually spoken and written.

6. Eckert and slang (2003) Slang is used “to establish [a] connection to youth culture [and] to set themselves off from the older generation … to signal coolness, toughness, or attitude. Linguistic change is far more common in teenagers, for example the coining of new lexical items.” Identity

7. VIVIAN DE KLERK (2005) • Young people have the freedom to challenge linguistic norms • Patterns of speech previously modelled on the speech of adults are ‘slowly eroded by the patterns of speech” within peer groups • It is a need to be seen as “modern, cool, fashionable and up to date” • The need to establish self as different • Need to belong to a group whose “habits are different from their parents, other adults and young people” – using language to create a distinctive social group.

8. Too simplistic? • Is it only teens that use slang? • Where else and why might slang be used?

9. Another Newspaper Another View • ATTITUDES: Is this a prescriptivist or descriptivist view point? • How is the writer presenting his opinion – pick out a few key phrases. • Try using the analytical framework and identify some key features. • Words/Lexical Choices • Sentences/Syntactical Choices • Language devices • Structure • REPRESENTATION - How does he present himself as a writer? Will spend a bit of time on this!

10. Getting Underneath a Text.Analysis Time

11. All excellent analysis begins with…. MGASP ++ M– Mode G– Genre A– Audience S– Subject P - Purpose + - Attitudes + - Context Context and Attitudes will become particularly important for the comparison question! Don’t get too hung up on in Q1 and 2

12. Key Word - Representation • Who is being represented? • What is being represented? • How is it being represented?

13. Analysis V’s Interpretation Difference between band 3 and band 4

14. Genre – intrinsically linked to audience, text producer, purpose….. Gunther Kress: • Every genre positions those who participate in a text of that kind: as interviewer or interviewee, as listener or storyteller, as a reader or a writer, as a person interested in political matters, as someone to be instructed or as someone who instructs; each of these positionings implies different possibilities for response and for action. Each written text provides a 'reading position' for readers, a position constructed by the writer for the 'ideal reader' of the text. (Kress 1988,) • Thus, embedded within texts are assumptions about the 'ideal reader', including their attitudes towards the subject matter and often their class, age, gender and ethnicity.

15. Genre – intrinsically linked to audience, text producer, purpose…. • 'Uses and gratifications‘ research has identified many potential pleasures of genre (media you know this!) • One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a particular genre, because of our familiarity with it. Recognition of what is likely to be important (and what is not), derived from our knowledge of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot. • Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism. Aristotle, of course, acknowledged the special emotional responses which were linked to different genres. • Deborah Knight notes that 'satisfaction is guaranteed with genre; the deferral of the inevitable provides the additional pleasure of prolonged anticipation' (Knight 1994).

16. Difference between band 3 and band 4/5 AO3 – Being specific. Knowing the text. All the time HOW and WHY • Purpose – “to raise awareness”, is it? What is the genre of the text? Where is the text from e.g newspaper • Audience – “the general public”, is it? What type of paper is this from tabloid/broadsheet? How is the audience being addressed/positioned? • Representation – Still not enough. How is the writer representing their values/attitudes/point of view? How is the writer presenting the subject/s? All the time HOW and WHY All the time HOW and WHY The use of personal experience/the train….works on reader’s assumptions…to achieve…..

17. AO1- The evidence. The ‘HOW’ • Use different colours • LEXIS/LEXICALchoices – word types, specific techniques, patterns • GRAMMAR/SYNTAX– sentence types, clause and phrase patterns • PHONETICS/PHONOLOGY– Letter and word sounds • GRAPHOLOGY –Form and visual appearance. Layout. What are your most perceptive findings? How do these link to MGASP++? What is being represented? How? Use the mark scheme to help you find key features! It literally has all the answers!

18. Getting ‘Underneath the Text’….what does this even mean? REACHING FOR THE TOP! AO1 is grand, but it’s what you do with it! Iceberg Woolly surface

19. Let’s start with the question…. How does Text A use language to create meanings and representations? How are meanings and representations created? In its simplest form…. AO3Because the text is (MGASP++) AO1It uses…..(Language features at least 2 examples) AO1/AO3Which creates…..(WHAT is the language doing?) AO3In order to achieve/because…….(WHY is the language doing that? HOW is creating representations? HOW does the language link to other areas of MGASP++?) Need much more linking and layering! AO3 too general and vague.

20. POINT EXPLORE QUOTE ANALYSE LINK Topic statements Linked to GASP ++ REPRESENTATION Band 2/3/4 stuff lives here! .Identify 2-3 examples using terminology. Use quotes – MAX 3 Words. ANALYSIS MUST BE LAYERED. LINK TO OTHER AREAS OF GASP Does the text conform to or subvert expected conventions/schema? HOW is language working to create the meanings and representations Need much more linking and layering. AO3/AO1 throughout. This is where the perceptive interesting stuff is! Band 5 stuff lives here! This will allow you to analyse rather than interpret! THE DEEP! OFFER ALTERNATIVE READINGS CONSIDERING REPRESENTATIONS/CONTEXT Continue to link to other areas of GASP and FRAMEWORK. Link back to steer/Topic Statement

21. Newspapers LOVE talking about ‘Teen Speak’ Look at these headlines - Do you agree or disagree? What attitude is being represented? How are teens being presented? Be prepared to feedback. READ ALL ABOUT IT!

22. Text-speak: language evolution or just laziness?- Daily Telegraph (April 2013)-How true do you feel this is?

23. ‘Illiterate’ blast at text message kids- The Sun -Do you agree that text messaging will turn (or has turned) young people into ‘illiterates’?

24. Twtr? It’s majorly bad! Leading teacher condemns ‘text speak’ for eroding school children’s language skills.- Daily Mail (2014) –Examples offered in the article include “Macbeth was pure mental”, “Romeo was a numpty” to suggest that using teen sociolect in written work is a problem.Is this a fair opinion or a generalised stereotype?Do you think teenagers cannot differentiate between when and when not to use an informal register?

25. Text speak translates to gr8 language learning. Texting can boost children’s spelling and grammar.- BBC (June 2014) -Do you agree? Is this a valid argument?

26. OMG! Txts make u gd at writing? Srsly? How ‘text speak’ can help pupils write essays.- Daily Mail (December 2012) -Do you side with this argument more than the opinion that text message is damaging? This headline claims that text-speak can help writing – how do you think this possible?

27. Technology and Language • Text messaging, emails, social media have all had an impact on the way we use language to communicate. • New language has even been created! How and why? vernacular /vəˈnakjʊlə/ Learn to pronounce noun • the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region Concept of e-vernacular

28. Features Nonstandard grammarSome of the most frequent nonstandard forms are the past tense forms of DO (I done it) and COME (I come here yesterday), but there are many more. SLANG LETTER/NUMBER Homophones I H8 U Emoticons/typographic symbols  Deixis

29. Features Shortenings Shortenings are words with missing end letters – Sun/Sunday Contractions Hwk/homework, txt/text Clippings (G-Clippings) Goin/Going, hav/have Acronyms BF, BRB, Initialisms (make a new word) LOL, YOLO Non-conventional Spellings sum/some, thanx/thanks,"k" in "skool"

30. So Wot does Txt Spk Lk like? So Wot does Txt Spk Lk like? M/G - Is this spontaneous speech or written? What makes it so? What features does it have? (New terms?) What could we infer about the age of the group? Why? What could you say about this data and how it represents social groups? How could it link to the two theories and news articles we have looked at?

32. Identify key features…Annotate your data!

33. How old do you think the participants of text 1 are? Support your answer with quotes from the text. Hint: look at the language used, the topic of conversation. • Find at least 3 elements of spoken language • Find 3 examples of language change processes. Label and describe the process.

34. Social groups, class, region…. • Estuary English • MLE – based on slang?