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Pilot A-level Linguistics at King George V College, Southport

 

last changed 5 June 2008

The following is a report by Lynda Griffin.

Weekly lunchtime sessions of approx 45 min, voluntary attendance by students and some members of academic /support staff.

Topics covered:

  • 18/2/08   A taste of the world’s languages.
    powerpoint show
  • 25/2/08   A taste of Language variation.
    powerpoint show    , handout
  • 3/3/08     A brief introduction to Old English.
    powerpoint show
  • 10/3/08   More about Old English.
    powerpoint show
  • 7/4/08      What’s happening to languages? Language death
    handout
  • 14/4/08    The sounds of language: the evolution of language and the basics of   phonetics
    handout
  • 21/4/08    the story of writing: an introduction, with special focus on Chinese.
    handout
  • 28/4/08    language change: is English going to the dogs?

Feedback/ Evaluation:

The content reflects the interests and enthusiasms of the staff and students, though the topics were selected from within the range covered  in Linguistics unit 1.

Each topic, if delivered within the usual allocation of lessons at AS , i.e. 6 x 45 min, could of course have been covered in much more detail, and so these sessions were designed as ‘tasters’. No written work was produced by those attending, and discussion, note taking and reading were the usual activities. Some basic analysis and study of parallel texts took place, in the sessions on Old English and Chinese.

Resources used included power point, handouts, articles /extracts , websites and actual texts in Chinese.

Attendance was affected by the many demands on students time at this time of year, including exams, workshops, etc. We chose to deliver the course in this way , as it wasn’t possible to incorporate linguistics  into AS English language lessons, or put on extra lessons, due to the demands of the curriculum/ exam pressure.

Those who attended thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They found the sessions on language death, Old English  and Chinese particularly interesting. My colleague brought in texts obtained during a visit to China during Easter 2008, and these were a great resource for sessions on writing systems and the Chinese language.

The students attending were also studying either English language or Literature, and they had a real ‘thirst’ for knowing more about not only the English language but language in general. Despite encountering much new material, they were able to relate this to their own experiences as language users, much as English language students do.

 

Lynda Griffin 4/6/08