A-Level English-- useful website

Hey y'all--

If you haven't yet picked up the "emagazine" on the racks in the library, you can access its contents online:

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/engine/emag/base/emag_home_base.html

This is good for both Language and Literature, and has articles often 'keyed in' to the examinations themselves.

You'll need a username and password to access all the contents-- speak to me, and I'll make sure you have it!

Year Seven and Eight-- Writing book reviews

Here's a site that will take you through the process. It's a little simplistic, but that doesn't mean it isn't helpful:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/wrItewIt/bookrev/index.htm

This is all done online!

U6 Language Acquisition Web Resources Master List

Sorry for the delay in getting all this up... hopefully this will prove to be useful, giving you at least a couple of hours worth of good revision time.

I've 'uploaded' your websites directly on to this e-mail, so:

• There may be some repeats
• I can't formally take responsibility for the contents of all the websites
• some links have been copied from paper sources-- the odd character may be wrong, and the links not entirely successful!

Here we go!

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html

A biiiiiiiiiiiig paper by Steven Pinker, with lots on the biological/evolutionary aspects of language development. This will take some time to read...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wug_Test

This is the wikipedia entry for Jean Berko's 'wugs' research from the 50's.

http://maxpages.com/thena/ladiscussion

Big site on various language acquisition theories. Just don't click on the daily prize pop-up.

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/critical.php

Site discussing so-called 'feral children' with reference to the 'critical period' theory.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html

A little article on caregiver speech.

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/language-acquisition-device-lad

A good article from an innatist perspective.

http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/hbook/kidslang.htm

An abstract with some relevance to how children learn to read.

Steven Pinker:

www.percepp.demon.co.uk/pinker.htm

www.en.wkikpedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/la3.shtml

Brown:

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/PY104/pinker.langacq.html

Dore:

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/jeilms/vol14/pham.htm

Lenneberg:

http://en.wkwipedia.org/wiki/Second_Language

http://en.citisendium.org/wiki/Critical_Period_Hypothesis

Piaget:

www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm

http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/Piaget.htm

Halliday:

http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/3.1/reviews/eiler/nostal.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Halliday

Piaget,Chomsky, and Vygotsky:

www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/theories.html

Language Acqusition Overview (brief):

www.northallertoncoll.org.uk/english/elangacquisition.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILR_scale = Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale is a set of descriptions of abilities to communicate in a language

http://www.answers.com/topic/language-acquisition Scroll down to find a bit on . Language Acquisition.

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/acquisition.htm

http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/6033.pdf - a great little test…even has the answers.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/stages.htm also does some other pages which are good…

How babies learn to talk: www.weetalk.net/learn.htm

Speaking parentese: www.talaris.org/spotlight_parentese.htm

How children learn to read: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/reading_learn.shtml

How children learn to read: www.readingrockets.org/articles/386

How children learn to write: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/writing_learn.shtml

Learning to write in schools:
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/writing_taught.shtml

Theorists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

Best of luck on your exams!

Mr H

Phatic and Transactional speech

One semi-helpful definition would be:

What is the difference between transactional and interactional language? Brown and
Yule (1983: 1) suggest that, whereas transactional language expresses “content”, the
task in hand, interactional language has the function of “expressing social relations
and personal attitudes”. I take it that this very broad definition of interactional talk,
includes ritualised politeness, and other forms of attention to the face needs of others,
as well as more directly relational language such as small talk or gossip.

- taken from http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~pgc/archive/2002/proc02/hewlett02.pdf


You can also find definitions at http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/spoklng2.pdf-- as part of a handy-dandy definitions checklist!

Hope this helps!

U6 English Language-- Acquisition

An excellent Language Acquisition website--

http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415281032/links/language.asp

-- this links to a lot of obtuse university-level papers; but you can also use it to navigate through QCA and school-based sites, which will provide you with a lot of data, especially on children's writing. A good start for a couple of hour's Internet research!

I amaze my teaching friends!

This post was posted to verify the fact that all my fellow teachers are throughly impressed with me. Honest!

GCSE Mock Examinations-- Revision Sites

Hey y'all!

A few online resources to help you on your way:

http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/

Once you get past the cheesy lingo-- "this is the biz!"-- this is a pretty comprehensive website.

http://www.gcse.com/english/

I get the feeling that a lot of this site is advice for the "just-squeakin'-over-the-C-grade-borderline" brigade, but there might be something of use for you here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/

You just can't beat a bit of BBC Bitesize-- though again, some of the advice is pretty basic. That said, there's lots of interactive features here, which can make for a refreshing change in your revision schedule.

Ther's plenty of other sites-- try typing the names of your texts into Google (UK sites only!) and you'll find plenty of school-based sites that offer extra help on all aspects of your GCSE English Language/ Literature.

Good luck on your mocks!