Language and Social Groups A Level Unit

A 10 lesson unit comprising a 67 slide PowerPoint, 9 different worksheets (including texts for analysis) exploring the topic of Language and Social Groups (with lots of work on Language and Age) and a summary terminology and theory sheet.

Each lesson includes a starting discussion prompt which acts as a learning objective, detailed notes on the theories and concepts listed below, a worksheet (with the exception of lesson nine) and activities, and a homework task. The following theories and concepts are covered:

• Idiolect, dialect, sociolect and ethnolect
• Communication Accommodation Theory (Convergence, Divergence, Interpersonal & Intergroup Communication) – Giles (1971)
• Communities of Practice – Lave and Wenger (1991 and 1998)
• Social Network Theory
• Belfast Study – Milroy (1975)
• New York Study & Martha’s Vineyard Study – Labov (1966 and 1963)
• Follow up to Martha’s Vineyard Study – Blake and Josey (2003)
• Reading study and ‘Age and Generation-specific use of language’ – Cheshire (1982 and 2006)
• Emerging Adulthood in Sociolinguistics – Bigham (2012)
• Trends in Teenage Talk – Stenström, Andersen and Hasund (2002)
• Age in Sociolinguistics – Eckert (1997)
• Age identity in Japan and the US – Ota, Harwood, Williams and Takai (2000)
• Teenage Talk – Eckert (2003 and 1989)
• Teenage language in West Yorkshire – Ives
• Bolton Study – Moore (2010)
• Teenage Slang – de Klerk (1997) and Zimmerman (2009)
• Teenage Talk - Stenström (2014)
• The Language of British Teenagers - Martínez (2011)
• Use of tags – Berland (1997)
• ‘Like’ as a discourse maker – Odato (2013)
• Creative linguistic processes in teenage slang – Fajardo (2018)
• Elaborated and Restricted Code – Bernstein (1964 and 1971)
• Criticisms of Bernstein – Rosen and Labov (1972) and Ivinson (2017)
• Discourse Community – Swales (1990)

There are some references to AQA-style A Level specification questions, but you can adapt these if needs be. These can be found on slides 56-64. Lesson 9 is based on an AQA A Level question.

The final lesson is a consolidation activity complete with guided revision cards. Alternatively, you could use an app such as Quizlet so that the students could produce digital revision resources.

Check out my other English Language A Level resources!

Language and Gender
Language and Region
[Language and Power and Occupation] (https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12975755)
Language and Global and World Englishes
Language Change
Language and Technology
Language and Ethnicity
Language Discourses