From Sociolinguistic Research to English Language Teaching
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: School of Languages Linguistics and Film
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Cheshire J
(2016)
Creating and Digitizing Language Corpora
Cheshire J.
(2017)
Multicultural London English and social and educational policies
in Language Society and Policy
Cheshire, J.
London Teenagers' Grammar
Fox, S.
(2012)
Language : a student handbook on key topics and theories
Fox, S. (Author)
From Sociolinguistic Research to English Language Teaching
Fox, S. (Author)
From sociolinguistic research to English language teaching
| Description | We worked with teachers of GCSE and GCE A Level English Language to determine what resources were needed for teaching spoken English language. As a result, we filled a gap in the provision of authentic audio recordings for use in the classroom by producing online research-based materials on spoken London English with accompanying teacher notes setting out appropriate descriptive linguistic frameworks for their analysis and description. We also produced an online Linguistics Research Digest containing regular summaries of recent research papers on spoken language, to help teachers maintain an up-to-date knowledge of relevant research.These resources continue to be used by teachers and others, and are currently being expanded to include more research-based resources based on research (e.g. language and gender, multiculturalism, global English, digital communication, language attitudes) |
| Exploitation Route | The spoken English materials are used in GCE and GCSE English Language classrooms to illustrate fundamental characteristics of spoken English. They could also be used by teachers of English Language and Linguistics at HE institutions throughout the world (in fact they already are used in this way). The Linguistics Research Digest could be read by interested members of the general public (and we have evidence that it is already used in this way). The Linguistics Research Digest is discussed by teachers and pupils and can serve (and has already served) as the basis for pupils' own Language Investigations (required by the GCE A level examination boards). We provide sample Language Investigations linked to Digest summaries. The Linguistics Research Digest is used by journalists and other professionals whose work focuses particularly on language as well as by members of the public. It increases understanding of the nature of language diversity and of systematic ways of analysing language variation and language change Please see below for use in the classroom. Some of the materials have been reproduced in text books for students of GCSE English Language. The materials are used in workshops for teachers of English Language, to illustrate and prompt discussion of spoken English. They are also used in English Language teaching in Higher Education settings around the world. |
| Sectors | Education,Other |
| URL | http://linguistics.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/english-language-teaching |
| Description | The Spoken English Language Teaching Resources have been used by teachers and students of GCE and GCSE English Language in secondary schools throughout the UK, and by teachers and students of EFL/ESL and university level English Language teachers and students in the UK and beyond. The Linguistics Research Digest is used by the same audiences (and currently receives 8000+ hits each month) In 2019 The Teaching Resources were significantly expanded and are used by an increasing number of teachers and students. Some are reproduced in school textbooks and used by A level English Language examiners. See slides from Dan Clayton on http://www.englishlanguageresources.org/events-and-media/ |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Education,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Inclusion of Multicultural London English as Language Investigation on Edexcel A level English examination, 2017 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Humanities and Social Sciences Strategic Impact Award |
| Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| End | 06/2018 |
| Description | Sponsorship from British Association for Applied Linguistics for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Association of Applied Linguistics |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2012 |
| End | 12/2013 |
| Description | Sponsorship from British Association for Applied Linguistics for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Association of Applied Linguistics |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2013 |
| End | 12/2013 |
| Description | Sponsorship from LAGB for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2012 |
| End | 12/2012 |
| Description | Sponsorship from LAGB for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2015 |
| End | 12/2015 |
| Description | Sponsorship from LAGB for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2014 |
| End | 12/2014 |
| Description | Sponsorship from LAGB for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2013 |
| End | 12/2013 |
| Description | Sponsorship from LAGB for Linguistics Research Digest |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 12/2016 |
| Description | 'Multicultural London English' plenary lecture at Conference for teachers of A level English Language (British Library), and participant in panel discussion at end of conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | about 200 teachers (and a few publishers) attended the all-day conference. My lecture sparked many questions and discussion afterwards, and increased visits to our English Language teaching resources website and the Linguistics Research Digest website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.bl.uk/events/talking-english |
| Description | 2-day conference for school teachers on Language Variation in the Classroom |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | This was a 2-day conference on language variation in the classroom attended by about 20 school teachers of A level English language and about 20 postgraduates and academics working in English language. The conference produced increased visits to the English language teaching resources website and produced much discussion. Feedback reported that teachers learned something new, and would use our resources. Plans were made for future events of this kind. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://lvitc.wordpress.com |
| Description | Analysing Spoken English: Workshop organised by the research team in Salford, UK, for GCSE and GCE A level English language school teachers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop aimed at disseminating to English Language teachers the insights obtained from scholarly research into language variation and change, and to provide teachers with an overview of databanks and resources available on-line for use in the classroom. The focus of the workshop was on the use of so-called discourse-pragmatic features, i.e., features such as innit, be like or dead (e.g. It was dead funny.). These features are often wrongly dismissed as mere fillers which contribute nothing to the content or communicative force of an utterance. Even worse, their use is often perceived to be a sign of inarticulateness, laziness or lack of intelligence. In the first part of the workshop, we aimed to break down persisting prejudices against the use and users of these features. We demonstrated how these features develop, what communicative function they perform in interaction (e.g. to signal tentativeness or assertiveness, to facilitate speaker change, etc.), and how they change over time. We thereby hoped to raise participants' awareness of these features and to demonstrate that they play a vital role in interaction. In the second part of the workshop, we provided teachers with an overview of currently available resources for working with spoken data in the classroom, focusing in particular on a demonstration of the resources developed with this Grant (From Sociolinguistic Research to English Language Teaching). Dr Stephen Levey, University of Ottawa, was a guest speaker. After the workshop, teachers used our resources and incorporated our materials in their classroom teaching practices |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://heikepichler.weebly.com/uploads/7/2/6/7/7267478/ase_on-line_resources__databanks_030213.pdf |
| Description | Analysing spoken English : resources and techniques for teachers: 2nd workshop for teachers of GCSE and GCE A level English Language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop aimed at disseminating to English Language teachers the insights obtained from scholarly research into language variation and change, and to provide teachers with an overview of databanks and resources available on-line for use in the classroom. Teachers included discourse-pragmatic variation in their classroom teaching and used our suggestions for students' Language Investigations. They regularly used the Linguistics Research Digest to update their background knowledge. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://linguistics-research-digest.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/analysing-spoken-english-workshop-for.html |
| Description | Creation of English Language Teaching Resources Archive (web site with materials based on our research for use in English Language classrooms) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Resources Archive contains transcripts and sound files of spoken London English, with teaching notes and a glossary of features of spoken English, and Language Investigations linked to summaries in the Linguistics Research Digest (see entry on Linguistics Research Digest) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://linguistics.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/english-language-teaching |
| Description | Lecture to A level English language teachers and other language professionals (British Library) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Plenary lecture entitled 'Language diversity and language change in London: the rise of Multicultural London English' at a one-day conference aimed primarily at school teachers, on 'Talking English' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Linguistics Research Digest |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Almost 400,000 visits to the website (as of March 8 2016) mean that visitors read about our research (and others') on topics relevant to the curriculum of A level GCE English Language and GCSE English Language, as well as to English Language teaching in universities, FE institutions and schools throughout the world. The summaries are used in many different ways in English Language classrooms as part of day to day teaching. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://linguistics-research-digest.blogspot.co.uk |
| Description | Multicultural London English: presentation to staff and students at Kelmscott School, London E17 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussions with students and also with teachers The School asked if students could be put in touch with other relevant research on spoken English |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Public lecture at University of Sheffield |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | About 60 school teachers and other members of the general public attended a lecture on "Why don't we all speak standard English?" which included an illustration of the Linguistics Research Digest and discussion of changing grammatical features in present-day English. It sparked discussion and questions and increased hits on the Linguistics Research Digest site. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Seminar on Multicultural London English at British Library 'Talking English' one day conference for school teachers, March 10 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 12 secondary school teachers of A level and GCSE English Language and 4 examiners, text book writers and educational advisors attended the event which was designed to support English Language teaching. The teachers reported increased interest in Multicultural London English and in using our teaching resources. We were invited to write articles for the English and Media Centre's 'magazine' designed for A level students of English Language and for a publication aimed at teachers, and to prepare a course pack for use by those teaching the AQA English Language curriculum. These are likely to have future impacts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.bl.uk/events/talking-english-2018 |
| Description | What was it like before like? : discourse-pragmatic variation and discourse style. Opening lecture for DIpVAc conference/closing lecture for Workshop for Teachers of English Language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussions After my talk, teachers discussed how points raised could be incorporated in classroom activities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://dipvac2012.weebly.com |
| Description | Why don't we all speak standard English? Lecture given at conference for English Language teachers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 22 school teachers and others associated with English Language teaching attended a conference/workshop on 'Bringing Research into the Classroom: New Resources for Teaching A-Level English Language' held at Queen Mary University of London in February 2019 and broadcast to others around the world (see other entry). This was a lecture delivered as part of the conference/workshop. Slides are published on the Resources website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.englishlanguageresources.org/events-and-media/ |
| Description | Workshop for teachers of English Language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | On February 19 2019 colleagues and I organised a Workshop for teachers of English Language called: Bringing research into the classroom: New resources for teaching A-level English Language. It was held at Queen Mary University of London and attended by 22 school teachers and others involved with English Language teaching, and broadcast to an unknown number of listeners in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. The Workshop discussed and displayed a set of teaching resources that has now been expanded, and the Linguistics Research Digest |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.englishlanguageresources.org |
| Description | presentation to academics interested in similar public engagement activities based on academic research (ICLAVE 2013); see Publications section |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussions afterwards including shared information with researchers from other countries who work with school teachers After my talk, the audience discussed how resources of the kind we had developed could be developed in other countries |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | presentation to school teachers at British Library 'English Grammar Day' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, and use of our web resources by teachers who had not previously known about them After my talk, I was invited to visit a number of schools (5) to talk to students of GCE A level English Language/ Several teachers contacted me to ask for further details of the Linguistics Research Digest and the Spoken English Teaching Resources. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.bl.uk/events/english-grammar-day-2015 |
| Description | school visit (Bath, UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | c. 150 6th form students of GCE A level English Language and their teachers, at a one-day event 'Loving Language'. Many questions and much discussion afterwards; school reported increased uptake of suggestions for Language Investigations on our Spoken English Teaching Resources website, and increased interest in our Linguistics Research Digest (see outcomes) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | seminar on Multicultural London English for British Library Adult learning programme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 16 members of the general public attended for this event, on Multicultural London English, which was one of 4 in the British Library's February 2018 Adult learning programme on 'Evolving English'. The seminar provoked many questions and much discussion, and some attendees contacted me afterwards to say they had used our resources website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |