English from generation to generation

girlwithsharpteeth · Post by **girlwithsharpteeth** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:32 am

Hi all, I am going to be very cheeky and attempt to pick your brains if I may.

I am teaching in England now, and also undertaking the dreaded DTE(E)LLS course which is a complete nightmare (anyone else?). There is assignment after assignment which I've managed one way or another, but now comes the most feared of all tasks.... the Powerpoint presentation!

Anyway, I have spent the last three weeks mulling over my topic (which I chose myself - so no nasty tutor to blame here!) and am still a bit stumped. The topic (as the title hints) is "generational differences in English". My first problem came with interpretation of the topic... my initial thought was the difference between the language of older and younger people at any given point in time. I then shared the topic with my boyfriend who is also an EAL teacher and his first thoughts were that it concerned differences between English in... say the 90s and the 60s. Hmm. So I asked my tutor who very helpfully replied "good point, you could take it in either way". Helpful!

Anyway, now I am stuck with that most luxurious of problems - too much freedom in a huge subject area. So what I would love any kind, obliging soul to offer is some perspective on which interpretation they immediately (on reading the topic) think is more appropriate.

Like I said, I know it's cheeky to ask - it is my assignment and my task after all - but I would really appreciate any comment/input from people who know their stuff (moreso than my 80 year old neighbour anyway!). No, seriously, it'd be very much appreciated.

Cheers in advance! Bridget

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:34 pm

DTE(E)LLS stands it seems for Diploma in teaching English (ESOL) in the Lifelong Learning Sector. In my generation we had reading lists with less words than that diploma.

Perhaps you could look at qualifications in the 60s and see if Jones's law Mark II (the value of a qualification is in inverse degree to its number of syllables) still applied.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:39 am

I'm not sure you can separate them. People retain the language of the era they grew up with, to some extent, but they also change their language into the kind of language older people use, less slang, more weather routines. Why not touch on both?

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:57 am

One interesting araa would be to compare the accents used in recorded material for teaching English. There might be an interesting shift in pronunciation from the earliest records and tapes to the most recent CDs. It'd make a good presentation too.

Or you could look at shifts in attitudes to have/have got, may/can, shall/will or things like that, tracing a change from prescriptive (eg someone told a teacher where I live that question tags are vulgar) to descriptive.

Otherwise it's how people used to say "groovy" and now they don't (much).

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:23 pm

Is a week long enough to expect to have got some kind of feedback from the thread's starter? Something like "Actually that's not at all what I was after" or "Thanks anyway but that's useless"? Or "Ta"?

And no, I don't think "Cheers in advance!" gives me much incentive to answer the next thread of this type.

girlwithsharpteeth · Post by **girlwithsharpteeth** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:47 pm

Oh dear, sorry I meant to get back and thank people for the insight... I guess the dreaded assignment did get a bit on top of me but it is finally out of the way. I ended up focusing in on neologisms with a nod to various generational changes in grammar, pron etc. If I knew how to attach powerpoint to any part of the internet then I'd whack it up for scrutiny. Anyone?

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 8:23 pm

I'm afraid I I was overcome with grumpiness so my comment was intemperate, to put it mildly. If you can put your presentation somewhere I'd be very interested to see it.

girlwithsharpteeth · Post by **girlwithsharpteeth** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:47 pm

Haha not to worry, I am overcome with grumpiness on a regular basis myself. Think I can actually put it up on a youtube-esque site I discovered, so will link to it when have done. Not that it's particularly good/interesting, really....