Rep yr endz

Thanks very much to all the people who have already submitted data to the Survey Monkey questionnaire. We've had over 100 separate entries so far, which is very good, but we know that over 600 people have already booked places for the conference, so we need your data too!

At the moment, London and the North East are very well represented, so all you people from other areas, get on to the site and (ahem) rep your endz...or if you are a speaker of Standard English and not a middle-aged man trying to use slang that was out of date two years ago, represent the language variety of your local area.

Click here to submit your data.

Contribute to Language Evolution

One of the guest speakers at our conference is Jonnie Robinson, one of the key people behind the fantastic Evolving English exhibition at the British Library. The exhibition charts the history and development of English as a language, featuring a range of ancient texts, sound recordings and interviews with top linguists. It's a comprehensive and fascinating exhibition which is worth visiting at least once, and preferably more often.

Along with the main exhibition itself, there are many extra events. We've already had one on rap's contribution to the language, and one on the history of swearing in English, but still to come are talks from Paul Kerswill on Multicultural London English (March 22nd), a debate about attitudes to language entitled "What is Proper English?" (Mon 7 Feb 2011, 18.30 - 20.00), Paul Baker on the secret (and not so secret) languages of gay communities through history (Tue 15 Feb 2011, 13.00 - 14.00) and Jonnie Robinson himself presenting a talk on the joys of regional English (Wed 23 Feb 2011, 18.30 - 20.00).

You can contribute to Jonnie's session at the Emagazine conference by submitting your data, either as a teacher or student, by visiting our Survey Monkey  questionnaire. The more data we get, the better!

More on texting

And following on from yesterday's post on texting, here's a link to a Daily Telegraph report on new research from Professor Clare Wood and her team at Coventry University which suggests that texting can actually have a beneficial effect on children's literacy.

The comments below give you a pretty good taste of how angry some people are about textspeak, or even about research like this being carried out in the first place (presumably because it runs counter to what they already "know").

Crystal clear on texting

David Crystal will probably need no introduction to students of English Language A level and we're very pleased to welcome him to our conference for not just one session, but two. What makes the second session so special too is that it is a Q&A which will feature questions that you can send to us in advance for David Crystal to answer on the day.

To submit a question follow this link.

David Crystal's first session will be on the subject of texting. We in the UK are very familiar with SMS messages on mobile phones as we've been using them in huge numbers for well over a decade, but in the USA texting has only recently caught on. What's interesting about this is that the same moral panic that David Crystal explores in his book Txtng: the Gr8 Db8 is now taking place in the USA.

American newspapers and websites have been full of reports about concerns over the damaging effects of textspeak on young people's literacy, but, as David Crystal argues in his book, the main research into texting so far has actually shown that it's linked with higher levels of literacy.

Here are a few links to media articles and interviews which put different arguments forward about texting:

David Crystal interview about texting and language change
Doctor Clare Wood on research into texting and literacy
Texting is good for you
Texting is bad for you
Texting as an educational tool
Outrage over texting in the classroom
Texting and gender differences

Not just any conference...

The Emag Language conference is not just any conference; it's an M&S conference. Or something like that...

What this means is that we want the conference to be more than just an event where you turn up, listen to some lectures and go home. The session run by Jonnie Robinson, whose work at the British Library has helped bring us the excellent Evolving English exhibition, will require some input before the event from all of you attending.

What we want to do is collect data from you and then get Jonnie to analyse that data and present his findings back to you on the day. To do this, we've set up a questionnaire which you can access here, and we'd like everyone attending to fill it in.

The Myth of Mars and Venus

Deborah Cameron, who kicks off our conference, is one of the most prominent linguists in the country and much of her recent work has been effective in getting a wider audience for language issues. With self-help and pop psychology books such as Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, If Men Could Talk and Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps gaining mass market circulation through the 1990s and early 2000s, Cameron's Myth of Mars and Venus has come as a refreshingly forthright response to the industry that has grown around "hard-wired" differences between women and men and lazy stereotypes about how the sexes communicate.

In her talk, Deborah Cameron will look at the the myth of difference and how it harms us all. Obviously, we'd recommend you buy the book as it's a great read (just like this review  or this one say!), but in the run up to the conference, if you look at these links from The Guardian in 2007 you'll get a taste of what she's tackling and the linguistic evidence she brings to challenge the myth.

Main article
What Language Barrier?
Speak Up, I Can't Hear You
Back Down to Earth
 
This Sunday Times article from 2007 is also a good read.

For an alternative approach, and one that might give you the chance to think about how far we can generalise about the linguistic behaviour of women and men, have a look at this emag article by Jennifer Coates, another key thinker in the field of gender and language.

Conference website now up and running

The conference website is now online and you can find out more about the full programme for the day, each speaker and how to book tickets.

From next week we'll be starting to collect your data for Jonnie Robinson's session on investigating language, and your questions for David Crystal.

Welcome to the Emagazine Language A level conference blog

The conference will be taking place on Wednesday March 16th 2011 and this blog has been set up to help prepare students and teachers for the day.

On this blog we will be:

• giving you details of each session being run
• gathering data from you to pass to our resident language expert, Jonnie Robinson, to analyse on the day
• collecting your questions for Professor David Crystal to answer in his Q&A session
• providing helpful links for students and teachers to access before and after the event