Descriptivists Vs Prescriptivists

London Accents

MLE or multi-cultural London English

A video by The One Show considering the changing nature of accents/dialects in London.

Essay Dos & Don'ts

DO 

• GMAP for your intro (AO3) 

• Use as many framework terms as possible (AO1) 

• Consider sentence functions & sentence and clause structure (AO1 top band)

• Consider representation of events, memories, places, people, situations (AO3)

• Talk about the topics being discussed e.g. semantic fields (AO1 & AO3)

• Refer to relevant theories, concepts & research in the analytical part of the essay (BP1) – (AO2)

• Discuss the issue highlighted in bullet point 2, referring to concepts, theories, research & attitudes.(AO2)  

DON’T 

• Explain to the examiners what terms mean or why words are of a particular word class. Just name them with confidence!

• Use a term without giving an example from the text.

• Make sweeping statements e.g. he must be old/he must be uneducated.

• In fact avoid “Must” altogether! Use may/might instead.

• Use the words ‘incorrect’ or ‘wrong’ when talking about variations

• Use the first name of a linguist without his last name e.g. Peter did a study of the Norwich dialect.

• Explain something without saying anything …e.g. and this shows he is from Newcastle (they told you that already!)