Investigation Conclusion and Evaluation

Evaluation

I think that my investigation went pretty well throughout. However, at the beginning I found finding suitable video clips with enough evidence for my investigation quite difficult. Many TV programs that I viewed focused mainly on the students and their conversations rather than the teacher’s language which is what I predominantly needed for my investigation. To improve, I think I could have collected more data with more relevance to my investigation. My methodology could have been improved by being more specific about how long I listened to the clips for and put in the exact time I started listening to the clips. 

Conclusion

Throughout my investigation I found that the unemployed people within ‘Skint’ frequently used grammatical errors. I also found out that their idiolect is a big factor for their grammar as it affects the way they pronounce certain lexis. The graph also shows that the unemployed people use more hedges and fillers as they are less confident with spontaneous speech. However the teachers conjugate lexis such as ‘gonna’ due to the context of them teaching to teenagers. Therefore, they are more likely to adapt to the language of teenagers to create a rapport with them. The teacher uses a lot of connectives as well as the unemployed person but for different reasons. The teacher uses them because of the context of his spontaneous speech. On the other hand, the unemployed people use them to give them time to think about what to say next. My investigation showed that one unemployed person used a wide range of empty adjectives. Therefore, this showed me that there is a contrast in Lakoff’s (1975) theory where she states that women use more empty adjectives than men. The teachers in the Educating Essex transcript show that they use a high level of low frequency lexis. This ties in with the semantics of maths as it is a maths class and therefore the teacher uses a lot of complex lexis to communicate his point. Overall, it shows that the unemployed people use simple syntax when speaking which suggests a low level of education. This may be the reason why they are unable to get a job as they are in a lower social class than the teachers in Educating Essex.