Investigation

An investigation into the language of a person with a profession, in this case a teacher, and the language of an unemployed person and if it is affected by their social class.

Introduction

An investigation into the language used by a teacher in a classroom environment and the structure of the interaction and compare it to that of a person without a profession and are unemployed. I will analyse the language by investigating the lexis and grammar used within spontaneous speech. I expect to find that the teacher will use more low frequency lexis specific to the lesson in which they are teaching and the complexity of this language, dependant on the level in which it is being taught. I also expect to find that the unemployed people have an idiolect which is more apparent and therefore would use certain words or phrases that are individual to the area in which they were brought up in. The people who are unemployed are more likely to mispronounce words such as the ‘g’ from ‘ing’ words because their language is more informal. Throughout the text I will comment on the different lexis and grammar use of each of the individuals I am investigating and I aim to compare these to each other to conclude the differences between the two. To find my hypothesis, I chose to use two TV shows called Educating Essex and Skint because they are modern TV shows and use modern language. Throughout the analysis, I am going to use theories relating to Lakoff (1975), Tannen (1990) and instrumental and influential power.

My hypothesis; the teacher uses Standard English throughout and they tend to use less hedges or fillers. I expect to find that the teachers use more low frequency lexis and are more formal in discourse whereas the unemployed people use more colloquial language and tend to mispronounce certain words.

Methodology

The data I have collected are 2 different clips from YouTube. These clips are taken from 2 different TV shows that were aired this year; therefore the language is modern, making it more reliable. I chose the TV programs called, Skint (2011) broadcasted on channel 4 and Educating Essex (2011) also aired on channel 4. I chose 2 shows that were broadcasted on the same channel to ensure that it is more reliable in the sense that they are not more advertising focused than any other channel. Therefore, I can analyse the one channel. In total, it took me about 2 hours to collect appropriate clips that would give me enough to analyse. I transcribed the clips which were each 5 minutes long. I started transcribing the clips after the introduction and starting credits. During both clips, I decided not to include the narration over the clips as I felt it wasn’t relevant to my language investigation.