As I may have mentioned on here before (though I’m not that sure that I have) I did A Level English Language. In the A2 half of the course (or ‘second’ half for those unfamiliar with A Levels) you have to carry out a language investigation. What this quite literally means is find any piece of written language (transcript, script, novel, magazine, MSN conversation etc) and then investigate it. By ‘investigate it’ I mean that you must apply the theories of various linguists and make your own theories about the particular text you have.
Now, as I’m somebody who really enjoys reading, I decided I would do my investigation on some area of literature. Luckily I had recently finished reading the book American Supernatural Tales which is an anthology of horror stories written throughout history by Americans (it’s really good, if you’re interested, you should buy it!). At the time, aside from coursework, we were also studying the theories about the ways that language changes over time and the reasons behind it, so I thought, as the book had several stories from a period of about two hundred years, I could apply these theories to it.
However, my English teacher warned me that my study might be verging more into an English Literature area of study rather than an English Language one. This meant that she kindly did several after-school English sessions so that I could ensure that I was writing about English Language points and not English Literature points.
I remember I had written something that wasn’t very good and was very English Literature-y so my teacher was explaining specific kind of points I could make: “One thing that you can see is the way that, in older stories, there is clearly a much more formal tone. I mean, it’s most clear when you look at children’s literature, compare Treasure Island (another good book!) which opens with some large fourteen line paragraph or something like that, to the opening of Holes (a third good book!) which just starts with ‘There is no lake at Camp Green Lake’! it shows that the people of today have much lower expectations of children than they did in the past. Children’s novels written roughly a hundred years ago are still read and enjoyed by adults today, showing that there’s a drastic difference between the reading ability of children of the past than of today.”
Then my good friend, who was also in the room, interjected with a really hilarious observation about it “Nah it doesn’t,” she said “it just shows that adults of today are as intelligent of the children of the past!”
Now, as I’m somebody who really enjoys reading, I decided I would do my investigation on some area of literature. Luckily I had recently finished reading the book American Supernatural Tales which is an anthology of horror stories written throughout history by Americans (it’s really good, if you’re interested, you should buy it!). At the time, aside from coursework, we were also studying the theories about the ways that language changes over time and the reasons behind it, so I thought, as the book had several stories from a period of about two hundred years, I could apply these theories to it.
However, my English teacher warned me that my study might be verging more into an English Literature area of study rather than an English Language one. This meant that she kindly did several after-school English sessions so that I could ensure that I was writing about English Language points and not English Literature points.
I remember I had written something that wasn’t very good and was very English Literature-y so my teacher was explaining specific kind of points I could make: “One thing that you can see is the way that, in older stories, there is clearly a much more formal tone. I mean, it’s most clear when you look at children’s literature, compare Treasure Island (another good book!) which opens with some large fourteen line paragraph or something like that, to the opening of Holes (a third good book!) which just starts with ‘There is no lake at Camp Green Lake’! it shows that the people of today have much lower expectations of children than they did in the past. Children’s novels written roughly a hundred years ago are still read and enjoyed by adults today, showing that there’s a drastic difference between the reading ability of children of the past than of today.”
Then my good friend, who was also in the room, interjected with a really hilarious observation about it “Nah it doesn’t,” she said “it just shows that adults of today are as intelligent of the children of the past!”
