ANALYSES OF QUESTIONNAIRE

My questionnaire consisted of 8 questions, each based on attitudes towards African Caribbean dialect.

My first question asked for the participant’s ethnicity, the results showed: 16 White British (WB), 1 Black British (BB), 2 Asian British (AB) and 1 Mixed Race (MR) participant. My results showed White British as the dominating race.

My second question asked for participants’ understanding of ethnicity, the results showed: 6 people believed it was someone’s “cultural background” that determined their ethnicity; 5 people believed it was someone’s “cultural and racial background” that determined their ethnicity; 3 people believed it was just “background” that determined ethnicity; 1 person believed it was “origin” that determined ethnicity; 3 people believed it was just “race” that determined ethnicity; 1 person believed it was “religion and background” that determined ethnicity; and finally, 1 person believed it was “social and racial background” that determined ethnicity. Overall, my results determined a significant popularity on background, culture and race.

My third question asked for participants’ understanding of Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect, the results showed: 10 WB participants believed it was ‘slang (associated with black individuals)’ alongside this, all members concluded it was ‘not a real language, broken English and a less formal language’. 2 WB participants believed it to be ‘a way of speech’, 3 more WB participants believed it to be ‘just an accent’ and 2 AB and the BB believed it was ‘a differing language’. This question showed a negative view from WB participants, thus from the AB and BB members suggested it was just a different language to the English Language.

My fourth question asked for participants’ opinion on Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect, there were numerous results: ‘quite funny’, ‘it’s funny’, ‘difficult to understand’, ‘just another language’, ‘developing English speech’, ‘less formal’, ‘I love it’, ‘it’s comical’, ‘it’s alright’ and ‘it comprises different phrases’. Majority of WB participants saw Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect negatively or found it humorous. Asian British/Black British/Multi-race participants found Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect as ‘just another language’ or ‘developing the English language’ – a positive opinion.

My fifth question asked participants to ‘pick the phrase you believe to be the correct way of speaking’, all participants had a choice of 3 short phrases: ‘wagwarn’, ‘everything is cool’, ‘what are you doing’. All participants chose the third phrase ‘everything is cool’.

My sixth question asked participants if they thought ‘Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is ruining English language’, 14 WB/1 BB/1 Multi-race/2 AB participants chose ‘No’ an 2 WB participants chose ‘Yes’. Those two WB participants who chose ‘Yes’ believed Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect was ‘replacing standard English words with slang’ and ‘hindering younger generations understanding of standard English’. The dominating attitude from most participants was negative.

My seventh question asked participants whether they thought ‘Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is developing the English language’, 10 WB/1 BB/1 Multi-race and 1 AB participant chose no, 1 AB/7 WB participants chose yes; they believed it to be ‘introducing new words’, ‘introducing new words with the same meaning’, ‘new way of speaking’. However, the AB participant believed Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect to be developing English language in a ‘negative manner’. All of the participant’s attitudes differed, although the dominant view was positive.

My eighth question participants whether they thought ‘different attitudes encourage an influence on language’, all 20 participants chose ‘Yes’ – they believed someone’s attitude depended on their ‘background’, ‘culture’, ‘awareness of consequences’, ‘social groups/peers’, ‘attitude’ and if someone wasn’t ‘educationally motivated by parents, lacking English language skills’.

Questionnaire 

Vital Information:

This questionnaire has been conducted as a method to collect primary research for an English language A-level course. You are under no force to answer any of the questions in this questionnaire and you are fully within your rights to withdraw your answers at any time. If you decide to provide information, the information will not be used for no other purposes. You will remain anonymous throughout the entire process - everything is securely confidential and will be erased after its appropriate use.

1. What ethnicity are you?

 

White British

 

Black British

 

Black African

 

Asian British

 

Other: …………………………...

2. What is your understanding of the word ethnicity?

 

3. What is your understanding of what Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is?

4. What is your opinion on Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect?     5. Pick the phrase you believe to be the ‘correct’ way of speaking:   “Wagwarn”   “Everything is cool”   “What are you doing” 6. Do you think Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is ruining English Language?   Yes   No   Why?     7. Do you think Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is developing the English Language?   Yes   No   Why?   8. Do you believe different attitudes encourage an influence on accident/dialect?   Yes   No Why?

 

 

 

 

 

Headlines

Theorists: 

Erving Goffman – A sociologist who developed a theory known as ‘in the face theory’, in which an individual has both positive and negative face theory.

·        Positive face theory needs are associated with feeling valued and appreciated.

·        Negative face needs are the desire to feel independent and not to be imposed upon.

Interactions can therefore be face threatening acts (FTA’s) which is why people are naturally mindful of other people’s face needs during conversation.

During any one encounter, the subjects will each have a certain face and will produce utterances that take into consideration each other's face in this particular situation. In different situations, a single individual's face will be constructed differently. For example, when an individual is engaged in small talk with their family, they might expect to be addressed through terms of endearment, and not mind having fun made of them; when running a business meeting, on the other hand, they may expect to be addressed more formally, and to be treated with respect by other subjects. An individual's face can also change during a single interaction, for example when a businessman at a meeting completes his speech and turns to colleagues to discuss the injustices of a referee's decisions in the football match the previous evening.

Herbert Paul Grice - determined that speakers adhere to four conversational maxims:

1. Quantity- to use an appropriate amount of detail
2. Quality – to speak the truth and do not knowingly mislead
3. Relevance – to keep what is being discussed relevant to the topic
4. Manner- to avoid vagueness and ambiguity

This is known as the cooperative principle (How people talk to one another).

Politeness is known as a ‘Super-maxim’, in that people are mindful of others personal or face (see Ervin Goffman) needs in a conversation.

Those who obey the cooperative principle in their language use will make sure that what they say in a conversation furthers the purpose of that conversation. Obviously, the requirements of different types of conversations will be different.

William Labov - focused on the discourse structure within a conversation, he created a structural approach for the fundamental problems of discourse structure, and these are called narrative categories:

1. Abstract (A) - The indication that a narrative is about to start and the speaker wants to get the listeners attention.
2. Orientation (O) - The who, what, where and why of the narrative, set the scene by providing contextual information.
3. The complicating action (CA) - The main body providing a range of narrative detail.
4. Resolution (R) - The final events to give narrative closure.
5. Evaluation (E) – Additions to the basic story to highlight Attitudes/commands the listener’s attention at important moments.
6. Coda (C) – A sign that the narrative is complete. May include a return to the time frame before the narrative.

The Evaluation can be divided into:

·        External evaluations – Added by the narrator at the time of recounting and not usually part of the series of events.

·        Internal evaluations – Occurring at the same time as those detailed in the complicating action which can further be divided into an intensifying evaluation and an explicative evaluation.

·        Intensifying evaluations – Contributing via gestures, repetitions or dramatic sounds.

·        Explicative evaluations - Proving reasons for narrative events.

Ferdinand de Saussure - Ferdinand de Saussure is a founder of Semiotics, which he called semiology. His concept of the sign/signifier/signified/referent forms the core of the field. Instead of focusing his theory on the origins of language and its historical aspects, Saussure concentrated on the patterns and functions of language instead. Although the name has been changed to semiotics, Saussure's theory is still commonly used in today's society.

Semiotics is the theory of how signs are interpreted and understood. Examples of this include logos or pictures.

There are two types of signs as follows:

1.  Iconic signs - A direct image of the thing it represents (often simplified) such as the male/female toilet sign.
2. Symbolic signs - Draw on association and are often defined by social convention. An example would be the school logo

Language Levels - Definitions

Grammar - The study of the system and structure of language

Syntax - Sentence Structure

Morphology - Words

Discourse structure - The way in which text is organised and sequenced

Pragmatics - pragmatics is the study of the implied and intended meaning of a text - the context of language.

Word class - a group of words that fulfil the same kind of role and function in speech and writing

Lexical word classes -  Have the most members and are open to new membership (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs)

Grammatical/closed word classes - Provide connections and cohesion between other words (pronouns, determined, preposition, conjunctions)

Noun Phrase - groups of words entered around a noun that acts as the ‘head’ of the phrase

Nouns - names a person, place, thing or idea.

Pronouns - takes the place of a noun (I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, many, who, whose, someone etc)

Concrete nouns - things you can experience through your 5 senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch)

Abstract nouns - refers to intangible things like, feeling, qualities, concepts etc

Verbs - Either auxiliary or main. Main verbs tell you the action, auxiliary verbs give extra information on the main verb.

Auxiliary can be subcategorised between the following:

Primary Auxiliary - Be, do and have

Modal auxiliary - Can, could, may, must, might, will, would, shall and should (have the ability to emphasise something’s importance or add formality)

Adjectives - describing words (describes an attribute of a noun)

Adverbs - words that describe how verbs are carried out (eg: quickly)

Graphology - The features that contribute to the appearance of a text (eg: fonts, colours etc)

Iconic signs - a direct picture of the thing it represents (often simplified eg: male/female toilet sign)

Symbolic sign - Draw on association and are defined by cultural convention (eg: school logo)