ENGLISH LANGUAGE (SPECIFICATION B) ENB6Unit 6 Language Development
Thursday 19 June 2008 1.30pm to 3.30pm
For this paper you must have:
• the data booklet (enclosed)
• a 12-page answer book.
Time allowed: 2 hours
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Examining Body for this paper
is AQA. The Paper Reference is ENB6.
• Answer two questions.
• There are two sections:
Section A: Language Acquisition
Section B: Language Change.
• Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
• Do all rough work in the answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked.
Information
• The maximum mark for this paper is 70.
• There are 35 marks for each question.
• You will be marked on your ability to use good English, to organise information clearly and to use
specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
SA8037/Jun08/ENB6 ENB6
SECTION A LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Answer one question from this section.
There are 35 marks for each question.
EITHER
1 Texts A and B are transcripts of conversations between three children and their parents. The
children are Charlotte (6 years), Molly (5 years) and James (2½ years). The family are in the
playroom of their house.
Referring in detail to both transcripts, and to relevant ideas from language study, describe and
comment on the language used in the interactions between the children and their parents.
You may wish to comment on some of the following:
• language used by the children to assert themselves;
• features of child directed speech;
• the effects of context.
OR
2 TextCis from the opening of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Text D is an
extract from a storybook written by William (5 years). He wrote it at home after reading
Text C with his parents.
By reference to both the texts and to relevant ideas from language study, explore what the texts
show about children’s early literacy.
You may wish to comment on some of the following:
• sequencing and presentation of events;
• grammatical and lexical features;
• illustrations and layout.
2
SA8037/Jun08/ENB6
SECTION B LANGUAGE CHANGE
Answer one question from this section.
There are 35 marks for each question.
EITHER
3 TextEis an article from The Daily Telegraph published in 2005. Text F is from the Oxford
English Dictionary and gives definitions for new words that were added to the dictionary in
2005.
Referring to both texts, and to relevant ideas from language study, discuss what the texts show
about language change.
You may wish to comment on the following:
• factors affecting language change;
• lexical and semantic change;
• prescriptive and descriptive attitudes to language.
OR
4 Texts G and H are both accounts of journeys written by English travellers.
Text G is from Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through
France, Italy and Germany, compiled from Hester Thrale Piozzi’s journals, published in 1789.
Text H is an email from a student on a gap year in South-East Asia. She sent it to friends and
family in 2005.
Referring to both texts, and to relevant ideas from language study, discuss how the writers
convey their experiences and reveal their attitudes. You should take account of context in your
answer.
You may wish to comment on some of the following:
• lexical and grammatical choices and their effects;
• changes in language and style over time.
END OF QUESTIONS
DATA
Texts for Question 1
Text A
Key: (.) indicates a brief pause.
Numbers within brackets indicate length of pause in seconds.
Underlining indicates emphasis in speech.
Other contextual information is in italics in square brackets.
James, Molly and Charlotte are at home with their mother watching TV in their playroom.
James: I’m a beelbarrow mummy (1.0) mummy look at me I’m a beelbarrow
Mother: are you a wheelbarrow James
James: yeh beelbarrow
Mother: a wheelbarrow by yourself
James: yeh
Mother: Molly do you want to read your book to me (4.0) do you Molly (3.0) do you want
me to go and get it
James: I get it for you mummy [leaves room]
Mother: thank you James (1.0) Molly (.) James is going to get your book (3.0) he loved the
way you read it to him before (3.0) Molly what did you get for William’s birthday
Molly: sweets
Mother: is he your friend
Molly: yes
Mother: how old was he
Molly: five
[James returns to the room]
James: want it (1.0) want it (1.0) [offering mints to his sisters]
Mother: good sharing James (.) good boy (.) now give me the packet (.) thank you (1.0) I
thought you were going to get Mol’s book James
James: can’t find it
Mother: shall I go and get it
[Mother leaves room followed by James and both return with book]
Mother: Molly are you going to read your book to me
Molly: no
Mother: James you read it to me (1.0) who’s that [pointing at people in the pictures]
James: that boy
Mother: who’s that
James: (2.0) who that mummy (1.0) who that
Mother: that’s Kipper
Charlotte: no mummy that’s Floppy
Mother: oh sorry you’re right Charlotte (2.0) remember the big car we made
Charlotte: (4.0) what car
Mother: the car we made out of a cardboard box and it had big plates on the side for wheels
(1.0) do you remember
Charlotte: oh yeah and Matty came round to play in it
SA8037a/Jun08/ENB6
Text B
Key: (.) indicates a brief pause.
Numbers within brackets indicate length of pause in seconds.
Underlining indicates emphasis in speech.
Words between vertical lines are spoken simultaneously.
Other contextual information is in italics in square brackets.
All children are in the playroom and the television is turned off.
Mother: are you going to finish reading this story to me
James: yeh
Mother: they made the house out of a fridge box and then what happened
James: rain
Mother: that’s right it rained
James: the house falled
Mother: does the house fall because it got wet
James: yeh cos it got wet
Mother: do they then make a tent (1.0) Charlotte you must tell daddy where you are going
tomorrow
Charlotte: Lyme Park I have already told him
Mother: and tell him what you are wearing (4.0) you’re not wearing your uniform are you
Charlotte: I’m wearing my school polo shirt my cardigan and any trousers that I want
Mother: well your
jeans really (1.0) what do you have to wear on your feet
Charlotte: trainers or I mean (1.0) and you bring your wellies
Mother: Mol (1.0) James has read your book are you going to read it to me in the kitchen
James: I-I-I (.) Molly and I will read story to you
Mother: Charlotte do you remember that book that Molly has got
Charlotte: no
Mother: are you going to make some sentences Charlotte
Charlotte: yeah but I can’t think of any to write
Mother: well look at the words you have got [Molly’s tower falls over] that just happened
Mol [Charlotte takes Molly’s brick]
Molly: [cries] I want that one
Mother: give Molly the brick with the picture on it [Charlotte throws brick at Molly] go and
pick that brick up right now (4.0) oh look here’s super girl you could make a
sentence with that
[Father enters room]
James: let build a dower daddy
Molly: James knocked my tower down
Father: so buster what you have you do (1.0) you have to help the Molster to build another
tower don’t you
Charlotte: daddy look how far up I am
Father: princess be careful that’s very dangerous [Charlotte is trying to climb up the door]
no one gave me any kisses when I came home (.) where are all my kisses (1.0) will
you give me a kiss Molster
Mother: what word is this
Father: that’s butterfly (.) how was school today Molster (.) did you cry
James: daddy daddy can me make a
tower now daddy my tower fell
Father: wait a minute buster I am talking to the Molster
James: I will throw this at you
Father: buster that’s enough (.) in the kitchen now
Texts for Question 2
Text C
Text C is not reproduced here due to third-party copyright constraints.
Text D
Texts for Question 3
Text E
English suffers hyper-inflation
6
SA8037a/Jun08/ENB6
By Neil Tweedie
ONCE upon a time it was
enough to be a hero, but now
only a superhero will do. And
if once you thought the peo –
ple working in the post room
were post room workers, you
were wrong. They were, as we
all now know, dispatch serv –
ices facilitators.
English, according to a new
book, is suffering from a form
of inflation – the use of ugly,
exaggerated or pretentious
words or phrases to describe
things that can be summed
up in shorter, crisper ways.
People, it seems, are talking
up everything.
Thus, it is no longer ade –
quate for the Government to
employ an expert responsible
for a certain area of national
life. Instead, that person must
be a “tsar”, a man or woman
with the stature of Peter the
Great able to turn things
around at the drop of a hat.
The restaurant trade has
done its share of damage.
Fish are no longer fried or
grilled, they are crisped,
seared, glazed, truffled and
lacquered. Freshness in
supermarkets is no longer
good enough. Vegetables
must be dew-fresh, marketfresh
or seasonal.
Then there is the ocean of
drivel produced by the world
of business. “Uptitling” is a
particularly common offence
in which employees are
given elevated titles to keep
them happy. Thus, managers
become executive managers,
associate managers or man –
agers at large.
The analysis is contained in
Fanboys and Overdogs, a
snapshot of the English lan –
guage written by Susie Dent
and compiled with the help of
the Oxford English Dictionary
monitoring programme.
As part of the “bigging-up”
or “supersizing” trend, she
identifies the use of “ova”,
“uber” or “mega” prefixes to
beef up words.
Miss Dent said: “Linguistic
supersizing is on the increase,
and it may show the influence
of advertising-speak and cor –
porate jargon on language, in
which everything needs to be
hyped to get noticed. It means
that some of our greatest
words are losing their power.
To be called a hero used to
be the highest honour. Now
you have to be a superhero to
make an impact.”
The fanboys of the book’s
title are people, mostly of the
male variety, too taken up
with their passion for comics
or computer games to con –
sider their appearance, whilst
overdogs are successful or
dominant in their field – the
opposite of underdogs.
And who now does not
know the meaning of sudoku?
The word has, in Miss Dent’s
words, “burst on to the scene”
due to the rapid growth in the
number of commuters with
pencils and newspapers sud –
denly exclaiming: “Aaagh!
I’ve got two twos.”
Text F
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SA8037a/Jun08/ENB6 Turn over ►
Texts for Question 4
Text G
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SA8037a/Jun08/ENB6
Text H
END OF TEXTS