No 1/2 - What should I learn?

[P0ppinfr3sh]

Hey guys,

Next year I will be doing 3/4 English Language, however, I have not done units 1/2. I was wondering if there is anything that you recommend I should learn before school starts. I figured I should probably learn what is mentioned in the Study Design under "Metalanguage for Units 3 and 4".

Also, do you think that I should learn the IPA? It's mentioned in the Study Design but to be honest it seems like a lot to learn and memorize .

Thanks for all your help. 

P.S. This is my first post on AN.

[Kuchiki]

Hello and welcome! (I'm relatively new to AN myself, but I hope I can help, even a little.)


Yes, it is always a good idea to familiarise yourself with the metalanguage, as it is very important in every task you do throughout the year. They will cover most of it in 3/4, though, so don't panic if you don't understand something.

As far as I can remember, a lot of 1/2 was irrelevant to 3/4. We learnt some interesting things, like the history of the English language and child language acquisition, but I don't recall ever really using it in 3/4. The main things to take away from 1/2 are the basics, like word classes and subsystems, but they do go over that stuff again in 3/4.

Honestly, you rarely use the IPA. I learnt it quite thoroughly in 1/2, expecting to need it a lot in 3/4, but apart from some examples of pronunciation differences that were included in the textbook, I never used it. That being said, it really isn't very hard to learn, though it seems intimidating at first; most of the consonants are straightforward, and it's just the vowels that are challenging. Even then, just associate each sound with a certain word, and sound it out in your head every time you come across the IPA; you'll quickly get the hang of it. Hmm, if you find yourself with some time in the holidays, maybe just try learning a letter a day? Or you can do what I did and start transcribing a favourite book of yours into the IPA. You'll start out slow, but eventually, it'll come almost as naturally as the English alphabet and it's actually quite fun.


Okay, I feel like I just wrote a lot without actually saying much. Well, isn't that what English Language is all about~

Anyway, feel free to ask for clarification on anything in particular.

Good luck with the subject!

[Niskii]

Yep - metalangauge is very useful! Both to make your answers sound well informed but also because in the short answer part of the exam, they can ask you to find an example of a particular metalanguage term in the text and point it out. So it's good to know what things mean where possible - and they can only ask questions on the stuff listed in the study design so if you get that under your belt you're set

About the IPA, what Kuchiki said is true - you don't really need it but it doesn't hurt to know it to make understanding certain textbook examples easier etc.

Also from what I heard, knowledge of the IPA is useful to differentiate yourself in the exam with your essay. For example, if you talk about a variation of English such as Italian English, you could not only say that it is different, but show how using the IPA symbols

You'll never get a passage in IPA and be asked to transcribe it into English or anything though!

[Bhootnike]

learn the metalanguage
read some sample essays/analysis/responses to get the jist of the things
learn IPA for examples - i.e, its better to use IPA when providing examples about accents or spoken language, e.g, general aussie accent vs broad accent:  the lexeme 'day' is pronounced with a deep diphthong by interlocutors with a broad accent e.g /eɪ/ to /ɔɪ/ (e.g. day -> die)
so dont go learning the whole chart
just learn some examples of words or phrases that can make your responses look more pro.

look up in the notes section for the spoken language notes, they help
if you can get hold of hannah goulds summary or derrick has eng.lang essay book, they are really handy.

[hardo]

Hi P0ppinfr3sh!

Welcome to Atarnotes! It's really great you're doing English Language as well! It's a really interesting and diverse subject and I'm sure you'll pick it up in no time at all. I did it as a 3/4 this year as a Year 11 (not having done the 1/2 as my school doesn't offer it), and so my experience may be a bit different to people coming into the 3/4 having done the 1/2 or into a class of people who did it also... Long story short, the 3/4 stands alone quite well and I managed to understand (most importantly) and secondly, get a decent score.

Basically, what you'll need a superficial knowledge to begin with is the foundations of what a language is. This covers the five main subsystems -
* SYNTAX- How phrases & clauses are put together in sentences. Anything to do with sentence structure.
*SEMANTICS- The study of meaning in language.
* PHONOLOGY/PHONETICS - The study of sound systems and the distinctive sound patterns in a language.
* MORPHOLOGY/LEXICOLOGY - Morphology... The study of how words are structured/formed & Lexicology... The words themselves eg. your lexicon (vocabulary).
* DISCOURSE-  The overall text/conversation. Discourse features are ones that affect the text as a whole and are generally discussed in terms of the overall text/conversation.

You'll get into all that in more detail pretty much as soon as you start. You'll be analysing texts (both spoken/written), thinking about how it's constructed and where it fits on the formality continuum (e.g. is it very informal (i.e. a chat between friends on Facebook) or very formal (e.g. A government document like the Constitution).

All I can really suggest is make sure you know your basic English grammar well as this constitutes a lot of your metalanguage. Things like parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives etc) need to be clear to yourself.  Also, if you can some good tv shows like The Adventures of English (particularly the seventh episode) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaWOsFRUUy8 are good in covering the historical base of Australian English.

Besides that, read the newspaper, listen to your friends/family/people on tv etc speak, think about the differences in the language used, do they use slang words, do they swear a lot....

Good luck! PM me if you have any questions.