Monday, 5 December 2011
Group 3's Presentation
One slight problem is that we had embedded two videos from Youtube into one of the slides, as these are clips from the TV programmes which our question is based on. AuthorSTREAM apparently doesn't like the youtube clips and has not uploaded them.
Any suggestions on how we can solve this?
Thanks.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Sorry I’ve been so late in posting my results!!! 6 participants were asked to complete the questionnaire. They were made up of 3 male and 3 female all from the west midlands. Below are my results which were collected;
1. ‘The accent in the television programme ‘Made in Chelsea’ is more approachable than the one in ‘Geordie Shore’’.
Indicate how far you agree or disagree with this statement (1 is ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’):
Participant 1; 3
Participant 2; 4
Participant 3; 2
Participant 4; 3
Participant 5; 2
Participant 6; 2
On average it was found that the participants didn’t find the Chelsea accent particularly approachable. This may be because all those that responded to the questionnaire have broad midlands accents which are very different to the accent featured in MLC and so this reflects in the feeling that the accent is not more approachable than that in GS. Furthermore, GS provides a more non-standard form similar to that of the midlands accent.
2. The representation of accent in Geordie Shore is attractive.
Indicate how far you agree or disagree with this statement (1 is ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’):
Participant 1; 2
Participant 2; 1
Participant 3; 3
Participant 4; 3
Participant 5; 2
Participant 6; 3
On average the participants seem to be impartial to the way that they view the Geordie accent in terms of attractiveness. Once again this may be accounted for through the less standard use of language as featured in the midlands accent
3. ‘By listening to both the accents, it is clear as to which social class these characters belong’.
To what extent do you agree with this statement? (1 is ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’)
Participant 1; 5
Participant 2; 4
Participant 3; 5
Participant 4; 5
Participant 5; 4
Participant 6; 5
Here, the results clearly show that the accent tells the participants something about the social class to which the characters belong. This shows that people do see a correlation between the accents that people use and the social class to which they belong.
4. Circle the words in which you think the pronunciation of the vowels is typical of a ‘BBC accent (as found in the ‘Made in Chelsea’ accent).
Talk 3
Newspaper 6
Captain 2
Watertight 6
Cake 2
Awkward 4
Granted 6
Play 2
Royal 2
Dance 6
All the people I asked were from the west midlands area and so it shows that people who don’t have use standard pronunciation still have an awareness of what the Received form. It shows that people have an understanding of what a more prestigious word form or pronunciation might be.
5. ‘How do the accents in the two programmes contribute to your ideas about social expectations and class within the areas of Newcastle and Chelsea?’:
Participant 1; The language used is a representation of where people come from and the way in which they socialise and so inevitably influences how I perceive people from these areas.
Participant 2; If people speak with a more standard language then I would expect them to be from a higher social class.
Participant 3; If people speak posh I believe them to be of a more affluent educational and social background and so from the higher classes.
Participant 4; Language represent who we are and where we come from so if a person uses RP, then they are exposed to a more prestige language form and so I presume they would be from a more posh background.
Participant 5; No. There are other factors influencing a person’s social standing.
Participant 6; If someone is more well-spoken then you would expect them to be of a higher class.
This question shows that the way in which people perceive social class is reliant upon accent and dialect.
Natalie x
1. 1/1
2. 3/5
3. 5/5
4. captain/watertight/awkward/granted
talk/captain/watertight/granted/royal
5. -their accents reinforce stereotypes from other media outlets and produce certain social expectations. MIC that everyone is posh and snobby and the respondent would feel uncomfortable talking to the chararcters from MIC
Respondent would feel less judged by those with the GS accent despite it being less attractive and resinforces the stereotype of them belonging to a lower social class.
-People in Newcastle are generally of a lower class than those from Chelsea- the more the accent deviates from London the more the respondent associates it with people living in socially inferior societies.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Bronwyn's results
I asked a variety of participants; one from the north of England, three from the Midlands and one from near London.
1. Varied response to this question, but 3/5 agreed that the MIC accent was more approachable than the GS one. One of the other participants disagreed and another neither agreed nor disagreed.
| participant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Scale of 1 to 5 1- strongly disagree 5-strongly agree | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
The results are very close, but they do show that the majority of people think that the MIC accent is more approachable that the GS one. Although I was surprised that one of the participants disagreed, and one neither agreed nor disagreed. This could show that not everyone thinks that the approachability of a person is based on their accent.
2. One participant strongly disagreed that the GS accent was attractive, 2 disagreed that it was attractive, and another 2 neither agreed nor disagreed.
| Participant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Scale of 1 to 5 1- strongly disagree 5-strongly agree | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Again, with 3/5 people disagreed with the statement that the accent was attractive, but another 2 neither agreeing nor disagreeing, this could show that like approachability, attractiveness is not always rated on accent, and that not everyone thinks that accents can be attractive or unattractive.
3. One participant strongly agreed with the statement in question 3 and 1 strongly disagreed. 2 others agreed and 1 other disagreed.
| Participant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Scale of 1 to 5 1- strongly disagree 5-strongly agree | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
There seems to be a pattern in my results that there will always be an almost balance on agreement and disagreement of the judgement of the GS and MIC accents. But it remains once again that the majority agreed that you could tell which social class the characters belonged to due to their accent.
4.
| Words | Participant 1 | Participant 2 | Participant 3 | Participant 4 | Participant 5 | Total |
| Talk | | Yes | Yes | | yes | 3 |
| Newspaper | yes | Yes | | Yes | | 3 |
| Captain | | Yes | | | | 1 |
| Watertight | | Yes | Yes | | Yes | 3 |
| Cake | yes | Yes | | Yes | Yes | 4 |
| Awkward | | Yes | Yes | | Yes | 3 |
| Granted | yes | Yes | | Yes | | 3 |
| Play | | Yes | | | Yes | 2 |
| Royal | | Yes | | Yes | yes | 3 |
| Dance | yes | yes | yes | yes | | 4 |
5.
| Didn’t evoke class distinctions | Working class northerners-GS Upper class Londoners | Accents exaggerated/encourage viewers to see the characters as conforming to stereotypes |
| 1 | 4 | 2 |
Interestingly, one participant didn’t think their accents reflected their social background, as they were used in different contexts and situations of men with different obsessions (GS-self image, dating, MIC-status and possessions). However, 80% of the participants thought that the accents did reflect social background, but only half of those participants said that this was emphasized to encourage the viewers to assume the characters’ social statuses.
-By looking at my results I think the majority of people may judge the accent in the programs, but 2 of my participants have noted that they seem to be exaggerated in order to influence the audience, and thus push them to make judgements about these accents.
Presentation Distribution
Monday, 28 November 2011
1. MIC is approachable
3/4/4/4
2. GS is attractive
3/3/2/2
3. Accents good rep of social class
4/3/3/2
4. words typical of BBC English
granted /dance
talk/ captain / watertight/ granted/ dance
talk/watertight/awkward/dance
granted/dance
5. How the accents in the clip contribute to your ideas about social class
-Stereotypically Newcastle represents a lower class and Chelsea a higher class, watching the clips you stick with those assumptions
-The Newcastle accent is much harder to understand and the MIC is one that you hear much more on television eg. news
-GS makes it seem like people from Newcastle are from a lower class than those is MIC though this isn't necessarily true
-Stereotypes make you think that those from Newcastle are of a lower class and those from Chelsea a higher class. Respondent tries not to follow this but watching GS does make you think they are less intelligent and of a lower social rank. Also finds ths MIC not that attractive as it comes across as 'stuck up'
Sunday, 27 November 2011
My Results
Elsa's analysis of questionnaire results
Below is my analysis of the results obtained from my questionnaire. Six people completed the questionnaire, five of these were from the South of England, whereas one was from the North. An equal number of female and male informants were asked.
Consent was obtained from each informant before their data was used in this analysis.
Findings for Question One:
‘The accent in the television programme ‘Made in Chelsea’ is more approachable than the one in ‘Geordie Shore’’.
Indicate how far you agree or disagree with this statement (1 is ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’):
• Informant A answered with 2
• Informant B answered with 3
• Informant C answered with 5
• Informant D answered with 3
• Informant E answered with 2
• Informant F answered with 4
These results show that only two people ‘strongly agreed and ‘agreed’ with the statement. The other informants have indicated low responses for this question, which suggests that the majority of informants did not feel that the two accents were markedly different from each other in terms of how ‘approachable’ they sounded.
Findings for Question Two:
The representation of accent in Geordie Shore is attractive.
Indicate how far you agree or disagree with this statement (1 is ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’):
• Informant A answered with 3
• Informant B answered with 2
• Informant C answered with 1
• Informant D answered with 4
• Informant E answered with 4
• Informant F answered with 3
It appears that in the second question there is again a mixture of results. Two informants ‘agree’ that the accent in Geordie Shore is attractive, showing that some feel that some regional accents can be regarded positively.
The findings for question two are similar to those in question one because both sets of results seem to show that some informants have a neural or more positive response to the regional accent in Geordie Shore than others.
Similar findings have been recorded in studies which use a ‘matched guise’ technique to elicit informants’ reactions to different regional accents. Beal (2006) notes that:
‘The results of such experiments were very consistent: the RP guise was always given the highest score for features such as intelligence, whereas regional accented guises scored higher for features such as friendliness and honesty…’ (Beal 2006:30).
Findings for Question Three:
‘By listening to both the accents, it is clear as to which social class these characters belong’.
To what extent do you agree with this statement? (1 is ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’)
• Informant A answered with 2
• Informant B answered with 5
• Informant C answered with 5
• Informant D answered with 2
• Informant E answered with 4
• Informant F answered with 4
Four out of the 6 participants agreed that the accents in the clips showed which social class the characters belong to. This implies that, although some informants, may not find one accent to be more positive or negative over another, many of the informants asked felt that there is at least some connection with accents and social class. This is significant because it demonstrates that people do still make value judgements based on how we speak.
Findings for Question Four:
Circle the words in which you think the pronunciation of the vowels is typical of a ‘BBC English' accent (as found in the ‘Made in Chelsea’ accent).
Answers:
Talk 4
Newspaper 4
Captain 1
Watertight 5
Cake 3
Awkward 6
Granted 3
Play 2
Royal 3
Dance 5
The above numbers show how many times each word was indicated by each informant to be typical of a BBC English accent. We found that this was the best way of describing the accent in Made in Chelsea, especially because all of our informants had not studied English Language at degree level.
The data for question four shows that the words: watertight, awkward and dance were chosen most frequently. One reason for this may have been because five out of the six informants asked were from the South of England. Only one person was from the North.
This also demonstrates that people have an almost innate awareness of the idea that Received Pronunciation (or BBC English) is considered to be the most prestigious form by many people.
Findings for Question 5:
Below are extracts from the informants’ responses to:
‘How do the accents in the two programmes contribute to your ideas about social expectations and class within the areas of Newcastle and Chelsea?’:
“They don’t. There is no indication through accent which class these people belong to…”
“I think the accents inevitably have an influence on my beliefs, however the settings and topics under discussion in each programme had a reinforcement of these ideas…”
“The Newcastle accent makes the actors sound very lower class and the language used added to this.”
“I think they reinforce the stereotypes that regional accents belong to the lower classes and people with a ‘BBC English’ accent belong to the upper classes. However, I also think that the swearing and subject matter in ‘Geordie Shore’ also reinforces this – if they were talking about something different they might have given a different impression.”
“Because the accent in Made in Chelsea is more like the BBC English accent, I associate the accent in Chelsea with a higher social class than in Newcastle…”.
“The Accents from the two different areas defiantly confirm the existing preconceptions I had about Chelsea and Newcastle. This may be because of Chelsea’s connections to the above mentioned BBC English… However other aspects of the clips also contribute to my social expectations like the clothing, cursing and the environment of the characters”.
The results for this question are probably the most significant because they show that the majority of the informants asked still have pre-conceived ideas about regional accents and social class.
Friday, 11 November 2011
Where we are at, and what we have left to do...
We have all watched and transcribed our clips of each show and a few of us are still in the process of having them all phonetically transcribed too. Following a discussion with Elsa and I today we wondered if we needed to fully transcribe all of the clips and they wouldn't be shown to those completing the questionnaire nor would we use all of them in our presentation. Fundamentally, we will use the best parts of the transcript to show the extent of both the accents used and as a sample of our research.
The questionnaire which we are going to distrubute is almost complete we are still waiting for Melissa and Natalie to send their questions to Elsa so that she can add them. As soon as we have those we are done and ready to distribute them to our friends to complete.
Though we are about a week behind on our schedule, it is only the questionnaires that need completing to bring us back on schedule, so that should only take a night or two then we can get on with gathering our research.
As we have not had a group meeting in a while we plan to meet up after the LAVC lecture on monday to really get back on trakc and get ourselves up to speed.
By the end of week 8, providing all goes well we will have our results and data and then be able to decide our analysis and conclusion for the study.
Week 9 may be dedicated to compiling our results and each creating several powerpoint slides each for the final presentation. (this idea will be discussed further at the meeting on monday)
Week 10 is a 'bring everything together' week, in which we can make any last minute changes and make sure everything is ready for presenting.
By the end of week 10 the presentation needs to be totally ready.
Week 11, presentation time!!
I hope this is all ok with everyone and you all agree, see you monday!
Kasey
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Youtube Clip Distribution
Made In Chelsea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgoswGAx5yI
Obviously we will just analyse the first minute, up untill Jamie ends the phonecall.
The charcters here are Jamie -blonde, Spencer-red shirt, Hugo - sunglasses and beard.
Geordie Shore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWTZ7FhwvYs
The characters are Jay, as it shows and James is the other guy that speaks in the white t-shirt.
Soooo.
MIC is obviously Made In Chelsea and GS is Geordie shore.
Part 1 is 1-20 seconds
Part 2 is 20-40 seconds
Part 3 is 40-60 seconds
So I have assigned each of us two parts to transcribe phonetically so that we can make sure there is consistency between our transcriptions especially with the varying accents.
Melissa MIC Part 1 GS Part 2
Elsa MIC Part 2 GS Part 3
Bronwyn MIC Part 3 GS Part 1
Kasey GS Part 2 MIC Part 1
Natalie GS Part 3 MIC Part 2
Hope this is enough for everyone to get going with :)
XXX
Our Plan!
We decided to make the question more specific as alison had suggested and to focus more on the perceptions and social attitudes towards the accents rather than try to do that AND intensely compare the phonological structure of the accents.
We made small goals which are
END OF WEEK 6 -
To have watched the assigned clips and transcribed these phonetically to use as a basis to create a question.
To have each produced a question and as a group made a 5 question questionnaire on a google docs.
END OF WEEK 7-
To have distributed the questionnaire to 10 friends (for each group member) to complete of different age, ethnicity, gender etc to try and get a wide range of data.
To have got the results back and tried to identify some basic results and conclusions.
To make the post on what we have done so far and plan to do next for milestone 2.
END OF WEEK 8-
To meet on monday at a time to suit all, possibly 3 after our LWA lecture?
To combine togther the results we have each collected and decide on our analysis and conclusion for our study.
END OF WEEK 10-
To meet again on the monday of week 10 to review to progress of combining our presentation and powerpoint and perhaps contribute any final thoughts and additional information.
TO HAVE OUR PRESENTATUION READY!
WEEK 11-
WE PRESENT, EEEKKKK.
We decided to now analyse two 1 minute clips from youtube which have at least 3 characters speaking in the clip to get a variety of accent portrayal.
We also thought if we send the questionnaire as an email to complete we can send a youtube link of the clips and include this in the questionnaire which will be a great aid in getting more accurate results.
Use the clip to help decide on a question you feel is interesting and perhaps post on the blog the topic your question will be on so we don't have people doing the same thing without realising :)
Try and have subquestions or gain a variety of answers from your question, we also thought it would be good to have differnt styles of question such as sacles, multiple choice or simply writing what they think.
I'll now go on youtube and decide on the clips and post the links on the blog later today along with who will transcibe which parts.
We also said we would overlap what people transcribe to make sure all the phonetical transcription is accurate as we will scan these and include them in our presentation as a resource our questions were based on.
I hope this all makes sense, I feel much better now we have come up with a timeline and plan :)
Let me know if there is anything anyone disagrees with.
XXX
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Online Meeting 20/10/11
Friday, 14 October 2011
Group 3's research proposal
By writing my name below, I agree to carry out the following learning agreement by the stated dates and I will make sure that I and my group achieve each of the milestones along the way.
1. Elsa Heath
2. Bronwyn Ayers
3. Natalie Hancox
4. Kasey Robinson
5. Melissa Thompson
6. tutor name
Topic and Research Design
The question that we are going to research is:
‘In what ways, and to what extent do the regional accents featured in the television programmes ‘Geordie Shore’ and ‘Made in Chelsea’ reproduce, under represent or exaggerate cultural and social attitudes about these regions?’
We chose the TV programmes ‘Geordie Shore’ and ‘Made in Chelsea’ as they give a clear distinction in their cultural and social attitudes. Furthermore, they have varying accents and so we can see how this is represented and if this has any impact on how they are portrayed.
Also, these two programmes are based on real people and real situations. Therefore, the data we collect will give a more accurate representation of these accents in real terms.
We will see how linguistic features such as sociolect, received pronunciation and standard English feature in the data we collect and how this represents the speaker in their environment.
Additionally, through language analysis of the data we have collected, we will be able to see how this represents the TV programme and how this influences the way in which the audience receives and interprets the programme.
Type and Amount of Data:
Our data will be collected by each member of the group. We will be transcribing data from each of the two television programmes which include; ‘Made in Chelsea' and ‘Geordie Shore’.
Each member of the group will do this so for each of the programmes we will have 5 transcriptions which we can analyse, giving us a spread of data and a more sound base to answer our research question.
Methods
As a group we have decided that the means in which we will collect our data is by watching the two tv shows we have selected to analyse for a minute each (and different clips for each group member), making sure to choose both different episodes and observe different characters speaking to make sure we collect as wide range of data as possible.
We have decided to transcribe the data phonetically as we are looking at the ways in which the accents vary and if they are portrayed in a stereotypical way for the geographical area they are based in by the media.
Also it will be interesting to see if there is a consistency between the different characters and the phonetic sounds that make up their regional accents.
When analysing our data we will look for patterns in the speech of what sounds are formed and look for key themes for each of the different regions. This could be done through deciding on certain sounds we expect each accent to use regularly which will differ from the norm.
We can then count how many times these are used within our data and therefore see if there is a consistency between the accents the audience expect to hear being used by the characters.
We will also be open to analysing anything new we think about whilst collecting our data and anything we spot in the process of other analysis regardless of whether or not it supports our hypothesis and what we expect to find.
We will portray the results in forms such as graphs and diagrams to incorporate into our final PowerPoint presentation and voice recording.
Routes, strategies and resources
We will use the following routes, strategies and resources during our investigation:
1. Several online clips from both Made in Chelsea and Geordie Shore- transcribed
2. A questionnaire that gives us an insight into what our friends/peers think about how well the media represents accents.
3. Weekly group meetings to check everyone is up to date and clear on the next weeks deadlines/plans
4. Keeping up to date with V lectures and referring to Alison’s book throughout each step.
Bibliography:
1. Burridge et al (2004), A handbook of the varieties of English: Phonology, Volume 1 Muoton de Gruyter: Berlin.
2. Chambers, J.K. (2003) Sociolinguistic Theory (Second edition) Blackwell Publishers Ltd: London.
3. Evans, B.G. and Iverson, P: ‘Vowel normalization for accent: A comparison of northern and southern British English speakers.’ Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London: London. Sourced at: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/paul/icphs_0575.pdf on 7th October 2011.
4. Sealey, A (2010) Researching English Language: A resource book for students Routledge: Oxford.
5. Trudgill, P,(1994) Dialects Routledge: London
6. Wray, A and Bloomer, A (1998) Projects in Linguistics: A practical guide to Researching Language, Arnold Publishers, London
Presentation
We will present our research through a powerpoint slide. We will first meet to discuss what to put on the powerpoint slides. We will clarify our information before the presentation, whilst ensuring everyone understands what we are trying to convey.
We will discuss roles needed for the presentation, and ensure everyone is happy with their roles. We will support and respect everyone’s ideas and wishes for the presentation.
We would like to create a voice recording to accompany the slideshow instead of a video as members of the group were not comfortable with the idea of being videoed, and we did not want to sacrifice the quality of the presentation due to this.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Meeting on Monday..
We re-assessed our research question after feedback from Alison, and decided to look at a variety of accents in a variety of reality t.v. shows such as 'Geordie Shore', 'The only way is Essex' and 'Made in Chelsea' and evaluate how they are portrayed in the programs.
Elsa has discussed some books she's found that are relevant to our question, and she will add these to our learning agreement.
We have all agreed to watch v-lectures 2-4 and complete the assigned reading for milestone 1.
We have decided to set up a facebook group to make communication easier. We will use this group as a draft system in order to collect group feedback before finalising ideas and posting them on the blog.
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Our idea....
As Melissa couldn't make it on Thursday, we are all planning to meet again on Monday at 12.00pm.
Elsa.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Meeting on Thursday...
This is just confirm about some of us meeting up tomorrow at 2pm. Is the Mason Lounge still OK for everyone? Thought we could talk about ideas for the project and work out who can do what for the proposal. I know Melissa can't make it tomorrow so we can post our ideas on here, so that everyone is involved.
I'll also send this as a facebook message so anyone who hasn't signed up to the blog yet can see it. I sent invitations to uni email addresses so you can accept the invite there.
Hope this is alright with everyone. Let me know if you have any other suggestions. See you tomorrow.
Elsa