Academic literature on the topic 'English language – Style'

This study is an investigation of methods of teaching and learning in the A-level English curriculum consisting both of the traditional A-level English literature and the more recent arrival of A-level English language. It is generally assumed in commentaries on A-level English teaching that language is taught differently from literature because of differences in aims, content and ideology. English language is seen as a deliberate move away from the more 'pure' academic study of literary texts and towards more 'applied' and even partly 'vocational' study in which independent and collaborative forms of learning are strongly encouraged. There is, however, little empirical evidence about how students are taught and how they learn in these different courses. The study addresses these limitations by carrying out an intensive, qualitative study of the teaching styles of ten teachers who teach across the two A-level English subjects. Video recordings of twenty complete lessons (i. e. 10 English language and 10 English literature) were analysed using a formal framework of analysis adapted from the study of discourse analysis. This system identifies the organisation of the classroom discourse so as to allow for a comparison of the patterning of teaching exchanges across the two subjects. The study also investigates, using semi-structured interviews, how the teachers perceive the learning objectives of the two subjects, and the match between those objectives and the teaching and learning methods used to achieve them. The findings suggest that teachers do not vary their teaching style when teaching across the two English subjects at A-levels supporting an extensive statistical study of students' perceptions of the instructional practices employed by teachers which also found a lack of pedagogic distinctiveness between the two subjects. The analysis revealed that teacher-led recitation is a prominent feature of the discourse in both A-level English language and literature.

The prefatory essays in Fielding's two major novels Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones foreground his interest in the problems and challenges of the writing of fiction. In the narrative, he experiments with answers to the questions raised in these discursive sections. Analysis of style in these novels also shows a gradual development from the pervasive and self-reflexive irony and the interplay of stylistic modes that characterise the earlier novel to the more confident and increasingly serious authorial voice of the latter. Both Fielding's theoretical concerns and the development in his narrative style help to situate him in relation to eighteenth-century debates about language and the nature of fiction. This thesis attempts to show that appropriate stylistic analysis can reveal connections between the syntactic patterns in the text and the underlying assumptions and broader concerns of the writer. As the first chapter will indicate, the term 'stylistic analysis' covers widely divergent practices proceeding from equally divergent assumptions about the proper scope of stylistics. My a priori assumption is that the literary text is an instance of discourse, of language in use in a communicative situation. Since no single model of discourse analysis is adequate to describe all aspects of literary style, I have drawn from different analytical approaches to illuminate different aspects of Fielding's prose. For the analysis of the rhetorical and expressive values of his syntax, the most productive approach has been the 'functionalist' stylistics of by M.A.K. Halliday, complemented by Roman Jakobson's theory of the poetic function of language. But neither of these approaches is adequate to deal with the specific challenge to the analyst of language in the novel: the diversity of styles and registers that are available to the novelist. Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of novelistic style as 'dialogical' or multi-voiced accommodates the diversity in Fielding's prose and affords insights into both the social-ideological resonances and the artistic function of the language of the texts.

Previous work in stylistics has concentrated a great deal on theory to the exclusion of practical investigation of styles. The practical investigations deal with Newspapers or Advertising copy. No thorough stylistic analysis has been made of Administrative English. A qualitative analysis of Government Information leaflets, reveals that they are stylistically distinct at all linguistic levels, but that two different types of text emerge, closely linked to the means by which the reader is addressed either personally as 'you' (P.A.) or impersonally as for example in 'the claimant (I.A.). A subsequent quantitative analysis of a selection of the most prominent stylistic features of Government Information Leaflets and their comparison with the leaflets published by financial institutions reveals that whilst most of the variables chosen are stylistic, there is little evidence to assume a single Administrative variety. Checks on the relationship between supposed style categories and the individual texts assigned to than are shown by a Cluster Analysis to be very accurate. Patterning of variables is revealed around 2 stylistic dimensions: Status and Mbdality. leaflets are distinguished from P.A. largely by Status variables. The leaflets of Financial Institutions group with P.A. texts. All three of these styles are grouped together by Modality Variables.

Uses Edward Corbett's theory of style to help define Chopin's style and expose her rhetorical strategies (sentence and paragraph length, diction, tropes, scheme, etc.) in the short story "The Story of an Hour ." Examines the controversy over using literature to teach composition and provides an analysis of the reasons for and against using literature in composition classes. Finally, defends the use of literature in writing classrooms.

This dissertation reports on an empirical study on perceptual learning style preferences of Chinese learners who study English as a foreign language in the People's Republic of China. The study attempts to identify perceptual learning style preferences of these learners and to find out the differences and relationships between perceptual learning style preferences and the following learner variables: educational level field of specialization, and duration of native speaker instruction. The study also explores the factors that influence the shaping and change of learning style preferences. Six hundred and eighty-two Chinese EFL learners from secondary schools and tertiary institutions participated in the study. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire survey and a retrospective writing activity. The questionnaire was an adapted version of Reid's Perceptual Learning Style Preferences Survey. Quantitative data from the questionnaire survey were analyzed using both descriptive and correlational techniques including frequency and mean counting, ANOVA, Scheffe test, and MANOVA. Results showed that this sample of Chinese learners strongly preferred visual and kinesthetic learning and reported less preference for auditory, tactile, group, and individual learning. Results from the ANOVA indicated that there were statistical significances between learning style preferences and the three learner variables under investigation. Results from the MANOVA revealed statistically significant interactions between learner variables and learning style variables. Qualitative data from the retrospective writing activity was complementary to the questionnaire survey. Fourteen factors were identified to have an effect on the shaping of learners' learning style preferences. These factors were classified into learner factors and non-learner factors. This thesis concludes with a discussion of implications from three perspectives, theory, practice and methodology and a consideration of recommendations for future research at both macro- and mirco-levels.

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1994.<br>Title from title page screen, viewed March 21, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Ronald Fortune (chair), Ray Lewis White, William Woodson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-162) and abstract. Also available in print.