FOA Reflection

My FOA was based upon the focus question, how is language used to represent a social class in media types such as TV shows, rap songs, and magazine articles. The two learning outcomes in which i seek to achieve are as follows, firstly to analyse how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts, and secondly to analyse how language can either oppress or empower a group of people.

 Our group chose to present this FOA in the form of a video mainly because our voices tend to be clearer and easier to comprehend if we use a microphone rather than present our presentation live, and we wish to be ale to present our analysis and ideas clearer and in a more organized way than if we chose to present our FOA live; therefore our final decision on how we are going to present this FOA was based upon these two questions.

 I feel like we were successful in presenting this FOA due to many different reasons, firstly we provided the audience with a detailed and thorough analysis of three different media types (Rap song, magazine, and a TV show), we stuck to our topic and did not go off track during the presentation, each member of the group answered the main focus question at the end of our analysis of each of our specific media types, and spoke briefly about how language was used in the texts in relation to our focus question, and finally we provided the audience with examples from our media types to back up our analysis.

 Our strengths were our organization of the FOA, ensuring that the language we were using was appropriate and relevant to the task, and we conveyed good understanding of how language is used in each of the media types, as for our weaknesses, i believe that we should have improved on sticking to our time limit although we were only a minute under the required amount and we should make sure we are fully knowledgeable of our texts.

 The reason i chose my specific text is chiefly due to it being extremely relevant to answering my focus question and would help me achieve my self-assigned learning outcomes, Some of the features that i analysed in which i was able to demonstrate and answer my focus question through, were the author's word choice in the article, how the language used by the author portrayed women as lower citizens of a society, and the author's exclusion of women's important roles in society.

Some of the things i learnt from completing this activity were: learning how to edit and construct a video from scratch, the fact that there is power in language and that a certain social group can be oppressed or empowered depending on the author's use of language, and finally social classes can be degraded or upgraded through the language in many of the common media types we watch and listen to everyday.

Practice IOC Act 4 Scene 1

IOC Script:

For my IOC, i will be analyzing Act IV Scene I (Lines 25-59)

Context and the major events leading up to this play include:

- A huge storm rages upon a ship carrying the King of Naples, his brother, his son, and other characters

- The shipwreck survivors wake up on the island, They are surprised that there clothes smell and feel fresh

- Ariel's song puts them all to sleep except for Sebastian and Antonio. Antonio, (who replaced his brother his brother Prospero as Duke of Milan), manipulates and brainwashes Sebastian (Brother of the King) into doing the same thing Antonio did in the past by replacing King Alonso. As the two were about to kill the king in his sleep, Ariel awakens everyone and the two men quickly make an excuse for drawing their swords.

- Trinculo, a jester on the ship discovers Caliban and quickly realizes that such a monster would earn a fortune for him in England. Stephano, trinculo's friend eventually finds Trinculo under Caliban's huge frame. Stephano gives Caliban alcohol, causing Caliban to believe Stephano to be more powerful than Prospero. The three men set off together, later deciding to kill Propspero

- Prospero who is now invisible to Ferdinand and Miranda, witnesses Ferdinand and Miranda expressing their deep love for one another. Propsero, realizing he is witnessing a truly rare meeting of hearts, approves of Ferdinand for his daughter. The scene ends with Ferdinand taking Miranda for his wife. Prospero is pleased but must now leave to attend to matters before supper

- Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian and Francisco and others witness a banquet on the island but it is an illusion. Ariel returns and verbally punishes Alonso (King of Naples), Antonio and Sebastian for their roles in exiling Prospero,

Summary Of The Lines

- In these specific lines, Prospero orders to gather his band of spirits to put on a celebratory masque, or performance, for the new couple

Plot/Purpose:

- These lines are strategically placed in this Scene because The Tempest is filled with Prospero's magic and illusions. The play begins with Prospero's magic and end with it as well. Therefore Shakespeare intended to show that Propspero was always in charge, and not just in the initial and concluding scenes of the play, but throughout the entirety of the text. Strategically placing these lines in the middle of the play contributes to proving that Propsero was always in charge and always one step ahead.

- Also, the organization of the court masque played a crucial role in the way the Renaissance monarchs chose to think about themselves. Masques served essentially as images of Order, Peace, and Harmony brought about by the ruler's mere presence

Style and Language:

- The repetition of the word "servant" by Prospero when speaking to Ariel throughout these lines underlines the Propsero's power over Ariel and the fact the she owes him for freeing her from Sycorax.

- And at the beginning of the lines, the transfer of power is being shown by Propspero when he grants "1/3" of his life to Ferdinand when he approves of Ferdinand and Miranda's marriage.

- By Propspero telling Ferdinand to keep off Miranda till after the wedding largely highlights the importance of Miranda's virginity and innocence, and that her virginity is a thing that's treated like a "Treasure" and to be guarded well in the hands of her father from Caliban's attempts to rape her and Ferdinand (Till after the wedding)

Language and Literature Blog #13 Labov's Department Store Study

Labov's Department Store Study

Labov's research in the Lower East Side of New York City showed that individual speech patterns were part of a highly systematic structure of social and stylistic stratification. He studied how often the final or preconsonantal (r) was sounded in words like guard, bare and beer. Use of this variable has considerable prestige in New York City. It can be measured very precisely, and its high frequency in speech makes it possible to collect data quickly.

One self-contained part of the research has become particularly well known. The speech of sales assistants in three Manhattan stores, drawn from the top (Saks), middle (Macy's) and bottom (Klein's) of the price and fashion scale. Each unwitting informant was approached with a factual enquiry designed to elicit the answer - "Fourth floor" - which may or may not contain the variable final or preconsonantal (r). A pretence not to have heard it obtained a repeat performance in careful, emphatic style.

The findings were that the sales assistants from Saks used it most, those from Klein's used it least and those from Macy's showed the greatest upward shift when they were asked to repeat.









The results from the department store study highlight the main themes of the research. Frequency of use of the prestige variable final or preconsonantal (r) varied with level of formality and social class.

Language and Literature Blogpost #12

Linguistic Imperialism refers to the transfer of a dominant language to other people. Linguistic imperialism can have major impacts on people's lives, identities, and their respective communities. English is Earth's most dominant language and there's no doubt that English linguistic imperialism brings bad effects to the indigenous language and original culture of countries whose first language is not English (Every country except the U.S and the U.K.)

Firstly English linguistic imperialism can lead to language loss or in other words, the indigenous language of a country is/will no longer be used by their own people, for example the Middle East and China are two great examples. Language loss is just the first part of the huge chain-reaction that will eventually lead to the loss of people's culture since language is the key to culture and is also considered to be the main aspect which runs a culture, after that we may even lose our identities, without language and culture a human is just an ordinary person without proper cultural backgrounds speaking a foreign language, and to add insult to injury, in the modern era there is no patriotism which drives someone to be supportive and loyal to one's country; therefore this will just speed up the process of language and cultural loss.

Language and Literature Blog-post #11

This paper one text labelled "Food Crisis in Sahel" falls under the advertisements section due to it's persuasive content, but comes in the shape of an educational article written and published by the widely-recognized charitable confederation known as Oxfam. It's structure follows the ones of an article, it includes 3 parts, an introduction which contains numbers and statistics which would signify to the readers that this is an informative piece right from the start, the situation in the Sahel region, and what the organization is doing to solve this issue. The key advertising claims used in the ad include the problem/solution and the scientific/statistical claims while the advertising technique used is the conflict technique in which the audience and intended viewers of the ad want to see the conflict resolved.


A sad tone and mood runs throughout the entirety of the article with all the gloomy and dreary statistics that people in the Sahel region will be going to face if the problem is not resolved in the upcoming future, the structure of this text helps in emphasizing this sad tone because it begins off with introducing negative statistical information at the beginning then introduces the problem that will and might happen in the future if nothing is done to prevent this; but shines some light on a solution by giving the people hope that if they do certain things this conflict can be completely avoided.


This text takes the perspective of an employee at the Oxfam confederation because of the pronoun "we" that the writer constantly uses throughout the piece. Also, this text was retrieved from the Oxfam website suggesting that the intended audience would be the people who are interested in recent deficits and want to help out in any way possible, while the main purpose of this text is to inform the people about this likely issue and to persuade them to help out and support the confederation by any plausible means possible.


All in all, this text suggests that nations in the Sahel region are under risk of an epidemic while the issue consists of different causes which includes shortages in both food and water supplies, and that approximately twelve million people will be made victims of this dreadful catastrophe if nothing is done to prevent this situation from recurring once again, as it did in 2005 and 2008, and to add insult to injury almost 300,000 people die from mal-nutrition (lack of nutrients) in a "non-crisis year"

Language and Literature Blogpost #9

FOA Reflection:

My main goal for my further oral activity was to analyze 3 Head and Shoulders advertisements from 3 different cultures, and how elaborate on how they are embellished and portrayed depending on each of the advertisements distinct cultural backgrounds, and by accomplishing this, I was able to achieve two major learning outcomes, the first being to answer the unit question “What does advertising reveal to us about our society? “Also, to be able to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the unit by conveying the way mass media use language and image to inform, persuade, or entertain based on the advertisements cultural contexts.

I felt content with the way I presented and believe that I was successful in channeling my overall message to the audience, firstly because I briefly introduced my topic as well as my aims and learning outcomes that I strived to achieve throughout conducting my further oral activity, and secondly I displayed and concisely analyzed three Head and Shoulders advertisements from three different countries that are situated in different continents (to minimize common correlations and traditions between the advertisements) in order to delineate the chief aims of these advertisements and how analyzing such advertisements can assist us in answering the question “What does advertising reveal to us about our society?”

On the other hand, there was some room for improvement. For example, while presenting my further oral activity I was slightly nervous which eventually resulted in unclear voice projection towards the class, although I fully memorized my script I kept referring back to my script to make sure of what I was saying; therefore I needed to allocate more time to memorize my script in future FOAs , and finally the time requirements were 8-11 minutes long, but unfortunately I only made it to 7 minutes and 34 seconds primarily due to the fact that I was nervous and was rushing my further oral activity, I know this because when I timed it at home the day before the presentations, I had achieved a time of 9 minutes and 11 seconds.

As for how well I achieved on my further oral activity accordingly to the rubric, I believe I did well on criterion A and B, due to the reason that I conveyed exceptional knowledge and understanding of the advertisements, and also showed a positive and clear awareness of how language is used in the advertisements, For criterion C I believe that I will achieve a moderately good grade such as a 3/5, last but not least the ideas and the advertisements were organized and comprehendible; therefore I hope to achieve a 3-4/5 in criterion D.

Language and Literature of Blog #8

Why gaming is good for you!

Most of the controversial issues that the media is feeding us about video games is COMPLETELY untrue, kids can pick up bad language through online video games, games can confuse a person between reality and fantasy, and games lead to bad grades are all Falsified statements that can fully be dis-proven by scientific reasoning and experiments.

Kids can pick up bad language through online gaming may seem like a reasonable claim; however the child playing video games will eventually grow older to learn these words and will learn whether or not he wants to use them, there is no difference between the kid accumulating these words at a young age or at an old one. Eventually that kid will come up against these words in the future. Also, in the end it is the parents' jobs to take care of the child and send him the right way and away from using these words so if the kid was rightfully brought up there should be no problem with the kid using bad words.

Don't even get me started on the 2nd most common claim! what does that even mean ?! Of-course a normal human being with no mental disabilities would be able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

Just for your info: The following are some studies conducted on gaming and the results were sensational.

1) A study conducted by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory reveal that children with attention-deficit disorder who played Dance Dance Revolution improve their reading scores by helping them concentrate.

2) Action games, according to a Study by University of Rochester, train the player's brain to make faster decisions without losing accuracy. In today’s world, it is important to move quickly without sacrificing accuracy.

3) Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, calls this "telescoping." The gamer must deal with immediate problems while keeping his long-term goals on his horizon.

4) The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane. All of the controls, including airspeed, wing angles, altimeter, and so on, are displayed for the player, as well as a visual representation of the world, and are updated in real time.  

Note these are just a few scientific studies out of the countless ones conducted, so don't grasp the wrong idea on gaming as it is really helpful and mis-understood.