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Face to Face emagazine Conference for A Level Language, London

Date
20 Nov 2024 (UK)
Availability
Places available
Price
£25 per student
Location
Friends House, London

Booking enquires

General booking enquires:

Email us

Programme enquiries:

Email Dan

Programme & Speakers

Speakers and topics are confirmed. The emagazine Language Conference will run from 10.20am to 3.35pm. Timings for each session will be available shortly.

10.30

Welcome!

Dan Clayton welcomes you to the Conference..

TBC

Rebecca Woods: What’s a question to start with? An exploration of children’s input and how they learn to ask questions (eventually)

In this session I explore how children learn abstract syntax (e.g. subject-auxiliary inversion in yes/no questions like “do you like cake?”) from their caregivers’ speech (syntax, lexis, intonation) and from the information in the world around them (pragmatics). Using a case study of an English-acquiring child, I’ll show how some of the most long-standing findings in linguistics are up for debate and what methods we have to address them. I will also discuss ways in which to practise your child language analysis skills and bring your own interest in English language and linguistics bang up to date.

TBC

Robbie Love: Spoken genre, informality and language change

Speech is often considered to be less ‘formal’ than writing, so-much so that so-called ‘Standard English’ is modelled on written grammar. But what makes one text more ‘formal’ than another, and how have standards of formality changed over time? In this talk, Robbie demonstrates how corpus linguistics can help to identify the specific linguistic features that define the formality of a genre. Using corpora of contemporary spoken British English, we will reveal the distinct linguistic profiles of a range of spoken genres (e.g. casual conversation, broadcast media, speeches, debates) and trace changes in formality in recent decades. 

TBC


Break 

TBC

Victoria Turk: How technology shapes language

When is an aubergine not an aubergine? Y do some ppl tlk like ths? What does “skibidi” even mean? Technology shapes the way we interact, and, with the speed of change, it can be hard to keep up. The features and limitations of new platforms incentivize different behaviours, and digital culture trends can spread at the touch of a button. This talk will take a tour through recent tech developments, from the start of text messaging through the era of social media, right up to the new frontier of AI. We’ll consider how digital tools are changing the way we communicate across all spheres of our lives.

TBC

 

Lunch

TBC

Aimee Bailey: Discursive representations of gender and sexual identities

In this talk, I explore contemporary discourses of gender and sexual identities, focusing on the media as a key site for shaping our understanding of these identities. I introduce key critical concepts from queer linguistics, such as performativity, normativity and indexicality. Drawing on recent examples such as ‘gender policing’ in sport, I show how these concepts can help us to understand how gendered assumptions and stereotypes influence representation and realise implicit discrimination.

TBC

Rosemary Hall: Beyond ‘old men with good teeth’: dialect study past and present

The Survey of English Dialects (SED) was a groundbreaking national dialect survey carried out between 1950 and 1961. While some of its methods are now seen as old-fashioned, it remains an invaluable resource for linguists investigating language variation and change, as well as a fascinating record of rural life in the 20th century. More than 50 years later, a new survey was designed as part of the National Lottery Heritage-funded Dialect and Heritage Project, with over 10,000 responses collected to date. In this talk, I will introduce the Dialect and Heritage Project, taking you with me on the journey from its origins in the SED to its unique new methods for documenting language today, and sharing some of our exciting findings so far.

 

TBC

Conference ends

Dan Clayton brings the Conference to an end

 

Getting to the Conference

Train

The closest train stations are Euston and Kings Cross.

Tube (underground)

Tube stations within a 5 to 15-minute walk include: Euston, Euston Square, Kings Cross, Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street. The closest tubes are Euston and Euston Square.

Bus

Numbers 10, 18, 30, 73, 205 and 390 pass the door whilst 59, 68, 91, 168, and 253 stop nearby.

Travelling by Minibus or Car?

Friends House is within a meter parking zone. Charges must be paid Monday to Friday 08:30 -18:30. Please note that Friends House is within the congestion charge zone. For details of how to pay here.

Coaches

Coaches may stop outside Friends House to drop students off.

Parking

There is no on-site parking available at Friends House. The local roads have metered parking bays and fall within TfL charging zones. TFL driving information is available on the TFL website. There are three disabled blue badge parking bays located in Endsleigh Gardens.Information about Camden Council parking is available on the Council's website.

Getting to the Conference

Train

The closest train stations are Euston and Kings Cross.

Tube (underground)

Tube stations within a 5 to 15-minute walk include: Euston, Euston Square, Kings Cross, Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road and Warren Street. The closest tubes are Euston and Euston Square.

Bus

Numbers 10, 18, 30, 73, 205 and 390 pass the door whilst 59, 68, 91, 168, and 253 stop nearby.

Travelling by Minibus or Car?

Friends House is within a meter parking zone. Charges must be paid Monday to Friday 08:30 -18:30. Please note that Friends House is within the congestion charge zone. For details of how to pay here.

Coaches

Coaches may stop outside Friends House to drop students off.

Parking

There is no on-site parking available at Friends House. The local roads have metered parking bays and fall within TfL charging zones. TFL driving information is available on the TFL website: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/. There are three disabled blue badge parking bays located in Endsleigh Gardens. Information about Camden Council parking is available on the Council's website: www.camden.gov.uk/where-to-park.

Arrangements on the Day

Registration

Registration will open at 9.15am and we ask you to be in your seats for 9.45am so we can begin promptly at 10am.

Entrance is via the Euston Road entrance to Friends House.

Teachers Accompanying Students

We expect all students to be accompanied by a teacher. There should be a minimum of 1 teacher per 20 students.

We request that teachers meet their students in advance, register as a group and sit with their groups of students. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that their own students maintain acceptable standards of behaviour in the auditorium and in the Friends House building.

Lunch and Refreshments

The cafe at Friends House is open from 8am.

You and your students will be responsible for providing your own lunches. There are sandwich shops in the area immediately behind Friends House and plenty of food outlets across the road at Euston Station.

There are spaces outside for students to eat their packed lunch but no indoor spaces.

Photo of Dan Clayton

Dan Clayton

 

Dan Clayton is an education consultant at the EMC and specialises in English Language work at A Level and language education across the secondary curriculum. He has been a teacher of A Level English for over 20 years, senior examiner and moderator for different awarding bodies and is author/editor of many books for A Level English Language, including ones for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press & Routledge, as well as publications for the EMC and NATE. Dan has worked closely with many universities to help develop links between A level and HE, worked as a research fellow at UCL and runs the EngLangBlog site and @EngLangBlog Bluesky account, as well as being part of the Lexis Podcast team. He has also taught Media and Film Studies and is Associate Editor of emagazine and MediaMagazine.

 

Photo of Rosemary Hall

Rosemary Hall

Dr Rosemary Hall is a Research Assistant for the Dialect and Heritage Project based at the University of Leeds, working on dialect variation in England, past and present. Before working on this project, she researched the variety of English spoken in Bermuda, exploring the history and phonology of Bermudian English, and examining the social meaning of dialect parody in Bermudian society. A trained oral historian, Rosemary has a special interest in the overlap between sociolinguistic fieldwork and oral history interviewing.

Photo of Robbie Love

Robbie Love

Dr Robbie Love is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Aston University. He is a corpus linguist, specialising in contemporary spoken discourse, and he has published research on sociolinguistics, language change and applied linguistics. He is host of the podcast CorpusCast and sits on the Executive Committee of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL).

Photo of Victoria Turk

Victoria Turk

Victoria Turk is a freelance journalist based in London. She writes mainly about technology and how it shapes society and culture in unexpected ways. She was previously features director at Rest of World, features editor at WIRED, and UK editor at VICE’s Motherboard. She is also the author of the book Digital Etiquette, an irreverent guide to manners in the digital age.

Photo of Aimee Bailey

Aimee Bailey

Dr Aimee Bailey is a Lecturer in English Language at De Montfort University, Leicester. She is primarily interested in the discursive construction of gender and sexuality in media contexts. Her research examines the construction of normative discourses in digital media for lesbian and bisexual women, as well as the representation of trans athletes and charities supporting trans young people in the British press.

Photo of Rebecca Woods

Rebecca Woods

Dr Rebecca Woods is a Senior Lecturer in Language and Cognition at Newcastle University. She researches child acquisition of syntax and pragmatics, and how users of different languages ask questions. She’s also interested in co-speech gesture, wordplay, and how children learn to tell jokes.

Prices

  • The fee is £25 per student, with one free teacher place as follows: 1-9 students = 1 free teacher place; 10-19 students = 2 free teacher places and so on.
  • You will be automatically allocated the correct number of teacher places and will need to provide details for each teacher attending. (You can change the teachers attending, if necessary, when you tell us final numbers on xxxx.)
  • For additional teachers, or teachers attending without students, for their own interest or CPD, the charge is £50 each.

How to book

Book online and choose to pay by invoice.

  • We are unable to take provisional bookings or reserve places.
  • Conference places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
  • There is a limit of 60 places per organisation.
  • Trust/MAT head offices ordering for more than one school, will need to place separate orders for each school.
  • Please see our updated cancellation policy.
  • To book this conference you must be signed into one of the following accounts (registering an account first if you need to):
    • UK Trust/Academy – Head Office (purchasing) [when this account type is added]
    • UK Educator Admin (purchasing)
    • UK Teacher – Home Address Only
    • UK Private Individual
    • Overseas
  • If you have a UK Educator Standard (non-purchasing) account you will not be able to book the conference. Sign in to your account and add it to your Wishlist. See the list of people able to book conferences at your organisation by clicking ‘My Account’, then ‘Our Admin Users’.
  1. Click 'Book now’ (right-hand column).
  2. Add the number of student places you need. Free teacher places will be allocated automatically.
  3. 'Places exceeded' message. Reasons for this message are:
    1. You are trying to order more than 60 places (including free teacher places)
    2. Due to the number of places in other customers’ baskets, there are currently insufficient places available to fulfil this order.
  4. You will be asked to add the names and contact details of the teachers attending – if you don't know these details yet, just copy/paste the details of the lead teacher.
  5. Please make sure you add the attendee details immediately and checkout within 24 minutes. Otherwise the booking will expire and you will have to begin the process again.
  6. Click submit and then Go to basket.
  7. Checkout. 
  8. Once you have booked your place, you will see a screen indicating your order has been successful. You may want to make a note of your order number. The person making the booking and all the teachers attending will also receive an automatic acknowledgement of your booking.
  9. Please do not make final travel arrangements until your final booking has been confirmed and we have contacted you to let you know that you have definitely been allocated places.

 

Deposit

  • A 20% non-refundable deposit will be applied to all places booked. If you cancel a place you will lose the 20% deposit paid. You will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards the final invoice.
  • if paying by invoice you will receive a non-refundable deposit invoice of 20% of the booking value, to be paid by credit card within 7 days of receipt. Failure to pay this invoice will result in the cancellation of the booking.
  • If paying by credit card, 20% of the total value of the booking is non-refundable.

Cancellations and Amendments

  • The 20% deposit on places booked is non-refundable. Please note: you will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards the final invoice.
  • You can make amendments to your booking until the final numbers deadline – 5pm on Tuesday 5th November. You will lose the 20% deposit paid on places cancelled by this deadline.
  • If you paid the full fee by card, you will receive an 80% refund on places cancelled by the final numbers deadline.
  • Schools who choose invoice payment will be invoiced for the balance of the total fee (80%) on confirmed places. Please note: you will not be able to use the 20% deposit paid on cancelled places towards this final invoice.
  • After this date you will be charged 100% of the ticket price, regardless of the numbers of students you bring to the conference.
  • We will email on Monday 4th November to remind you to confirm your final number.
  • If paying by invoice, the invoice for the balance of your conference booking will be sent the day after the conference takes place and will come from [email protected]

Please note: We will be unable to make refunds in the case of weather, transport difficulties or circumstances beyond our control. Should EMC need to cancel the conference, a full refund will be on offer. (However, personal arrangements including travel, accommodation or hospitality relating to the conference which have been arranged by you or your institution are at your own risk and not refundable by us.) 

Waiting list

  • We are no longer operating a waiting list for student conferences.
  • If places become available, we will re-open the bookings on the website. We will publicise this via social media and our general mailing list.