Data collection: Survey

Along side my data collection through transcribing I thought it would be good to do some additional data collecting to see how teenage girls self-reported their usage of slang.

Objectives: 

•  Which age group and gender is the most critical of teenage girl speak?  
•   Are teenage girls critical of how one another speak? Do they think they use more slang offline than on?

Sampling Group: 

• Gender: For the survey I will be asking questions to both female and males to get a bigger understanding if the criticism towards a teenage girls gender or the age.
• Age: I want to ask a range of ages. I want to see what age group is doing to criticism and to see if teenagers agree with what is being said.  

How will I conduct my questionnaire?:

I will be creating a questionnaire that I can print off and give to people to fill in. On the survey I will ask their age and gender so I can keep on top who says what. I will also give the questionnaire to the people who who are part of data collection for the transcripts for online and offline conversations to see if they over self-report or not.   

Teenage girl language innovation for centuries?

Girls have always been criticised for the language they use however, it has been argued that its teenage girls who introduce a lot more words to the English language than any other group. In 2003, Terrttu Nevalainen and Helena Raumolin-Brunberg (from University of Helsinki linguists) wrote a book called 'Historical Sociolinguistics.' In this book they had surveyed 6,000 letters from 1417 to 1681. They discovered female letter-writers changed the way they wrote, adopted new words and discarded older words such as 'doth' and 'maketh' faster than male letter-writers. 





http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/teenage-girls-have-been-revolutionizing-language-16th-century-180956216/?no-ist

Transcript 1:

A: What happened to it?
B: [Look at all my research
C: I don’t know it only happened yesterday
D: │I haven’t even started
C: Yeaaah bec… it’s Charles and Camilla in the car
A: Is he alright?
C: Prince of Wales is uninjured (Someone starts singing Christmas carols in the background)
D: Whys this made the news?
B: Cause he’s a prince, no one cares about normal people dying
C: Prince of wales has been involved in a car crash after a collision with a deer whilst staying on the estate
A: │Wasn’t
D: │ On the estate? As if it was on the estate
A: Isn’t Isn’t that how Diana died?
D: Well yeah but…
C: │Aldi was damaged in the incident this is very
D: │They have Aldi on the estate?
A: Aldi! (laughs)
C: Like the car
A: No (Laughs)
D: Oh (laughs)
A: Not Aldi the supermarket, do you really think they’d shop at Aldi?
D: That’s what I was thinking!
A: (laughs)
C: They’re all fine basically only the dent on the urr Aldi which is why it’s made the news
A: │What about the (1) bloody deer?
D: The deer’s dead
A: The poor deer
C: Probably (3) urm
A: Do they not care about the deer?
C: Ooh guys everyone should cover up their laptop web cams now, exclamation mark
D: Oh cause they go on it?
C: FBI director something James (3)
A: Well all they’ll see is my gorgeous face (laughs) watching the urr
C: I mean, I know everyone wants to spy on me but
D: │No when I was younger I used to be really paranoid about that and put blue tack over the camera (laughs)
C: Women thrown off Ibiza flight after oh, I that be, they’d been thrown off a boat
B: Same, fallen out of a plane or something
C: That’s why I stopped reading
A: Why were they thrown off for?
C: Shouting racist abuse, I thought they were fully thrown off a place or something
B: (Muffled) sound like such a bitch
A: You do realise you have me singing in that?

DATA

10/01/2015, 11:09:17 am: A: What's everyone wearing tonight then?

10/01/2015, 11:09:53 am: B: Don't know got nothing 😠

10/01/2015, 11:09:59 am: C: Im wearing my birthday suit

10/01/2015, 11:11:13 am: D: My hair is greasy af but I'm just sticking a load of dry shampoo in it👍

10/01/2015, 11:11:21 am: D: Wash it when I get home

10/01/2015, 11:11:25 am: C: Err

10/01/2015, 11:22:12 am: E: Well I'm going in character ! 😂

10/01/2015, 12:10:23 pm: F: I'm wearing red that's as much as I've got

10/01/2015, 12:29:55 pm: E: I'm going suited and booted ygm

10/01/2015, 1:02:35 pm:  G: I'm wearing midi skirt and lace top with a scarf round my shoulders 👍

10/01/2015, 1:02:56 pm:  G: Question: what colour is my name in this group chat?

10/01/2015, 1:03:02 pm:  D: Red

10/01/2015, 1:03:12 pm:  F: Orange

10/01/2015, 1:03:15 pm:  E: Green

10/01/2015, 1:03:58 pm:  E: Serena is orange 😂☺️

10/01/2015, 1:09:00 pm:  G: Oh are they different for each person? Because Rachel yours is light green, Serena is dark green and dinas is reddy orange 😂

10/01/2015, 1:09:36 pm:  E: Yeah they are all different 😂☺️

10/01/2015, 4:08:02 pm: A: What's mine?

10/01/2015, 4:08:07 pm: A: Hannah your red

10/01/2015, 4:10:58 pm: E: Guyssss tonight yeah, I'm a waitress ,so do I wear a black dress and pinny ,or do I wear black trousers shirt and tie ?????? 😂

10/01/2015, 4:11:01 pm: E: Help!!

10/01/2015, 4:11:13 pm: E: Reply asap!

10/01/2015, 4:11:29 pm: A: Dress

10/01/2015, 4:11:38 pm: E: Thanks zoz

10/01/2015, 4:21:45 pm: A: I hate boys 😒

10/01/2015, 4:22:25 pm: E: Why? 

04/03/2015, 9:00:42 pm: G: Yes guysssss

05/03/2015, 12:45:26 pm:F: Are we meeting at the train station at half ten?

05/03/2015, 1:30:56 pm: Juanna 💃🏻: Dont know

05/03/2015, 2:02:11 pm: Dina 👽: Yes we are

05/03/2015, 2:02:55 pm: G: That's nice

05/03/2015, 2:03:15 pm: Dina 👽: Get to train station for 10:30am and the lasted we'll leave it 4/5 (LATEST)

05/03/2015, 2:03:24 pm: G: Okay

05/03/2015, 2:03:40 pm: G: I'll try and be early

05/03/2015, 2:03:42 pm: G: Sick

05/03/2015, 2:03:43 pm: G: Cool

05/03/2015, 2:03:45 pm: G: Brill

05/03/2015, 2:03:56 pm: D: And limit on food is £10-15. (If you want a milkshake bring extra money pls bc they're more expensive)

05/03/2015, 2:04:02 pm: D: That is all :)))

05/03/2015, 2:04:32 pm: G: Okey dokeu

05/03/2015, 2:04:36 pm: G: Dokey*

05/03/2015, 2:08:58 pm:H: Kk bruc

05/03/2015, 2:09:02 pm: H: Bruv*

05/03/2015, 3:11:59 pm: A: Alrighty mate

05/03/2015, 3:12:06 pm: A: Cool

05/03/2015, 3:12:09 pm: A: Nice

05/03/2015, 3:12:11 pm: A: Awesome

05/03/2015, 3:15:03 pm: H: So weird how we do this but we're all atschool together x

05/03/2015, 3:31:28 pm: F: We have different lessons though

05/03/2015, 6:44:40 pm:C: Dina is going to be 16 in 5ish hours 👻😳😜👍😎

05/03/2015, 6:44:40 pm: C: Ahh party

05/03/2015, 6:44:57 pm: A: Ewww

05/03/2015, 6:45:03 pm: C: What

05/03/2015, 6:45:35 pm: A: You 😝

05/03/2015, 6:45:47 pm: C: You dont like me

05/03/2015, 6:46:42 pm: C: Fine you and me Tomorrow morning will have a fight to the death 💀😈

05/03/2015, 6:47:25 pm: C: Im only joking man dont take things so seriously 😛😂

05/03/2015, 6:47:28 pm: C: K bye

05/03/2015, 6:57:10 pm: H: Srsly guys fuck off

05/03/2015, 6:57:40 pm: C: Y

05/03/2015, 6:57:50 pm: C: Has your menstral cycke started 😜

05/03/2015, 6:58:04 pm: F🦄: 😂😂😂😂

05/03/2015, 6:58:15 pm: H: Yes fuck you i hate everything

05/03/2015, 6:58:21 pm: H: No it hasnt realy😂

05/03/2015, 6:59:00 pm: H: Got 11 days left😏😂

05/03/2015, 6:59:29 pm: C: Another year for me😎

05/03/2015, 6:59:43 pm: C: I will be none stop partying now

05/03/2015, 7:00:15 pm: C: Mother nature cant hold me back 🌍

05/03/2015, 7:00:37 pm: C: Im a free spirit

05/03/2015, 7:00:39 pm: H: God lucky bitch

Bibliography

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/05/internet-talks-like-a-woman.html https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/language-change-theorists-%E2%80%93-millroy-trudgill-aitchison-deutscher-harlow/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-483511/I-h8-txt-msgs-How-texting-wrecking-language.html
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Guy_Merchant/publication/227843588_Teenagers_in_Cyberspace_An_Investigation_of_Language_Use_and_Language_Change_in_Internet_Chatrooms/links/55549aeb08ae6fd2d8208506.pdf?origin=publication_detail
http://yourteenmag.com/family-life/teenage-slang

Introduction

In the past couple of years teenagers have been criticised for using online talk in real life. Newspapers have been discussing this topic numerous times such as in the 'Daily Mail' with their headline: Teen speak youngsters are becoming unemployable and in 2013, the 'Telegraph' with their headline: Text-speak: language evolution or just laziness? There are also some theorists who believe that teenagers are using text-talk in real life conversations, one of these theorists is Guy Deutscher who thinks that children can no longer read or write and as a prescriptivist he sees the change in language a bad thing. Is it fair to say that the way upcoming generations speak is wrong and would have past generations also gone through the same thing, of using new words or using language in another way and consequently being judged for it.

After seeing all this criticism about the way that teenagers are becoming 'unemployable' or 'lazy' I wanted to research if teens are really using the same text-talk in real life conversations. For my investigation I will be researching whether 'Teenage girls (17-18) use text-speak in everyday conversations.' I am interested in finding out if what newspapers have been reporting is true. For the investigation I will be looking at phrases that are common, slang, acronyms and the way they interact in different situations. Is the way teenagers (particular in girls) use language something that we should be worried about or are teenagers using language differently to older generations just part of nature?

Data Collection

Being Ethnical: This is all about how my research could effect those part of the investigation. Any work has to respect the rights of the individuals involved.

Potential harm: I need to make sure that if any of the participants for my investigation are young children, have learning difficulties or are vulnerable that I have informed consent from carers or parents. Some of the best research comes from being integrated into the normal routines. Research that is integrated into someone's life is known as ethnography, ethnography is a valid method.

Informed consent: With the investigation I need to be open with what I am doing with my results and they need to give me permission to use their results from their involvement. 

Observer's paradox: This refers to the fact that the presence of the researcher, or the details of the investigation plans these things can distort the results. The paradox is about collecting natural speech by observing it- but the very act of observation is likely to destroy the naturalness. 

The right to withdraw: If people don't like what you're doing with the data or no longer wish to participate they can withdraw without any consequences. 

Confidentiality and privacy: None of the participants in the investigation should be recognizable or easy to trace. No real names, number etc can be used. 

Random Sampling: Participants are random and are not chosen for a reason.

Judgemental Sampling: Participants are chosen for a reason to meet a criteria.

The pros and cons of open questions, closed questions and loaded or leading questions: 

Likert scale and the semantic differential scale: The likely scale is a method of gathering   information in a questionnaire. A scales from 1-5 is often used state an opinion.  The semantic differential scale is another method for gathering information from a questionnaire by using two words at either end of a scale- with participants indicating where on the scale they fall.