Group Planning and Research Proposal

RSEL Learning Agreement
Section I: the agreement
Group number: 8 Group name: Englang group 8
Group Members
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. Once you see your tutor’s name here, too, this means that you have successfully negotiated your learning agreement:

Briony Statton
Olivia Cummins
Sophie (Zosia) Carr
Heather Mungin
Louise Bennett
tutor name

Section II: milestones
The following milestones have been set by your tutor and need to be met for you to successfully complete the module. However, routes towards achieving the milestones are negotiable.

Milestone 1
Our group will use this learning agreement together to create a draft research project proposal (see below)
Our group will work together in a shared google document (which will also be shared with our tutor) in order to reflect on establishing group roles, responsibilities and ways of working.
Our group will work together to create a time plan identifying the various things we need to do, with deadlines indicated.
Our group will then post the results of this collaborative work on our blog, which will be open to comments and suggestions by fellow students.
Each of us will look at other groups’ blogs and make constructive or interrogative comments, where appropriate.
This project proposal will be completed by the end of Week 3, with tutor’s comments in response sent to us by the end of Week 4.

Milestone 2
As we carry out the research, we will keep records of what we are doing.
Our group will then create a blog post entitled ‘What we’ve done and what we need to do’.
This will be completed by the end of Week 7.

Milestone 3
Our group will present our research project to the other groups and respond to their presentations.
This will take place in Week 11.

Section III: routes - strategies and resources
This learning agreement is not set in stone - it is intended to be as much as possible a process of negotiation. So, you might use this section, for example, to request input from your tutor, such as looking over a draft, or providing copies of some material not in the library, or an introduction to an interviewee - or perhaps further advice about collaborative small group work. Please identify in detail all learning activities to be completed for this project:

Section IV: research project proposal
The following is your research project proposal. Remember, you are not only researching and presenting on your chosen research project, but also producing evidence to meet the learning outcomes of the module (see below).

1. Topic

Linguistic differences between genders. We will build on the hedges aspect of Lakoff’s 1975 theory on ‘Women-speak’, presented in The New Sociolinguistic Reader, to try and determine whether this theory is outdated or still relevant. We will focus on males and females from a specific age group, (18-25).

2. Research Design

Main aims and research question(s) Do females use more hedges in their descriptive speech than males, as Lakoff suggests they do?
An indication of the type and amount of language data to be investigated Spoken data, roughly twenty participants. (10 males, 10 females).
An outline of the method(s) you’ll be using to select and collect your data Asking ten 18-25 year old male and female university students to describe a stimulus they cannot see, but can only feel.
An outline of the methods you’ll use to analyse your data

A tally chart to analyse the number of times males and females use hedges in their description of the stimulus. We’ll produce a stratified sample of transcriptions to support our research and findings and compare it to Lakoff’s ‘women-speak’ theory. (Language and Woman’s Place by Robin Lakoff).

A bibliography indicating works read and to be read

Jennifer Coates, Language and Gender: A Reader; Language and gender By Penelope Eckert, Sally McConnell-Ginet; Working with spoken discourse By Deborah Cameron; Introduction to English language By Bloomer et al.; Focussing on language By Mark Sebba; Researching English Language by Alison Sealey (pp 124-5); Cameron, D. (2005) Language, gender and sexuality. Applied Linguistics 26 (4), 482 - 502 (available in the e-library).


3. Presentation*

Describe how and when you will present your research here. The expectation is that you will make a vodcast, but this is open to negotiation if you have a viable alternative suggestion.
We are comfortable with the idea of filming a presentation and providing slides/our research transcripts/notes if required .

Learning Outcomes of the module
By the end of this module you should be able to:
(Semester 1) - collaborate with others to conduct a small-scale investigation on an appropriate language topic, including making a contribution to:
a review of relevant key findings reported in the literature;
the design of an empirical project, with due regard for ethical concerns as appropriate;
the collection of relevant language data;
the analysis of the data using appropriate methods;
presentation of the project to an audience of peers*
(Semester 2) - demonstrate competence in the independent gathering, organization and presentation in a written text of materials appropriate to linguistic research

Evaluation and assessment
The group project is assessed as pass or fail.
* The criteria on which the ‘audience’ (i.e. other people taking this module) will be asked to evaluate each presentation will be:
clarity (how well did the presentation explain the aims of the project?)
timekeeping (given the time constraints, how well did the presentation make use of the time available?)
interest (how well did the presentation hold and maintain audience interest?)