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Research Skills English Language

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We met last week to discuss feedback and have made the following amendments to our questionnaire:

*The opening paragraph has been edited so that it isn’t too time consuming/off putting but still contains key information about content, purpose, anonymity and consent.
*Added an option for people who have not gone to University.
*Taken out the options regarding religious faith so that it is a simple yes/no/decline to answer format.
*We have made provisions for the possibility that the participant may not use taboo language at all – the participant is firstly directed to an open question that enquires as to why they choose not to use it before they are informed that they have completed the questionnaire.
*Changed the wording of question 9 from ‘moments’ to ‘circumstances’ as it is less ambiguous and also more directly related to context.
*Changed the wording of the final question to ‘would you ever...’ as opposed to ‘how often do you...’ This doesn’t assume that they actually use this word and also gives further insight into the strength of their attitude towards it.
*Changed the wording of question 7 from ‘dictated’ to ‘influences’.
*Question 7b is now open to all participants and is less ambiguous as we have provided options. This will also hopefully show whether the age of other people affects the participant’s use of/attitude towards taboo language.
*we have incorporated more ‘decline to answer’ options.


We piloted a draft and made minor amendments. The final draft below is currently being used to collect more data. We are aiming to collect from a total of 50 people, focusing on those in the 18-25 and 40-65 categories. If anybody ticks the 26-39 or 65+ boxes then their data will be discounted. We are also focusing on those who have been to University as this will provide some element of shared/similar background. If anybody indicates that they have not gone to University then their data will be discounted.We have decided against using an online questionnaire as the return rate is so low and we would have an unpredictable number of responses. By handing out in person we will have more control and a constant awareness of how much data we have and can keep collecting until we reach our target number. We are meeting later this week to discuss.

Dear Participant,This questionnaire has been created by English Language students at the University of Birmingham, with the purpose of researching how taboo language is regarded by people in different age groups.The questions will be about your attitudes towards it and your own use of taboo language.

Given the topic, the questions deal with language which may be deemed offensive, but this is what we're investigating, and your identity will not be revealed as you do not need to give your name. By completing and returning the questionnaire, you are giving your consent for the information you provide to be used in our investigation. If you have any queries about this questionnaire, please do not hesitate to contact either; Samantha Guess at SXG006@bham.ac.uk, or Louis Atkinson at louis.atkinson@yahoo.co.uk.Thank you for your time and co-operation.

1. Please tick the relevant box:□ Male □ Female

2. Please tick the relevant age range:□ 18-25 □ 26-39 □ 40-65□ 65 +

3. Please tick the relevant box:□ University undergraduate□ University graduate□ Neither

4. Do you have a religious faith?□ Yes □ No □ Declined to answer

5. Do you use taboo language?□ Yes □ No If not, are there any particular reasons as to why you choose not to swear? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________If you have answered no, you have completed the questionnaire. Thank you for your time

.6. By estimation, how often do you swear on an average day? (Please circle)0 times 1-5 times 6-10 times 11-15 times 16+

7. If you answered 16+, please estimate the number of times you would swear on an average day:____________________________________________________________________________

8. On a scale of 1 to 5, how often do you swear in the following contexts? (Please circle) 1 being never, 5 very often:

Casual conversation 1 2 3 4 5
Strengthen an argument 1 2 3 4 5
As an insult 1 2 3 4 5
Express positive emotion 1 2 3 4 5
Express negative emotion 1 2 3 4 5

9. Are there any particular circumstances that will cause you to swear?_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

10. Do you feel that the amount you swear is influenced by the people around you? (Please circle)□ Yes □ No

11. In general, do you feel comfortable swearing in the presence of the following:□ People of an older generation □ People of a younger generation □ People of the same generation □ No difference

12. In your opinion, which swear word is the most offensive?____________________________________________________________________________□ Decline to answer

13. Would you ever use this word? If so, in what context?□ Yes □ No______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Questionnaire

Here's the brand new questionnaire. Obviously, the formatting is a lot better on a word document.

We are using two age ranges, but are asking the for the age ranges in between due to the risk of offending people by assuming their age.

Dear Participant,

This questionnaire has been created by English Language students at the University of Birmingham, with the purpose of researching how the use of taboo language differs with age. We want to investigate how the use differs between a younger generation with a university education, and an older generation with a university education. The questions will ask about your the frequency with which you swear, the contexts in which you swear, your opinion on the most offensive word and the attitudes you have towards swearing.

Due to the nature of this questionnaire, it will be dealing with language which may be deemed offensive, but it is purely for research purposes and all participants will be kept anonymous. By completing and returning it, you are giving your consent for the information you provide to be used in our investigation. If you have any queries about this questionnaire, please do not hesitate to contact either; Samantha Guess at SXG006@bham.ac.uk, or Louis Atkinson at louis.atkinson@yahoo.co.uk.

Thank you for your time and co-operation,

Charlie Allen

Charlotte Ashley

Louis Atkinson

Samantha Guess

Rebecca Marshall

1. Please tick the relevant box:

□ Male

□ Female

2. Please tick the relevant age range:

□ 18-25

□ 26-39

□ 40-65

□ 65 +

3. Please tick the relevant box:

□ University undergraduate

□ University graduate

4. Which of the following do you regard yourself as? (Please tick)

□ Christian (Including all Christian denominations)

□ Hindu

□ Jewish

□ Buddhist

□ Sikh

□ Muslim

□ Atheist

□ Other (please specify):________________________________________

5. By estimation, how often do you swear on an average day? (Please circle)

0 times 1-5 times 6-10 times 11-15 times 16+

6. If you answered 16+, please estimate the number of times you would swear on an average day:

____________________________________________________________________________

7. Do you feel that the amount you swear is dictated by the people around you? (Please circle)

Yes No

If so, who do you feel more comfortable around when swearing?

____________________________________________________________________________

8. On a scale of 1 to 5, how often do you swear in the following contexts? (Please circle)

Never Very often

Casual conversation 1 2 3 4 5

Strengthen an argument 1 2 3 4 5

As an insult 1 2 3 4 5

Express positive emotion 1 2 3 4 5

Express negative emotion 1 2 3 4 5

9. Are there any other moments in which you would swear?

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

10. If so, using the scale above, how often? (Please circle)

Never Very often

1 2 3 4 5

11. In your opinion, which swear word is the most offensive?

____________________________________________________________________________

12. How often do you use this swear word?

____________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your time.

1.

Questionnaire

Here is the revised version of our questionnaire that we intend to use as a final draft:

This questionnaire has been created by English Language students to investigate the use of taboo language. Due to the nature of this investigation, some language may be considered offensive, but it is purely for research purposes, so please answer as honestly as possible. By completing it, you are giving your consent for the information you provide to be used in the previously mentioned investigation. All personal details are anonymous and if you have any queries, please contact Louis Atkinson at louis.atkinson@yahoo.co.uk or Samantha Guess at SXG006@bham.ac.uk

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire.


Please circle the following category that applies to you:

Gender: Male Female

Age group: 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56+



Look at these words and answer the following questions:
1) Bloody
2) Cunt
3) Fuck
4) Shit
5) Twat


1. Are you unfamiliar with any of the words above? (Circle yes or no below)

YES NO

If yes, please state:________________________________________________________________



2. Which word are you most likely to in the following contexts (you can use the words more than once, or you can leave a space blank if you feel that none of the words are appropriate):

Anger/Frustration:________________________________________________________________
Direct Insult:____________________________________________________________________
For emphasis/exaggeration_________________________________________________________
Everyday conversation:____________________________________________________________
Joy:____________________________________________________________________________
Term of endearment:______________________________________________________________


3. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being least offensive and 5 being most offensive, how would you rank these words? (Please circle)

Bloody 1 2 3 4 5
Cunt 1 2 3 4 5
Fuck 1 2 3 4 5
Shit 1 2 3 4 5
Twat 1 2 3 4 5


4. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being never and 5 being very frequently, how often do you use these words? (Please circle)
Bloody 1 2 3 4 5
Cunt 1 2 3 4 5
Fuck 1 2 3 4 5
Shit 1 2 3 4 5
Twat 1 2 3 4 5

5. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not at all and 5 being very, how appropriate is the use of the words in the company of a parent?

Bloody 1 2 3 4 5

Cunt 1 2 3 4 5

Fuck 1 2 3 4 5

Shit 1 2 3 4 5

Twat 1 2 3 4 5

6. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not at all and 5 being very, how appropriate is the use of the words in the company of a close friend?

Bloody 1 2 3 4 5

Cunt 1 2 3 4 5

Fuck 1 2 3 4 5

Shit 1 2 3 4 5

Twat 1 2 3 4 5

7. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not at all and 5 being very, how appropriate is the use of the words in the company of a stranger?

Bloody 1 2 3 4 5

Cunt 1 2 3 4 5

Fuck 1 2 3 4 5

Shit 1 2 3 4 5

Twat 1 2 3 4 5

8. In general, who are you more comfortable swearing in the company of?

Males Females No difference

9. Which word in the English Language do you find the most offensive? (You can select a word from inside or outside the five we have given you)

_______________________________________________________________________________



10. If you have any further comments about taboo language, please feel free to express them:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Milestone 2

Milestone 2:

What we have done:

- we have constructed a draft questionnaire which we piloted and have since edited again using the feedback we received from the recipients and the advice given to us by Alison Sealey, to produce our final draft ready to distribute

- we have met on a weekly basis either at the library or the mason lounge to discuss our progress since the beginning of the module

- we have primarily communicated through Facebook on a regular basis on top of meeting every week in order to keep track of each others progress and brainstorm any ideas or potential points of discussion for the next meeting

- we have all contributed significantly in terms of coming up with ideas, putting them into practice and recording our progress on the blog itself

- we have all completed background reading in preparation once we decided upon our topic (individual's completed reading will be put up shortly)

- we have decided upon giving out our questionnaires by hand and have a rough outline of the methodology in interpreting the results

What we will do:

- Distribute 10 questionnaires each, giving us a total of 50 to analyse the results

- Once we have collected the results, we can interpret the data it gives us in terms of addressing our topic of gender and age in taboo language

- Once data has been interpreted we will start thinking about our presentation and what we want to include as well as how we will present our findings

Feedback we have addressed:

- we have decided to have 5 age groups as we think that splitting them in this way will allow us to obtain gradual trends and will give us more specific findings of which we can subsequently present; we do acknowledge that there will be overlap between the age groups but we have taken it into consideration and believe that our age groups we specify in the questionnaire will be the most productive

- From the feedback we received from Alison Sealey we have decided to add 2 further questions on context and 1 on gender in our final questionnaire

- in terms of the feedback regarding how we are planning to select recipients we have decided to target people that fit the age groups so we can get a relatively equal selection of data from each age group, ensuring we have enough data to present when referring across the age groups

in terms of the feedback regarding how we are planning to distribute questionnaire we have decided to give them out by hand as only 1/3 of online questionnaires are completed (Alison Sealey), also we felt for the older age category it may not be appropriate as they could be less familiar with the techonology. While we do acknowledge the notion that a recipient may be less likely to give truthful answer in the questionnaire with one of us present, we are considering giving a number of questionnaires to a group of people and having them put them in an envelope so before giving it back to us (similar to the way in which the University of Birmingham obtains feedback in several of its departments), which could make them give more truthful answers.

We are meeting again next week and hope to have some data by then!!!

11/11/11

Group 2

Louis

Sam

Charlie

Charlotte

Rebecca

Our questionnaire

This questionnaire has been created by English Language students to investigate how the use of taboo language differs with age. Due to the nature of this investigation, some language may be considered offensive, but it is purely for research purposes, so please answer as honestly as possible. By completing it, you are giving your consent for the information you provide to be used in the previously mentioned investigation. All personal details are anonymous and if you have any queries, please contact Louis Atkinson at louis.atkinson@yahoo.co.uk or Samantha Guess at SXG006@bham.ac.uk

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire.


Please circle the following category that applies to you:

Gender: Male Female

Age group: 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56+



Look at these words and answer the following questions:
1) Bloody
2) Cunt
3) Fuck
4) Shit
5) Twat


1. Are you unfamiliar with any of the words above? (Circle yes or no below)

YES NO

If yes, please state:________________________________________________



2. Which word are you most likely to in the following contexts (you can use the words more than once, or you can leave a space blank if you feel that none of the words are appropriate):

Anger/Frustration:____________________________________________________
Direct Insult:_________________________________________________________
For emphasis/exaggeration______________________________________________
Everyday conversation:_________________________________________________
Joy:_________________________________________________________________
Term of endearment:___________________________________________________



3. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being least offensive and 5 being most offensive, how would you rank these words? (Please circle)

Bloody 1 2 3 4 5
Cunt 1 2 3 4 5
Fuck 1 2 3 4 5
Shit 1 2 3 4 5
Twat 1 2 3 4 5


4. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being never and 5 being most frequently, how often do you use these words? (Please circle)
Bloody 1 2 3 4 5
Cunt 1 2 3 4 5
Fuck 1 2 3 4 5
Shit 1 2 3 4 5
Twat 1 2 3 4 5


5. Which word in the English Language do you find the most offensive? (You can select a word from inside or outside the five we have given you)

____________________________________________________________________________



6. If you have any further comments about taboo language, please feel free to express them:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our revised Group Learning Agreement:

The topic we have chosen to investigate is swearing. Our original idea was to investigate how the use of taboo language differed according to gender, but as Alison Sealey has highlighted, there is an unclear distinction between the concept of ‘male’ and ‘female’ and so it would prove difficult. Because of this, we have decided to re-direct our investigation and look at the use of taboo language across different age groups.

Relevant Reading:
Our chosen topic requires a lot of background research, and not just to do with swearing itself. Having said this, most of our reading will focus on swearing, and so far we have found the following:

*Language and Gender by Mary Talbot
*Forbidden Words by Keith Allan and Kate Burridge
*Men Talk by Jennifer Coates
*Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power 1586 to the present by Tony McEnery
*Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English by Geoffrey *Hughes Gender and Discourse: The Power of Talk by Alexandra Todd and Sue Fisher
*Corpus and Sociolingustics: Investigating Age and Gender in Female Talk by Brona Murphy
*Why We Curse: A Neuro-psych-social Theory of Speech by Timothy Jay
*Researching English Language: A Resource Book for Students by Alison Sealey
*Foccussing on Language by Mark Sebba

This background reading will highlight any similar studies that can help us during our investigation, especially with any problems that could be encountered. It will also be useful in giving our findings context and support.


What Our Research Will Answer:
The main question we want to answer is: How do attitudes towards swearing differ between age groups? To achieve this, we need to ask more specific questions focusing on:

*The familiarity of the participant with specific swear words
*The contexts in which the participant may use swear words
*How offensive the participant finds specific swear words
*The frequency that swear words are used by the participant

We are interested to know if swearing is considered more offensive by one particular age group, or if it is viewed in a similar way by people of all ages. We would also like to find out whether patterns of use vary notably across age groups – for example, does one group swear more on average? Context is very important in the use of swearing and we would like to find out if age has an impact on when/why people swear.


Methodology:
To carry out our investigation, we will be using questionnaires - we plan to send out 50. We will attempt to gather an equal number of samples from each age group, but the individuals themselves will be selected randomly.

We will include questions confirming age and gender, as well as questions addressing the use and attitudes of the participant towards swearing.

We are aware of the sensitivity of our research topic, and will endeavour to cause as little offense to our participant as possible by incorporating a statement explaining who we are and the nature of our investigation. In accordance with BAAL ethical guidelines, we will ensure that potential participant have a full understanding of the investigation and our intentions for the data collected, and that they give full consent to take part.


Data:
The majority of the data we collect will come from closed questions regarding:
*Age (brackets)
*Gender
*Familiarity with swear words
*Offensiveness of swear words
*Context of use
*Frequency of use

However we intend to incorporate a number of open questions in order to broaden our data and give perspective to potential patterns within our findings.


Analysis Methodology:
We will quantify the data and look for potential patterns and recurrent answers before suggesting links to age in accordance with our reading. We will use scatter graphs to display and illustrate our findings.


Presentation:
We will be presenting our findings through a vodcast – a video podcast.