Language investigation ideas
A good investigation will cover each of the Assessment Objectives.
To get a strong AO1 mark an investigation needs to use demanding terminology accurately and incisively, but the specifics will be different for different investigations - ideally cover a range of features and keep an eye open for surprising or unanticipated features in your data.
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Language investigation ideas: Accent and dialect
Does shop assistants’ speech converge with the speech style of their customers?
A version of Labov’s study can easily be done anywhere there are a variety of similar shops (or publicly accessible institutions like sports centres or libraries).
Language investigation ideas: Ethnicity and social networks
Do second and third generations of immigrant families converge less with local Anglo English dialects?
Research by Sharma and Sankaran measured the use of non-standard British Asian and Cockney features in the speech of two generations of British Asian people. They found that the older generation were converging much more dramatically with people they spoke with.
Language investigation ideas: Language and gender
Do female MMA fighters use ‘masculine’ speech features?
Given combat sports are a violent and competitive environment, they might be thought of as a stereotypically masculine environment. An investigation could look at whether female participants use features that researchers have claimed are more commonly used by men.
Language investigation ideas: Social networks, ethnicity and brokers
Do different social networks adopt new features at different rates? (or: Are specific individuals spreading novel features through their social networks?)
To work well, this idea would need a sharp ear for new features and access to specific sorts of social networks.
Language investigation ideas: World Englishes and gender
If genderlects exist, do people who learn English as a second language display features that have been identified as gendered?
If men and women speak in distinct ways (as has been claimed by Lakoff, Tannen and others), it would be interesting to see whether people who have learned English as a second language display these traits – presumably if the (claimed) difference is primarily due to biological factors (e.g.