*GRADE B LEVEL* NEA .
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WORD COUNT: 2,498 (without data)
English Language NEA Investigation: How is language used to establish dominance on the
judging panel in the television programme ‘The Xfactor’, and do the male judges use more
of these features than the female judges.
INTRODUCTION
My investigation focuses on the language spoken by the male and female judges on the
widely broadcasted television talent show competition - ‘The Xfactor’. The discovery of fresh
talents mixed with comedic show hosts and disputes between the mixed panel of judges,
creates compelling entertainment. However, I have chosen this topic because I am intrigued
by the way the judges use language to express their opinions and criticism after the
different performances on the live shows. This show provides me with interesting data on
gender and language because the series I will selected will include a mixed panel of judges,
allowing me to evaluate research from theorists about gender, and overall evaluate if men
use more dominance features than women.
By starting my investigation by reading articles such as - ‘Do Men and Women Speak
differently?’ by Jessica Butler 1, will hopefully provide me different theorists and their
research and ideas that will enable me to analyse in the transcript I will make of the episode
I have selected including the dialogue from the judges. This is so that I can then gain an
insight of how to interpret the language used by each judge and what different linguistic
theorists say about this.
AIMS:
Explore Deborah Tannen’s ‘Difference Model’ to evaluate if men and women use
language differently in the transcript.
Analyse Deborah Cameron’s ‘Dynamic Model’ and assess if men and women adopt
masculine and feminine speaking styles in different situation in the transcript.
Additionally, explore whether the female judges soften their language to express
their views on the contestant’s performance (epistemic modal forms e.g. “kind of”,
“sort of”).
Observe whether Zimmerman and West’ research into dominance are evident
amongst the judges, (e.g. interruptions).
, WORD COUNT: 2,498 (without data)
English Language NEA Investigation: How is language used to establish dominance on the
judging panel in the television programme ‘The Xfactor’, and do the male judges use more
of these features than the female judges.
HYPOTHESIS
Overall, I believe my investigation will show that the female judges will use more forms of
politeness as well as hedging to reduce the impact of negative feedback to the contestants.
However, I believe the male judges will not soften their comments and not be concerned
about protecting the ‘face’ of the contestant. I also predict that the males on the judging
panel will use more dominance features when stating their opinion of the performances by
interrupting more because they may want to show assertion in their opinion.
METHODOLOGY
In order to procure my data, I began by researching a range of past XFactor episodes on the
digital forum of YouTube2. Due to the fact that my source is located in the public domain
(YouTube), I have not faced any ethical issues because all media that is publicised onto this
site, has already been granted permission from the people present in the clips. I watched
many episodes from the UK version of the show, before deciding on the third live show
performance of season 14 in 2017, with contestant – Sam Black. I chose this episode
because it if fairly new compared to the episodes that I watched dating back to 2006 and
the date of the data I use is important because more recent episodes will be better to
represent the way men and women use language in today’s society. The way men and
women interact with each other in 2006 could be different compared to a decade later
because of changes to societal patriarchal views, and so it is vital that I took this into
consideration when choosing a clip.
In the live performances, there are two parts - the contestant’s performance and then the
judges’ comments. After finding what episode I wanted to analyse, I then focused on
transcribing the judges’ criticism of the performance and labelling where I could see
language features associated with dominance and identify if men used these features more
than women. Due to the fact that the source of my data is from a digital media platform, I
was able to calculate the mean length of utterance from each judge and evaluate what
gender had a larger value and begin to see if my results align with the research of linguistic
researchers.
The observer’s paradox refers to a situation in which the person being observed is
unknowingly influenced by the presence of the person investigating them. This will not be
the case for my investigation as the subjects of my investigation will not at all be aware that
I am investigating them, and the clip is for the purpose of entertainment. However, due to
the fact that the episode I will select and investigated is broadcasted on live television, this
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