There is a growing trend for older people in the UK to keep working for longer. The percentage of 50-64 year-olds rose from 62% in 2001 to 69.4% in 2015; and for people over 65, from 5% to 10.5% in the same period (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2015). There are now over 8.5 million people aged over 50 in paid employment (The Experts in Age and Employment (TAEN), 2012). In the context of this changing workforce demographic, it is important to examine how older people negotiate their age-related identities as older workers and represent their views on retirement. This study takes a Discourse Analytic (DA) approach to examining how older age-identity is negotiated in talk, gathered from seven focus groups conducted in workplaces and twelve semi-structured interviews with older workers and retirees. Discourse Analytic research on identity has often neglected to address age-identity construction. The use of DA methodologies in this investigation has enabled discursive strategies, such as distancing strategy, to be identified during participants’ older age-identity constructions; and Social Identity Theory (SIT) (Tajfel and Turner, 1979; Benwell and Stokoe, 2006), positioning theory (Harré and van Langenhove, 1999; Jones, 2006), and Membership Categorisation Analysis (Sacks, 1995; Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002) have provided frameworks for a discourse analytic approach. Older age-identities were negotiated whilst participants were orienting to being older in the workplace and retirement. Previous qualitative studies [into this topic] have focused on a content analysis of what was said, not how. There is a discursive element to age-identity construction that requires a social constructionist, context dependent approach to how age is negotiated through language. In this study, a DA approach has allowed for a micro-level examination which extends previous research by demonstrating how participants use language to negotiate their age-identities as older workers and retirees by drawing on different aspects of ageing, such as chronological, physical and social dimensions [of age] in a specific social context relating to being older at work. Findings indicate that many participants resisted negative perceptions of decrement and decline that may be associated with ageing and retirement when constructing their age-identities. This was achieved in several ways, for example, by discursively claiming membership of a younger age cohort, resisting the changes that accompany ageing, or by ‘out-grouping’ people who were perceived to display certain archetypal behaviours associated with older people. Findings also demonstrate that older people who were still at work articulated negative views about retirement; however, people who had already retired demonstrated a positive orientation towards this life stage. Keeping busy and active after leaving work was said by both older workers and retirees to play a vital part in defraying the possible decline that accompanies old age and may help to achieve successful retirement and ageing. This study has demonstrated how an ideology of positive ageing has been discursively constructed during older age-identity negotiations.

Received Pronunciation (RP) has been widely described linguistically (Wells 1982, 1991, 1997), although little sociolinguistic research has been carried out on it (Fabricius 2000). Over the last few years, a new trend has been observed in young RP speakers to incorporate non-standard features in their accent, such as t-glottalling (Fabricius 2000). This quantitative sociophonetic study analyses to what extent t-glottalling is present in the speech of young RP speakers and which are the linguistic and social constraints that affect its variability. The data are based on sociolinguistic interviews of 20 teenagers, aged between 13 and 17, from three different types of schools in the South of England: a major public (private) boarding school, a private non-boarding school and an outstanding rated comprehensive school in a prosperous rural area. These data are complemented by 15 older speakers, aged 27, who are ex-alumni of the schools under study. The quantitative data are analysed through multivariate analysis using Varbrul. This thesis aims at re-visiting t-glottalling, a widely researched linguistic variable, from an innovative perspective, by splitting the dataset into word-medial and word-final and by analysing a wide range of linguistic factors, which have often been overlooked in previous studies of t-glottalling in British accents. The linguistic constraints analysed in the study are: preceding and following phonological environment (with types of consonants and types of vowels), style, grammatical category, stress, number of syllables and lexical frequency. As for the social constraints, they include type of school (used as a proxy for social class), age and gender. Results show that young RP speakers are being conservative in terms of word-medial t-glottalling, whereas in word-final contexts, they are being innovative and language change is in progress, especially in the word-final pre-pausal and pre-vocalic (back vowels) phonological environments. Furthermore, lexical frequency seems to be playing a role in the different progressing stages of the glottal stop word-internally and across word boundaries. Finally, this research shows that type of school is a crucial factor in explaining the variability of the glottal stop in this accent, with teenagers from the comprehensive and private non-boarding schools being the ones who are leading the changes of t-glottalling in young RP and with those speakers belonging to the most elitist private boarding schools resisting considerably the adoption of t-glottalling. This thesis examines how different RP is in middle, middle-upper and upper class youth today, as well as analyses the state of RP in the current generation, to see if there are any changes in progress. Another variant has been found in the analysis, which has shown a new and interesting development in young RP: taps. This may suggest that new non-standard features might be making their way into young RP speech. Moreover, this study aims to re-evaluate RP as a label and revise the relationship between social class and language variation, by discussing new approaches in the social class literature and by drawing concepts and ideas from the sociology of education and the sociology of the elites to understand the nature of RP as a social accent.

This study investigates the effect of corpus consultation on the accuracy of learner written error revisions. It examines the conditions which cause a learner to consult the corpus in correcting errors and whether these revisions are more effective than those made using other corrections methods. Claims have been made for the potential usefulness of corpora in encouraging a better understanding of language through inductive learning (Johns, 1991; Benson, 2001; Watson Todd, 2003). The opportunity for learners to interact with the authentic language used to compile corpora has also been cited as a possible benefit (Thurstun and Candlin, 1998). However, theoretical advantages of using corpus data have not always translated into actual benefits in real learning contexts. Learners frequently encounter difficulties in dealing with the volume of information available to them in concordances and can reject corpus use because it adds to their learning load (Yoon and Hirvela, 2004; Frankenberg Garcia, 2005; Lee and Swales, 2006). This has meant that practical employment of corpus data has sometimes been difficult to implement. In this experiment, learners on a six week pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course were shown how to use the BYU (Brigham Young University) website to access the BNC (British National Corpus) to address written errors. Through a draft/feedback/revision process using meta-linguistic error coding, the frequency, context and effectiveness of the corpus being used as a reference tool was measured. Use of the corpus was found to be limited to a small range of error types which largely involved queries of a pragmatic nature. In these contexts, the corpus was found to be a potentially more effective correction tool than dictionary reference or recourse to previous knowledge and it may have a beneficial effect in encouraging top-down processing skills. However, its frequency of use over the course was low and accounted for only a small proportion of accurate error revisions as a whole. Learner response to the corpus corroborated the negative perception already noted in previous studies. These findings prompt recommendations for further investigation into effective mediation of corpus data within the classroom and continued technological developments in order to make corpus data more accessible to non-specialists.

The study investigates the suitability of the English reading texts at lower education level(s) (secondary school, and preparatory level) in helping to prepare students to meet the reading demands placed on them at the next education level(s) (preparatory and first year university level) which may include more academic and specialised texts. The data of the study was gathered from three sources. First, we analysed the reading texts used at three different educational levels, namely, secondary (two textbook series), preparatory, and FYU level in three disciplines - English and Translation study, Medicine, and Engineering. Second, we obtained students’ perceptions at the three educational levels through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews about the suitability of the reading texts used at their level and/or the previous level in preparing them to deal with the reading texts encountered at the current and/or the subsequent educational level. Finally, we obtained teachers’ perspectives on text suitability at the three educational levels by using semi-structured interviews. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. The data was analysed quantitatively using SPSS, and qualitatively using thematic analysis. The findings revealed marked differences between the reading texts in the two secondary level English series. Furthermore, the reading texts offered at preparatory level were less demanding than the reading texts at the preceding level. In addition, the reading texts at the pre-university levels differ greatly from the reading that the students encounter at the FYU level, especially in medicine and engineering disciplines. Furthermore both secondary and preparatory level students and teachers believed that the reading texts currently offered at each level did not adequately prepare students for their reading at the next educational level. Finally, medicine and engineering students and their teachers at FYU level concurred that the reading texts at the preparatory level are not sufficient in preparing students to read specialist university textbooks. The English and translation students and their teachers however found the reading at preparatory level was useful preparation, due to their first year reading not being in fact of academic specialist subject textbooks. Important implications for stakeholders are discussed.

This thesis develops an analysis of the binding theory within the Minimalist approach to the architecture of the language faculty. As an expression of the principles governing the distribution and referential dependencies of reflexives, pronouns, and referential expressions, the binding theory has proved a highly successful and influential outcome of the generative programme. However, given the central Minimalist conjecture that the computational system is strictly derivational (non-representational), the binding theory has become one of the most problematic modules of the grammar, relying crucially on syntactically active constraints defined over representations of sentences. I aim to capture a range of crosslinguistic empirical facts previously attributed to Conditions A and B of the binding theory, armed only with purely derivational concepts and a generalised derivational domain: the ‘phase’. It is argued that binding relations are essentially determined in the computational component of the grammar, and substantial evidence is provided against viewing the binding conditions as interpretive instructions applying at LF. I argue that the binding conditions’ effects can instead be determined by the core operations Agree and Merge, with previously stipulated constraints on binding, including c-command and locality, falling out naturally from this analysis. Moreover, the strategy of reducing the local binding conditions to more general mechanisms leads to an elimination of the binding theory as a component of Universal Grammar. Independently motivated modifications to the canonical implementation of the Minimalist model are shown to furnish the approach with sufficient flexibility to account for some long-problematic empirical phenomena. This includes a complete treatment of ‘picture-noun’ reflexivisation in English and an account of the syntactic environments giving rise to non-complementarity between anaphors and pronouns. Finally, proposals are made for extending the approach to accommodate structured crosslinguistic variation in binding domains and orientation phenomena, with particular focus on Dutch, Norwegian, and Icelandic pronominal systems.

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This thesis is concerned with the issue of motivational intensity and sustainability in second language (L2) learning through investigating a recently-conceptualised phenomenon theorised by Dörnyei and colleagues (Dörnyei, Ibrahim, & Muir, 2015; Dörnyei, Muir, & Ibrahim, 2014) and termed Directed Motivation Currents (DMCs). The phenomenon is characterised by intensity of engagement, sustainability of effort, and positive affect, in which individuals display highly motivated goal-governed behaviour and achieve outcomes exceeding expectations set at the outset. DMCs are postulated to represent the optimal form of long-term engagement. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the DMCs in regard to their theoretical justification and empirical validation. The initial chapters present the argument for why the L2 motivation field needs a new motivational construct. It is posited that although aspects of DMCs are discussed in many existing theories, mainstream motivational psychology has not previously captured periods of motivational surges people experience in pursuit of valued personal visions. Accordingly, the main queries guiding this research were to examine what it was like to experience a DMC and what the motivational sources of such motivational drives were. Deploying a phenomenological method of data analysis, exploratory qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with a number of students who had experienced, or were experiencing, a DMC, whether individually or as part of a group. In addition to providing empirical validation for the DMC phenomenon, results revealed what conditions led to a DMC, what a DMC-cycle entailed, and how DMCs made use of a salient structure. The findings suggested that developing a facilitative structure immediately upon a DMC launch was key to the longevity of the current in part due to the effect of behavioural routines and their role in ensuring continued engagement and protecting it from competing temptations. The findings also implied the central role of positive affect in altering the perception of effort and rendering volitional self-control dispensable. As a result of eudaimonic happiness and a sense of growth, the participants experienced positive affect whereby effort was enjoyed and engagement was sustained until goal attainment. However, what accounted for most of the positive affect was not the pleasure of engagement itself or feelings associated with merely learning a second language. Rather, happiness was due to the sense that one was going through a transformational process in which one’s image and identity, level of operation and skills, as well as one’s entire personal entity was being developed. This somewhat indirect link between personal growth and happiness through L2 learning was seen as a new, promising, but challenging area of research. The results also revealed that DMCs could be experienced by groups of learners and at various levels and timescales when combined energy was directed at a shared goal. Furthermore, it was argued that group DMCs were the ultimate form of group performance in large part due to their potential immunity from social loafing which prevents groups from functioning at their highest capacity. In summary, empirical evidence presented in this thesis suggested that long-term motivational momentum in DMCs was the outcome of optimal aggregation of motivational properties that jointly enabled individuals and groups to operate at their highest levels and achieve outstanding results in a fast-track pathway towards goal attainment. While in a DMC, due to the impact of positive affect and a functioning structure, renewable motivational energy is utilised, which empowers long-term and self-propelled engagement without the need for volitional self-regulatory measures. Once applied in L2 settings, DMCs are argued to provide an exceptionally powerful boost to language learners’ motivation and performance.