TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescent nicknaming as a rich linguistic and pedagogical resource for teachers
AU - Taylor-Leech, Kerry
AU - Starks, Donna
AU - Willoughby, Louisa Jane Vaughan
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Despite an increasing international trend towards integrating linguistics into the mainstream English curriculum, many teachers struggle to find exciting and relevant ways to cover this material with their students. In this article, we describe how nicknames collected as part of a research study of Australian secondary students can be used as a pedagogical resource for Year 9 students. We argue that the linguistic analysis of nicknaming provides an ideal opportunity for teachers to introduce linguistic concepts to a teenage audience that is age appropriate, relevant and meaningful. Based on a survey of 642 Australian high school students, we present some common features of nicknames and provide suggestions for how teachers could use this as a platform for exploring language issues with their students. We also show how the study of the forms and functions of nicknames fits into the Australian national curriculum for English at the junior secondary school level.
AB - Despite an increasing international trend towards integrating linguistics into the mainstream English curriculum, many teachers struggle to find exciting and relevant ways to cover this material with their students. In this article, we describe how nicknames collected as part of a research study of Australian secondary students can be used as a pedagogical resource for Year 9 students. We argue that the linguistic analysis of nicknaming provides an ideal opportunity for teachers to introduce linguistic concepts to a teenage audience that is age appropriate, relevant and meaningful. Based on a survey of 642 Australian high school students, we present some common features of nicknames and provide suggestions for how teachers could use this as a platform for exploring language issues with their students. We also show how the study of the forms and functions of nicknames fits into the Australian national curriculum for English at the junior secondary school level.
UR - http://goo.gl/aWux1M
U2 - 10.1177/0004944114563525
DO - 10.1177/0004944114563525
M3 - Article
VL - 59
SP - 51
EP - 64
JO - Australian Journal of Education
JF - Australian Journal of Education
SN - 0004-9441
IS - 1
ER -