Exploring College Slang

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Exploring College Slang

• Joe McVeigh
• Ann Wintergerst

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Slangan active introduction

• tot
• wastey face 
• fives
• boo
• own
• slammin

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Heres a little context

• A Did you see her hair? You can tell she did
  that dye job herself! B Tot!
• I got wastey face in the basement last night
  after my first bottle of wine.
• I call fives! Im just going to the bathroom.
• From now on its all about you Boo, all about
  you.
• Dude, my snowboard completely owns yours.
• Did you see that girl?  She was slammin!

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Heres what the students said

• tot (adv) abbreviation for totally. Used in
  agreement
• wastey face (adj) very intoxicated OR noun a
  person who is very intoxicated. Synonyms
  hammered, wasted, drunk
• fives (n) an exclamation to lay claim to a seat
  when you are leaving for a few minutes,
  presumably five minutes. Synonyms be right back,
  brb
• boo (n) a name for a lover, derived from the
  french word beau which roughly means beautiful.
  Synonyms girlfriend, boyfriend.
• own (v) 1. to be superior to. Synonyms to rock,
  to rule. Usage comparing similar objects.
• slammin (adj) very attractive.  Synonyms hot,
  good looking. 

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What is slang?

• Informal, one or two words, considered
  non-standard
• Varies by age, region, or other demographic
  factors
• May relate to illicit activities or may be
  vulgar or vituperative
• Over time may change to standard status

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Student difficulties with slang

• Undergraduate international students with high
  levels of English

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Origins of the project

• New first-year international students at
  Middlebury
• William Safire article in New York Times
• Checking with NS undergraduate informants

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• New York Times September 30, 2007
• On Language Campusspeak by William Safire
• Sketchy about the lingo being spoken by todays
  adultalescents?
• Word-blending is big in campuspeak. Hes sort of
  a nerd, but hes just so adorkable combines
  adorable with dork, the amalgam defined as
  endearing though socially inept Another blend
  is fauxhawk, combining faux, artificial, and
  Mohawk, defined as a hairstyle achieved by
  combing all of the hair to the center to give the
  appearance of a Mohawk without shaving the head.
  
• Yet another is ginormous, blending gigantic with
  enormous A new slang blend is chillax, from the
  adjective chill, easygoing, and the verb relax,
  the combo meaning do nothing in particular, an
  activity widely practiced in centers of learning
  throughout the nation.

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Methodology

• Slang Collection assignment in undergrad TESOL
  methodology course
• Results of the initial collection
• Problems with the initial collection
• Forming of project team
• Alexis Mussomelieditor
• Ellie Molyneux Natalie Sammarcosurveys
• Katie Moon Uma Tantriweb design

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Project Initial EditAlexis Mussomeli

• Duplicates
• Idioms
• Non-local items
• Standardization of definitions

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Project SurveyEllie Molyneux Natalie Sammarco

• Smaller lists of words
• Survey construction
• Email requests
• Responses
• Survey results

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Survey Objectives

• Obtain demographic information
• First language, friend group, affiliations
• Determine frequency of slang use
• How often do you hear this vs. say
• Determine variability in slang meaning
• Investigate correlations between demographics and
  reported slang frequency

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Hypotheses

• International and ESL students with less
  interaction with NSs probably hear and are aware
  of fewer slang terms
• Variations in frequency
• Most students would be aware of the words in the
  survey

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Method

• 4 surveys
• 39 words per survey
• 156 words total
• Randomly distributed

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(No Transcript)
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Participant Origins and First Languages
N 203
17.7 internationalstudents
15.2 ESL students
81.7 domestic students
84.7 native English speakers
Middlebury 2007 10 international
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Is there a connection between reported slang
frequency and . . .

• . . . social house residence ?
• . . . class year ?
• . . . gender ?
• . . . international student status ?

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Results

• Is there a connection between reported slang
  frequency and social house residence?

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Percentage of first years vs. seniors who often
hear or very often hear the word
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Percentage of men vs. women who often or very
often hear the word
Sausage
Bangin
Fest
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Percentage of NNS vs. NS students who never hear
the word
Facebook stalk
ferreal
fives
fo shizzle
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Survey Limitations

• Relatively small sample size
• Confirmation bias, fatigue, correlation vs.
  causality
• Self-reporting vs. discourse analysis approach

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Project Web ImplementationKatie Moon Uma
Tantri

• Dictionary navigable or downloadable
• Categories
• Audio files
• Resources
• Practice materials

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The Web Site

• https//segue.middlebury.edu/index.php?actionsite
  siteslang-glos
• Or go to www.joemcveigh.org and look for the
  link to the Middlebury Slang Project
• You will find
• Definitions and example sentences
• A downloadable dictionary
• Sound files
• Electronic resources
• Learning suggestions

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Project Idioms Team

• Dictionary of idioms with definitions
• Downloadable from web site
• Sophie Elphick Ley Lacbawan

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Slang and Idioms

• How is slang different from idioms and
  colloquial language?
• Idioms under the weather
• to kick the bucket
• to bite the dust
• Colloquial language shut up
• Slang babe, chick,
• dude, hunk
• wired, mellow

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Purposes of slang

• To identify members of a group
• To change the level of discourse in the direction
  of informality
• To oppose established authority

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Slang and idioms

• Idiom processing strategies by L2 learners of
  English (Cooper 1999)
• Guessing from context (28)
• Discussing literal meanings (19)
• Using the literal meaning (19)
• Other strategies (29)
• L2 learners employ a variety of strategies based
  on what works for them

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Slang and idioms

• Corpus analysis of Am. Eng. Idioms (Liu 2003)
• Aimed at identifying most frequent idioms in
  academic contexts
• Difficult to capture low-frequency idioms that
  could be important to students

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General learning strategies

• Converse with native English speakers.  A lot of
  slang can be picked up easily if the first time
  you hear it or use it, you can personally relate
  to it. 
• Watch American sitcoms or movies.  Slowly you
  will be able to understand more and more slang by
  picking up on context clues. 
• Listen to American music.  American music is one
  of the mediums through which many slang words are
  created and shared.

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Activities for Teaching Slang

• Fill in the blank dialogs
• Listening fill in the blank
• Sentence matching exercises
• Crossword puzzle
• Campus research projects

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Fill in the blank dialogs

• Fill in the blanks with slang expressions
  describing people
• couch potato catch cold
  crush loaded player
  hot
• Jack Why didnt you pick up the phone when I
  called you last night?
• Mary You ignored me in school today and were so
  ___cold__________.
• Jack I thought you were mad at me because you
  heard I have a __crush________ on Angela and Im
  a real __player__________.
• Mary Im not mad because of that but because
  youre such a lazy __couch potato___________.
• Jack You know that Im a good ___catch___________
  because Im ___loaded/hot_________.

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Sentence matching exercises

• Matching column with slang expressions related to
  drinking and relationships
• __d___ black out a. to engage in heavy, usually
  prolonged kissing
• __f___ hot b. extremely intoxicated
• __h___ buzzed c. to fall asleep very quickly
  due to exhaustion or alcohol
• __g___ knocked up d. to lose ones memory as a
  result of extreme intoxication
• __c___ pass out e. a close relationship
  exuding stylish qualities
• __a___ make out f. sexy, popular or in style
• __b___ wasted g. pregnant, often referring to
  an unplanned pregnancy
• __e___ tight h. moderately inebriated

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3. Dialogue using slang expressions related to
academics

• LiMing, a student from Shanghai, China, arrived
  on campus for the first day of classes. He
  overheard the following conversation in the
  cafeteria
• Pete Hows it goin man?
• Andy Finals tomorrow, so I pulled an
  ____all-nighter_________.
• Pete Me too. Im so far behind, so I
  ____crammed__________ til way after midnight.
• Andy If I dont do well and I ____bomb__________
  the exam, Ill fail my economics class for sure.
  Then Ill be ____screwed_________ because my GPA
  will go way down. My mom will kill me.
• Pete Im in the same boat.

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Crossword Puzzle
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Campus research projects
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Specific steps for classroom teachers

• Compile a list of slang expressions that would be
  useful for your students and that are
  level-appropriate.
• Ask students if they have heard of any of these
  slang expressions on the list.
• Give them an example of each one in a sentence
  either orally, on the board, or on a handout
  because additional context is usually helpful in
  figuring out the meaning.
• Distribute the handout with the slang
  expressions, definitions, and example sentences
  and review these with them.
• Create activities such as the ones you just
  participated in to help them learn, understand,
  and practice these slang expressions.

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Specific steps for classroom teachers

• Ask students to work in pairs/groups on these
  activities.
• After checking the answers, have each pair/group
  prepare a short skit in which they use any of the
  newly learned slang expressions.
• Have students perform these role plays in front
  of the class.
• For homework, assign them to listen for slang
  expressions used by Americans on or off campus,
  on television, in the movies, or in songs and
  bring these to the next class. The first five
  minutes of each class will be a mini-lesson on
  slang expressions and feature the slang
  expressions of 2-3 students.
• Ask students to keep a running list of new slang
  expressions. By the end of the course, their
  slang vocabulary will have increased tremendously.

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Electronic Resources

• Middlebury College Slang Project
• https//segue.middlebury.edu/sites/slang-glos
• Introduction to TESOL Course Web Site
• https//segue.middlebury.edu/?actionsitesitei
  ntd1028a-w08
• Joe McVeigh dot org presentation resources
• www.joemcveigh.org
• Urban Dictionary
• www.urbandictionary.com
• The Online Slang Dictionary
• www.onlineslangdictionary.com
• The Internet Slang Dictionary
• www.noslang.com/dictionary.php

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Published resources

• Owen Hargreaves
• David Burke

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Questions and Discussion

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• Thank you