Methodology ideas

My main topic for my coursework would be Language and Power. This is as my investigation would be on how prestige is presented or how describing different accents determine perception on prestige or a bit of the both.

To do this I would use a range of people and have them read an extract or monologue. One group may be told to do it in a profile of a character (with knowledge of their mood, relationship..) another in a certain accent and the final to read it naturally.

From this I should be able to see the difference in language and accent depending on how I brief the participant before the experiment.

A possible problem may be that I may not be able to find a completely neutral piece of text for the participants to read, however I could deal with this by making my own. This would therefore make it certain that they had not seen the text before.

Initial Courseworks ideas

I am interested in Language and Power, a initial idea I had was experiment that found how prestige is presented and also how describing different accents determine perception on prestige.

An alternative idea that I could use if my initial one does not work is either a longditutional study or cross section on the different uses of power techniques used by different political leaders internationally, I could look at this over the course of several years or through the different nationalities of the leaders.