This document provides background information on Supernanny, Jo Frost, and examines language features in episodes of her television show. It discusses Frost's experience in childcare and her approach, which focuses on consistent adult authority and a safe environment. Students are asked to predict Frost's accent, sociolect and idiolect based on her biography, and to analyze language features and power dynamics in clips from the show.

1. You naturally adapt your talk for different
listeners without even thinking about it.
For this assignment, you will explore how
Speech act Who might be talking? To whom?
Eh, what ya doin’ later?
I won’t be long, back for
tea
A teenager to a parent
Outta my way, you little
monster
Where’s your homework?
This is class!
It’s lovely, darling
Off you go
Hand in your books please
Excuse me, can you tell me
the way to …
Who’s my little soldier
then?
you do that.
Identify who the speaker is likely to be
addressing in the following examples:
Who holds the power in these exchanges?

2. Wednesday, 1st October
2014
Spoken Language
Study
L.O: To consolidate our knowledge of
spoken language and apply it to the
controlled assessment task.

3. Supernanny
O Frost was born in London, England, in 1971 to an English
father and a Gibraltarian mother.
O While she has no children of her own, Frost has 22 years'
experience in the field of childcare, working as a nanny in
Britain and the United States, including work with families
on the television series Supernanny, which is shown in 49
countries.
O Her childcare approach focuses on maintaining consistent
adult authority, while creating a safe and peaceful
environment. She introduced parents to "the naughty
step", a variation on the "time-out" method. She suggests
solutions for behavioural issues such as adherence to bed
time, meal time conduct, behaviour in public, sibling
rivalry, and anger management.

4. Predictions
O Based on her biography what can we
predict about Supernannies accent,
sociolect and idiolect?

5. Supernanny
O Watch the opening titles for the two
shows.
O Make a note of what you notice about them.
O How is Supernanny represented in the two
clips?
O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN25_lpI
hRI
O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZnWK6
DHesQ

6. Predictions
O What do you think will be the main
differences between the two shows?
O How will this be reflected in
Supernanny’s language?

8. First Impressions
O What do you notice about Supernanny’s:
-accent
-dialect
-idiolect
O What other language features can you identify?
O How does her speech effect the family?
O What is the viewers impression of her based on
how she speaks?
O Who holds the power in these conversations?

10. Comparing
O What do you notice about Supernanny’s:
-accent
-dialect
-idiolect
O What other language features can you identify?
O How does her speech effect the family?
O What is the viewers impression of her based on how she
speaks?
O Why is her speech different in this clip? What could
influence her language?
O Is the power relationship different?