Discussion about Midterm : Concerns about the test and its results will be addressed after the grades are handed out. The test will be curved.

A tentative schedule for the rest of the semester was handed out. The readings from the textbook will have more of a British focus on them. They will also be of a more technical nature. So instead readings on reserve will replace them.

An excerpt of a radio talk show, "Weekend Edition", featuring Scottish speaker Stuart Mcarty was listened to next. He touched on a variety of topics: English and Scottish stemming from the same root language, but developing different; how Scottish can be understood if Americans try hard enough, as with the movie "trainspotting"; how English is an absorbent language - we absorbed words such as wee, bonnie, and reak from the Scottish language; and how English bent too much to the will of Legislature and businessmen.

The most important aspect of Scottish the speaker seemed to address was the idea of social and political judgments; how class and status played a major role in the Scottish language's history and current state. In some cases for instance, the Scottish was beaten out of children.

Lastly, Stuart Mcarty read a Scottish poem with a Gaelic title.

After listening to the radio show the issue of "What does it mean to be expressive," was brought up, concerning language.

Next a cut from the movie "Fargo" was shown. In this clip, during a family dinner, the speakers speak with accents those in Wisconsin, or North Dakota might acquire. After the clip, observations were voiced that the speakers' vowels , rises in intonation, and ways of saying "yeah" were different to us.

Then a clip from the movie "My Fair Lady" was shown. This clip revolved around three main characters: Prof. Henry Higgins, Colonel Pickering, and Eliza Doolittle.

The Professor was a great authority on dialect; he studied Old English and swore he could identify anyone's locality within six miles, two in London, just by listening to them speak. The Colonel is a gentleman and scholar studying ancient language as well. Eliza is a flower seller whose speech the Prof. is copying down in what appears to be a pre-cursor of the phonetic alphabet. The Prof. voices his opinions in song, which ison a handout passed out during class.

After this movie clip, another issue was raised about the different attitudes about variety in the English language. Some connections that were made concerned reflections of culture, language being more important than dress, behavior or status, education eliminating variation in pronunciation, and the idea of one right, good English.