A common theme in comments I have been making this week relates to the point that I've made in at least the last couple of lessons, ??about the importance of making sure you have language issues / theories (the AO2 stuff) clearly in mind as you formulate your research question (or hypothesis, but as I've said, research questions are usually much more useful than hypotheses) and then work with your data.
There was also clear evidence that centres were encouraging candidates to think very??carefully about the use of language theories (AO2) to shape their language investigations.
Interesting examples:
??? do Lakoff 's findings reflect male/female language use in cartoon films?
??? can Tannen 's difference theory be found in pre-teen mixed conversations?
??? to what extent can Labov s theory of divergence and convergence be found in a
classroom interaction?
??? are David Crystal 's theories on technology still valid?
??? to what extent did the World Cup Cricket commentaries conform to Adrian Beard 's??theories about sports commentaries?
You must make sure that you are making clear reference to specific language issues / theories, otherwise you are bound to get a low mark for AO2, and it is likely to have a negative knock-on effect on your AO1 mark, as you haven't thought clearly about the language issues you are dealing with you are fairly unlikely to be using the most appropriate linguistic methods.
Heald English 