Eden Valley girls study

• What did Emma Moore investigate?

  Investigated patterns of variation in speech amongst teenage girls in Bolton - longitudinal study over two years.Found that use of the non standard 'were' is a robust feature of their dialect.
• 4 Communities of practices studied:

  1. the populars: anti-school

  2. the townies: risky behaviour3. the geeks: institutionally orientated4. the Eden Valley girls: desirable home area, shopping and dancing.
• Emma Moore findings:

  There are certain contexts where the speakers are more likely to use the nonstandard 'were', e.g. tag questions at the end of clauses.Eden valley girls (higher class) used the standard 'was' almost all of the time + higher up a social class that an individual is, the more likely they are to use standard forms of English.