Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to your English lesson today.

This lesson, we will continue to explore the short story "A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf.

And today we're going to think about how the writer's language is used to create meaning.

Take a moment to clear any distractions away, make sure you have everything you need at hand, including a pen and paper.

Then I'd like you to write down today's title, "Language Analysis".

So, we'll have a quick recap of the story to begin with.

And then we're going to focus on reading a smaller section to focus on how the writer's word, and word phrase and the language choices are used to create meaning.

Remember, language analysis is a really important part of all aspects of your English studies.

Being able to understand how the writer's choices create meaning, is absolutely essential in all forms of English.

We will then have a review quiz to end the lesson.

Let's start with a quick recap.

What is a short story? And what can you remember about them? A short story is a story with a fully developed theme, but one that's significantly shorter and less elaborate than the novel.

And they lend themselves really well to the genres like a ghost story.

What can you remember about "A Haunted House"? The story that we read last time.

Let's take a quick quiz to check your memory.

Firstly, which experimental literary movement was the writer, Virginia Woolf, associated with? Virginia Woolf, was associated with modernism.

Can you remember what that is? Modernism was a literary movement that grew out of the 19th century and modernist writers, experimented with new forms, styles, and methods of writing.

They tried to reflect the modern world around them.

And in this story, Virginia Woolf, subverts many of the conventions of that ghost story.

What kind of narrator was used in the story? So the narrator of the story is, mostly first person voice using pronouns, like I, we and us, but she also narrates her perceptions of a ghost and they are referred to in the third person, using he and she, and that allows us into the speaker's or narrator's stream of consciousness.

What are the ghostly couple looking for? Is it gold, each other, or their treasure? The ghostly couple are looking for their treasure.

It seems that their treasure is metaphorical, not literal.

It could maybe be a metaphor for their love.

Where was the story set? Is it a forest, in the narrator's home , or in a spooky mansion.

The story is set in the narrator's home.

Part of what makes the reader feel uneasy, is the fact that is set in an everyday home.

And the idea that there is something supernatural going on, just outside your perception in your own comfortable space, is quite unsettling.

What does the numerator hear the house whispering? Is it, wait, wait, wait, safe, safe, safe, or help, help, help.

Well done, if you remembered that it is, safe, safe, safe.

And again, it makes us feel a little bit uneasy and uncomfortable to hear those words echoed by the house itself.

Now, if you wish you can read the story again in full independently, before we focus on one section for our language analysis.

Use the grey summary boxes on each slide to remind yourself of the key ideas in each section.

As you read, I want you to think about how the writer presents the ghostly couple.

Whenever the narrator awakes, she has hears a ghostly couple whispering together, looking for something.

The narrator puts down her book and tries to find the ghosts but sees nothing.

When the narrator tries to see the ghosts, all she finds are reflections of everyday things.

The narrator hears the voice of the house, as it seems to drop hints about treasure.

The narrator continues to search, but understands that they're kept separate by death.

We learn that the male ghost left the house after the death of his wife.

The weather outside seems wild.

The ghostly couple wander through the house, whispering about their memories.

The ghosts stand looking on at the sleeping couple in the bed.

The ghosts look for their treasure of hidden joy in the faces of the sleeping couple.

The narrator wakes suddenly and realises that the light in the heart is the treasure that goes to looking for.

Now with any form of language analysis.

The first stage is to understand the text.

And this is the most important thing, because if we don't understand the text and the bigger ideas it could be about, you won't have a clear idea about how to analyse it.

The next stage is to understand what in particular you should be focusing on or looking for as you read it.

And here we've been given a question with a key focus on the ghostly couple.

So we need to think about then, once we know what the focus is, and we understand the basics of the text, we need to select the rich evidence that shows how and why the writer has chosen to use language in a particular way.

We can then start to link similar ideas together to give us a stronger argument.

And then we're ready to write our analysis on.

So over the last couple of lessons, we've already done our reading and understanding.

So we're going to focus on a short extract with the many questions to practise developing our analysis skills today.

Before we do that, let's just recap some of the key that you might need to be looking for.

And some of the subject terminology, that would be commonly used in fiction texts.

We've got nouns, which are people, places, and things, verbs or actions, adjectives, and adverbs, which modify words and create meaning that way, we've got similes, metaphors personification and other forms of imagery that are used again to create that vivid picture for the reader.

So we're going to focus just on this short section, as you read the short section again, I want you to think about how the writer uses language to present the ghostly couple, wandering through the house, opening the windows, whispering not to wake us.

The ghostly couple seek their joy.

"Here we slept," she says.

And he adds, "Kisses without number, waking in the morning, silver between the trees, upstairs, in the garden, when summer came, in winter snow time, the doors go shooting far in the distance, gently knocking like the pulse of the heart." So as we look at this extract in a little bit more detail, there are three things we need to do initially.

First, understand the text, then understand the focus, and after that we select rich evidence that will help us to answer the question.

So our first stage, is to think about what is happening in this extract.

So I'd like you to have a go at answering that question, using a sentence starter on your screen.

Well done, hopefully you agree that in this extract, the ghostly couple are wandering through the house, whispering about their memories of their life and the love that they shared.

Then we have to understand the focus of the question.

And if you remember, we have to think about our impressions of the couple, the ghostly couple, who are wandering through the house.

What are your impressions of that ghostly couple? Try and bullet point any ideas that describe your impressions of the ghosts as they walked through the house.

Here's my example.

First, I would say that the couple seemed focused on their memories together.

They are not frightening in the traditional sense of ghosts and they're not particularly threatening to the writer.

The dialogue flows into each other.

So it seems like one voice it's hard to distinguish between them.

And finally, and probably most importantly, their love still seems strong, so the relationship between the ghosts seems very close and intimate.

Now we need to think about selecting rich evidence from this extract that we could use to answer the question.

Using the text on your screen, I'd like you to note down any words or phrases that you might analyse in terms of the effect of language.

So you might think about sentence forms. You might think about particular words or phrases or imagery that's being used in this extract.

The first thing that I might point out, are the use of, the first thing I might point out, is the use of verbs to describe how the ghosts move through the house.

What is the effect of these verbs highlighted in blue, wandering and whispering? I'd suggest these verbs show that the ghosts seem content and comfortable together.

They're not threatening.

They're always mindful of the couple sleeping in the house.

Similarly, I would point out the verb seek.

What does the verse seek suggesting in the context of this sentence? I think that the ghosts seem to have a clear purpose.

They are searching for the joy of their love as they seek.

As they are seeking seek out.

They seem determined to find it again.

I also noticed that there's some fragmented dialogue here.

"Here we slept," she says.

And he adds, "Kisses without number, waking in the morning, silver between the trees." Now, what do you notice about this dialogue? Perhaps you can see that as the ghostly couple, remember their life together, they speak in unfinished fragment sentences.

And there seems to be complete understanding between them, even if they don't finish what they were about to say.

The ghosts' words flow into one another suggesting that intimate connection as they remember their life together.

And there's this sort of poetic rhythm to their speech.

I also picked out this simile, what do you notice about this simile? Gently knocking like the pulse of the heart.

I think you can argue that the house seems to come alive and its heartbeat becomes a symbol for their love.

And it's perhaps because their love lives on through the new couple who live there and are sleeping in the bed as the ghosts watch on.

Was there anything else you noticed? So now we've selected on rich evidence, and obviously you can use your own, anything that you got that I have not talked about.

We now need to link that evidence together to write our analysis.

So here's an example of how you might do that.

In "A Haunted House", the ghostly couple seem intimate and comfortable with each other and do not pose a threat to the living couple.

The writer, Virginia Woolf, subverts our expectations of a ghost story, because the couple seemed to be more focused on each other, their memories and their lost treasure than on frightening anyone.

The ghosts are wandering around the house and whispering to each other.

These verbs imply that they are content to seek their joy without the sleeping couple.

The fact that they do not seem threatening at this point, emphasises the themes of love, death, and memory that the writer wants to explore.

The writer uses the conversation between the ghostly couple to give us an insight into their relationship.

For example, as they wander around the house, they comment on their memories, here we slept and kisses without number, by using short, fragmented dialogue, in which both speakers seem to become one voice.

We understand the intimate connection between the couple.

So hopefully you can see that I've met most of the success criteria, you can see on your screen here.

I've made clear points about the question focused because I've explained how the couple are presented.

I've used rich evidence or quotations because I've identified methods.

And I've tried to say a lot about each quotation that I've included.

I will trying to explain the effect of the writer's methods and choices, and I've made sure that I've linked ideas together.

So I'm always answering the question and I'm always focused on the relationship between the couple.

So it's your turn now.

I'd like you to answer this question in the same way that I've just done in that model answer.

How does the writer use language to present the ghostly couple? If you need to, you can go back and look at the text again, or look at the quotations that we selected together.

Before you write your answer, you use the sentence stems on your screen, to help you to structure your analysis.

Well done, when you're finished, just check your answer, make sure you've made clear points about the question focus you selected and included rich evidence or quotations.

You've explained the effect of the writer's methods and choices.

And finally that you've linked those ideas together to explain the overall effect.

Thank you for your focus and Well done for your efforts today.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your learning, before you get onto that.

Make sure you complete the quiz at the end of the lesson.