Course Description
This course is an introduction to sociolinguistics, the study of the relationship between language and society. We will look at variation at all levels of language and how such variation constructs and is constructed by identity and culture. An exploration of attitudes and ideologies about these varieties will be of particular importance to understanding this relationship. We will also consider some of the educational, political, and social repercussions of these sociolinguistic facts.
Course Reading:
The textbook for the course is available at the GSU bookstore:
Wardhaugh, Ronald (2010). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (6th edition). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
All other readings can be saved on disk and/or printed from the library’s electronic reserves system. I will give you the password once it has been assigned. Let me know right away if you’re having trouble accessing the readings.
Additional resources on the web can be found by accessing my “Linguistics Links” page at http://www.gsu.edu/~eslsal/links.htm
Evaluation:
10% Class participation (includes preparation for class based on readings)
30% Observation project
25% Language description project
5% Presentation on final paper topic
30% Final Paper
The grading scale is A+ 98-100, A 94-97, A- 90-93, B+ 87-89, B 84-86, B- 80-83, C+ 77-79, etc.
Participation:
Effective participation requires preparation. It is crucial to come to class having carefully read and thought about the day’s reading. Focusing questions for the readings will be posted on the web syllabus each week to help guide you to think about the general ideas that I find particularly important about the readings. These will be a starting point for discussion, so you should have thought about the questions before class. I may collect your answers to focusing questions if I am dissatisfied with class preparation & participation.
If you are shy and don’t like to speak in class, try to do it anyway. It’s good for you. It’s also useful for everyone to hear how each other’s varied experiences and viewpoints relate to the reading. If you are having real difficulty speaking up, it is a good idea to come talk to me about the focusing questions and your own questions and thoughts about the reading (preferably before the class period when they will be discussed so that you can still take part in the discussion, if only indirectly). If you know you will need to miss class, you should e-mail me your comments and questions before class.
Observation Project (due February 22nd):
Work in pairs (of your choosing), or if necessary, alone, to prepare and submit an observation project that will explore variability in American English (if you are interested in looking at some other variety, come discuss it with me before your topic is due on January 25th). The purpose of the project is to:
a) make you aware of the types of variation in English (across dialects in the US, within “Standard” American English in the US, and across and within world varieties of English)
b) make you aware of issues of concern to the ESL/EFL teacher, including the learner’s target variety, error/testing/assessment, and materials adaptation/lesson planning.
Working in pairs is strongly recommended, as you will need to collect at least 40 tokens of some linguistic variable, and this is easier if you have two sets of ears listening for them.
Observation Project Instructions:
1. Choose an item of American English that exhibits variability in the same linguistic and social context. Some examples are:
“if I were” vs. “if I was”
“real” and “really” or “good” and “well” used as adverbs
the use of objective (e.g., me) vs. nominative (e.g., I) case in object or subject position (particularly conjoined NPs such as “between you and I” or “Me and my brother went”)
pronouns used to replace singular nouns of unspecified gender (e.g., “Someone has left their books here.”)
the use of “whom”
speech acts, such as greetings, responses to “thank you,” apologies, requests, etc.
These are only a few examples. You have many options to choose from—think of your pet grammar peeve and you’re likely to find a good topic. The most important criterion is that the item that you choose must exhibit variability. That is, it must be the case that there is more than one form used in the same context. For example, some people would say “between you and me” and other people would say “between you and I”. Or, the same person might say “between you and me” in some situations and “between you and I” in others. In addition, your item must be something that is typically taught in ESL classes. (You might want to read Chapter 6 of Wardhaugh ahead of time for ideas.)
2. Collect data. Each time you hear (or see) a variant of your item, write it down with the utterance you heard it in (i.e. don’t just write down “who”, but write down “I don’t know who you’re talking about”). Keep your ears open (or your eyes—printed materials are sources too). Every time you record a token, also record demographic information about the speaker and addressee(s) (sex, age, race/ethnicity, place of origin, relationship between the two interlocutors) and information about the setting. This is very important. What you are trying to do is to uncover the patterns of usage of your variable. These patterns typically reveal themselves in the categories listed above. For example, Southerners may be more likely to say “y’all” for plural “you” than Northerners, and Northerners might be more likely to say “you guys”. If you collected lots of tokens of ways to say plural “you”, then you could look at the characteristics of speakers or settings to see who was using which variant in which setting. To help prepare to for your analysis, you can enter each token with its data into a spreadsheet. Click here for an example.
3. Once you have collected at least 40 tokens/examples, look for variation. First, identify all the variants you have found. Next, look for patterns. This means that you will look at, for example, how often different social groups (for example, groups by age or gender) used each of the variants and then compare groups to each other (for example, men to women). You might find, for example, that only women use “whom” and that men rarely do. You should also look at other variables such as settings or regions of origin. You might find, for example, that “whom” only occurs in print and never (or rarely) in spoken language. Your data probably won’t fall into discrete categories, but you will notice tendencies for there to be factors that condition the occurrence of specific variants.
4. After doing the analysis, prepare a written report to be handed in on the observation project due date. I have sample reports available for you to look at if you are not sure how to do yours. Click here for a sample paper that investigates disagreement. The report should describe:
a) the aspect of American English that you have collected your data on
b) how you collected your data
c) the variants you have discovered
d) an analysis of your data with a table for each of the analytic categories that you found to demonstrate patterning (e.g., Table 1: the variant as it is distributed by gender, Table 2: the variant as it is distributed by age, Table 3: the variant as it is distributed by setting)
e) how your results compare with explanations given in 3 different ESL textbooks (many different textbooks are available for your perusal in the library and in the GA room)
f) the implications of your findings for teaching ESL
g) a table in an appendix that shows all the data that you have collected (i.e. the variants and