Course description and objectives

This course provides an overview of the field of sociolinguistics – studying language in its social context and looking at how linguistic choices are associated with social and situational characteristics. The course is designed to

1. increase your awareness of the ways that language and social contexts interact and develop your ability to explain some of these interactions to other people – both other linguists and the general public;

2. increase your understanding of concepts, terminology, and research paradigms which are important in understanding sociolinguistic work;

3. strengthen your ability to apply sociolinguistic principles and research in teaching, workplace, and everyday situations;

4. give you practice with some analytical techniques in sociolinguistic work;

5. allow you to focus more detailed attention on a single sociolinguistic topic that is currently an important political/social issue.

The approaches that we will use in considering the interaction of language and society will be drawn from related disciplines, including anthropology (the ethnography of speaking) and social psychology. Although most of the language data we will consider will be drawn from the English language and American culture, we will also examine the sociolinguistics of other languages and cultures.

This course requires very little previous knowledge of linguistics, although students would be well advised to have taken an introductory linguistics course (Ling 232 or 390) before the start of the course. Evaluation will be based on numerous assignments, two short papers, class participation, and a comprehensive final exam. Graduate students will be expected to guide in-class small-group discussions and to produce more substantive written work.

Required Text

Wardhaugh, Ronald. 2006. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (5th ed.). Malden, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell.*

Packet at Smart Copy available 1/15

*Note that this is a new edition and I believe there are significant changes from the previous edition so please buy the 5^th edition to avoid confusion.

Responsibilities

This is an upper-level/graduate-level course, and I expect you to behave in ways that maximize your and others’ learning, including:

· take responsibility and initiative in doing all the work and doing it on time.

· be prepared for each class (including doing the readings before class).

· turn off your cell phone during class.

· actively and cooperatively participate in class activities.

· ask questions when you have them, but don’t monopolize class time with personal issues.

· seek help when you need it.

· don’t miss class – or if you have an emergency, talk with me about work to make up, and get notes from other students.

· keep up-to-date with any schedule changes that are announced, even if you are late or miss a class.

Plagiarism

Often this class will require group work, and I encourage you to discuss work with your classmates. However, anything with your name on it should reflect your active participation, your words, and your understanding. If you feel uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism in American universities, talk with me about it so that you do not unintentionally commit it.

Academic Accommodations

Let me know if you are registered with the Disability Resource Center and need academic

accommodations of some sort, such as for taking tests. (And if you think you might need accommodations, go see the folks at the Disability Resource Center.)

Late assignments are strongly discouraged, although I will give extensions provided that you contact me before the assignment is due and your lateness is due to matters beyond your control (sickness, death in the family, etc.). Other late assignments will be accepted but knocked down a full grade, e.g., “A” to “B” and will also receive low priority for grading.

Evaluation. Grades will be decided on the following basis:

5% Class participation – Attendance & participation

20% Homeworks

25% Language Attitudes projects*

25% Final Project*

25% Quizzes

* = These items will require more work for graduate-level students.

Remember, B or better is passing for the MA TESOL program, and C or better is passing for the TESL Certificate.

Class participation is an important component of this course. Regular attendance, therefore, is crucial. Not only should you come to class prepared in terms of the reading or other assignment, but you should come ready to contribute actively to class discussion. You should also willingly contribute to class discussion and, perhaps more important, attentively listen to the contributions of others. Be conscious of letting everyone having a chance to say something and accord them the same attention and respect that you expect to receive. Only two unexcused absences will not be counted against this part of your grade. Each absence after that will affect your participation grade. I will excuse absences if you let me know AHEAD of time that you will not be there (email, phone message, etc.).

Homeworks will be answers to discussion questions in the text or as assigned. You must complete 5 homeworks by the end of the term for 100% on this part of your grade. These are not graded for accuracy, but for completeness. They should be word-processed and at least ½ of a single-spaced page, depending on the question. You may only turn in 1 homework per week, so do not wait until the end of the term.

Language Attitudes Projects. We will be examining different aspects in which language and society interact. There will be 4 social differences that I want you to focus on and sample Portlanders’ opinions about. The 4 areas are: Regional differences; Language Change/Slang/Style differences; Ethnic/Racial differences; and Gender differences. These projects should be done in a group of 3 or 4. They will be developed as we go along, but include the following.

Ø A survey question – This question, based on the readings, should be something like: “Do you think men and women talk differently? How so?” or “Do you think people in Portland talk correctly? Is it pleasant?”

Ø Sample – You need to ask this question to at least 4 people for undergrads and 8 people for grads (if in a group, 4or 8 people per group member). It is best if you just ask random people on or off campus, but you can use friends or family members living in Portland. We will talk about techniques to do this. Undergrads should ask 2 men and 2 women, and grads should ask 4 men and 4 women. You should also guess/provide other social info like age and race. If you can ask or find out what their occupations are too, that may provide some social class information. Also, where is the person from (where did they go to elementary and high school).

Ø Written Presentation – You and/or your group should gather all the responses together (make a table with what people answered what) and turn in a written paper. This should include your question, and who you asked this question to (how many people and include all the social info you have – again a table format is best). Also, you should show your results and then include a short analysis. This includes if your results show any social relationships (e.g., men think one thing but women another). Also, how do your results compare to the readings.

Ø Oral Reporting – Groups will be expected to provide a quick oral report of their findings for each project in an informal class discussion.

Final Projects – These will be discussed in more detail during the term, however both undergraduates and graduates should participate in a final project. These can be done in groups or individually. Grad papers should be 10-12 pages, while undergrads should be 5-7. I will provide possible topics based on your interests. A couple good examples of projects are:

· Data collection project = Conduct a sociolinguistic interview with a subject. Analyze the data focusing on one sociolinguistic variable. If in a group, share your data with each other in order to compare interspeaker variation (from speaker to speaker). Each group member should focus on a different variable. If not in a group, examine intraspeaker variation (style shifting for one speaker) focusing on a socilolinguistic variable – be sure to collect data in order to get different styles (different amounts of attention paid to speech). For the written aspect, be sure to include a brief literature review (talk to me if you do not know what this is), and discuss your methodology, analysis and results.

· Attitude analysis project = Conduct a matched guise test to examine the attitudes of speakers for a given variety. This would require recording some speakers and playing those recordings to listeners. The anlysis will be conducted on the listeners’ responses and how they relate to the different varieties being tested. You should only examine attitudes toward one variety or variable at a time. One example would be to see if listener’s react to a different frequency of –ing versus –in’.

Quizzes – There will be periodical quizzes through the term to ensure that you are keeping up with the reading. Since these are unscheduled, it is important that you make it to class. There will be a total of 6 quizzes. I will take the top 5 scores for your quiz portion of your grade.