Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines the relationship between language use and social structure. Considers how social factors such as gender, class, age, and ethnicity may be reflected in language use, as well as "big picture" topics that include multilingualism, dialect variation, language policy and linguistic stereotypes. Encourages students to think critically about the social dimensions of language. Open to all students. Breadth-Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course explores how language is a social phenomenon, a code constantly being changed by the people who use it (users) as they communicate meaning to one another (uses). This on-going process of modifying a language is evident when we think about how users change sounds, grammar, vocabulary, and phrasings over time (e.g. Shakespeare’s English vs. present-day English). In addition, each group of users adapts a language in distinct ways. Language varies across different (cultural) contexts, from speech community to speech community. For example, English as it is used in Vancouver is distinct from how it is used in New York City or Edinburgh, Scotland or Singapore or Hong Kong. Within each of these contexts the users use English in ways that reflect their cultural identities, background, beliefs, practices, and values.

This course explores these and other topics in sociolinguistics, the research field that examines the relationship between social factors, culture, and language use. Topics to be discussed include

• multilingualism in speech communities and the social reasons for language acquisition, language shift, language maintenance, language loss, and even language death;
• the phenomena of regional dialects (e.g. Newfoundland English; Texas English; Indian English) and social dialects (e.g. the Queen’s English vs. that of working-class Londoners);
• how language use can vary within a speech community depending on such social factors as ethnicity (e.g. African American Vernacular English), gender (e.g. Valley Girl English), age (e.g. youth language), and social class;
• the role of politeness in language use, and how this varies across cultures;
• variation in languages (e.g. Canadian English “washroom” vs. American English “restroom”);
• the relationship between language and cognition (does a language and its vocabulary shape our understanding of the world around us?); and
• in general, issues of discrimination and prejudice, also equity, diversity, and inclusion, with respect to the language(s) individuals and communities use.

A special topic will be that of World Englishes, which examines the international spread of English to speech communities around the globe. This phenomenon began with British Colonialism, initially in North America and the South Pacific, then in Asia and Africa. More recently, globalization and heightened transnational contact has inaugurated a third phase in the spread of English, to Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the world never subjected to (British) colonial rule.

MODE OF INSTRUCTION: Blended. One hour face-to-face, approximately two hours asynchronous podcast lecture. 

MODE OF DELIVERY: Face-to-face lectures in classroom, mp4 podcast lecture files available for download. 

PLATFORMS USED: Canvas  

TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED: Means for downloading and listening to mp4 podcast lecture files.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: