ESL Praxis Meeting: 2 March 2013 Sociolinguistics Feldstein

Goal: to understand and recognize the basic sociolinguistic principles and theory related to language learning Linguistic theory encompassing: o word use across dialects o appropriate language use in different situations o communicative competence o attitudes toward second-language learners Sociolinguistics: Chapter 10 Language in Society

Pragmatics: Language in Context TText p. 207 p.

Pragmatics Text p. 217: "Context may be linguistic —what was previously spoken or written —or knowledge of the world, including the speech situation, what we’ve called situational context." Text p. 350

How can language vary? speaker's identity, purpose, context The language of an individual speaker with its unique characteristics is referred to as the speaker’s idiolect What are dialects?

Text p. 430 "mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways. Every speaker, whether rich or poor, regardless of region or racial origin, speaks at least one dialect, just as each individual speaks an idiolect. A dialect is not an inferior or degraded form of a language, and logically could not be so because a language is a collection of dialects.

Dialects in the USA

Southern and South Midland Southern and south midland: "drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels] /ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind /oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil /u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt /e/ > /ei/ in bed, head /e/ > /i/ in pen, ten greasy > greazy carry > tote dragged > drug you > you all, y’all

Northern fog, hog: /fag/, /hag/ -- /fog/, /hog/ roof: /ruf/, /huf/ -- /ru:f/, /hu:f/ cow, house: /kau/, /haus/ -- /kæu/, /hæus/ wash: /wa:sh/ -- /wosh/, /worsh/ darning needle -- snake feeder pail -- bucket teeter-totter -- see-saw fire-fly -- lightning-bug

Standard? state.edu/~kdk/201/spring02/slides/variation-4up.pdfhttp:// state.edu/~kdk/201/spring02/slides/variation-4up.pdf “Standard” dialects are idealizations, not actual well- defined dialects of a given language. Nobody actually speaks, for example, Standard American English (SAE). Many people almost speak it.

Standard? state.edu/~kdk/201/spring02/slides/variation-4up.pdf For the particular case of SAE we are more interested in grammar than we are in accent (pronunciation) features. The reason is social – regional pronunciation variation is not considered in the US to be very important socially (within limits), so people with a large range of accents can still be considered to be speaking the standard dialect. Contrast this with England, where societal divisions correspond rather closely to pronunciation.

Standard? state.edu/~kdk/201/spring02/slides/variation-4up.pdf Examples Senators, governors, presidents, and other high-ranking government officials are generally considered to be prime examples of SAE, yet they exhibit a huge amount of variation in pronunciation.

What are World Englishes? (according to Wikipedia, there are 75!) British Canadian American Indian Australian Nigerian Ghanan Liberian Philipino

Communicative Competence "enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts." (Hymes, 1972)

Proxemics What is proximity?

Proxemics subcategory of the study of nonverbal communication haptics (touch), kinesics (body movement) vocalics (paralanguage) chronemics(structure of time)

What are BICS and CALP?

What is Codeswitching? p. 461

Text Questions

One World Activity The classroom represents a map of the United States and its neighboring countries. The front of the classroom is north and the back is south. Goal: find as many sociolinguistic differences as possible

One World Activity Create a sign with the name of your country or town and state. Number yourselves 1 or 2. Situate yourself in your country or, state or town in the map, using the “Charlotte sign” as an orientation point.

One World Activity At the signal, Number ones travel to another country, state or town they would like to visit. Two travelers cannot visit one host at the same time.

One World Activity o Number 1’s arrive at the new location  they should try to find as many sociolinguistic differences as possible “y’all”, “howdy?” substitute the product name for the actual object (coke, kleenex) say buggy for shopping card Spanish uses two different pronouns to determine formal vs. informal register (tú/usted) “yes ma’am” not used as much in the north of the United States.

One World Activity At a second signal, travelers go home. At a third signal, number twos travel to a town or country they would like to visit. The process is repeated. At the next signal travelers go home. Share some interesting findings.