UNIT 6. SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM Reflect and analyze some sociolinguistic concepts. Value multilingual education and the need for educating students. Reflect on the global linguistic diversity Sensitize students on the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom.

LESSON PLAN INITIAL QUESTIONNAIRE AND DISCUSSION LINGUISTIC VARIATION TASKS 1 AND 2 TEACHER’S SPEECH TASKS 3 TO 7 STANDARD ENGLISH. ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA TASKS 10 AND 11 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY TASKS 12 AND 8 THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS IN PLURILINGUAL EDUCATION READING HOMEWORK TASKS 9 AND 14 FINAL TASK

LINGUISTIC VARIATION INITIAL QUESTIONNAIRE TASK 1: READING AND DISCUSSION TASK 2: FORMAL AND INFORMAL GREETINGS

LINGUISTIC VARIATION COMMUNICATION: To transmit a coded information that can be understood by the person to whom is directed to. CODE: a set of rules or laws agreed by all members of a community. LANGUAGE: is the code that contains the rules to express ourselves. An abstract object Social and essential SPEECH: Individual and accidental RULE: modifications on the code that become normal

LINGUISTIC VARIATION DIALECT: any variation that a language presents. It has to do with lexical, grammatical and phonetic differences between different language varieties. Variations in time Variations in space Variations between the spoken and the written. Variations in the medium used Variations according to social strata Variations in specialised discourse Variations caused by language games, humour and irony, collective or individual creativity, the work of literacy creation which are part of the written, audio(visual) and sound landscape of everyday life. “There is no homogenous or uniform language”

FACTORS OF VARIATION DIALECTAL VARIATION: Related to the speakers’ characteristics Sex Age Geographical origin Social and cultural level … REGISTERS: Depending on the characteristics of the situation: Degree of familiarity between interlocutors Intentionality Subject Communication environment

Geographical variation: Constitutive dialects http://www. youtube The river Humber marks the linguistic distinction SOUTH: English English Cockney West country dialect (Mummerset) THE MIDLANDS Brummie EAST ANGLIA DIALECTS NORTHERN Yorkshire Geordie Lancashire Pitmatic Cumbrian Mackem Scouse FOOT-STRUT split: northern dialects don’t have /ʌ / as separate vowel. There is no difference in pronunciation between foot and strut. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vdObWYjsc

Geographical variation: Consecutive dialects English as official language In Canada In South-Africa In New Zealand In Philippines In India English the major spoken language but not the official In the States In Australia Other speaking states: EUROPE: Malta, Ireland AFRICA: Botswana, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. AMERICA: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, ASIA: Pakistan, Singapore, OCEANIA: Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu,

SOCIAL VARIATION According to the speaker’s social group or sociocultural state, very distinctive variations among speakers of one language can be produced. SLANG: is a quite restricted set of new words and new meanings of older words, mixed with linguistic items with a much larger social distribution. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot92Yfovvvg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE&feature=related JARGON: is a set of vocabulary items used by members of particular professions, that is their technical terms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkokP-kGTMk&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2XVdDSJHqY

TEMPORAL VARIATION Old English: from 5th Century to 11th Century Middle English: from 11th Century to 15th Modern English: from 16th Century to 19th. Contemporary: from 19th Century till now

LINGUISTIC VARIATION TASK 3: SLANGUNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Hugh Laurie the British accent vs the American.flv TASK 4: SLANG TASK 5: REGIONAL ACCENTSUNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Regional Accent BBC News Interview - Jo Cameron.flv TASK 6: DAVID CRYSTAL AND INTERNETUNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\David Crystal - How is the internet changing language today.flv TASK 7: TEXTINGUNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Texting.flv

Stylistic variation: The Registers Language is always adapting to the different situations in which we are REGISTERS: Formal: with specific vocabulary (monosemic words) and for very specific situations. Non spontaneous language. Standard: supradialectal, referential, uniform language that serves the communication needs of a modern linguistic society. Academic and mass-media use. Informal: Colloquial, spontaneous language There are five variables that determine the register (Halliday, 1964) Field: The subject matter of the discourse Tenor: The participants and their relationships Mode: The channel of communication (spoken or written) Context: place, situation Function: the aim of communication

Standard English and RP Derived from the south-eastern triangle around London. Regarded as the most perfect and accurate variety. Closely linked with RP (Received Pronunciation, non-rotic nature) an upper-class accent. Taught in public schools since 19th Century. Known as The Queen’s English or BBC English. Employed by those who have received a good education. Oxford and Cambridge publish the norm (grammar books, dictionaries, etc) Is a result of a dialect levelling: when speakers of different dialects come into regular contact with each other and lose some of the linguistic features of their dialect that are not widely shared with the others (Graddol et al. 2007) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowtkM2KHKw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsI2t-mvZk&feature=related American Standard English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W68VaOuY6ew

ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA TASK 10: group discussion TASK 11: DAVID CRYSTAL UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Global English with David Crystal.flv UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\David Crystal - Which English.flv UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\David Crystal - Should English be taught as a 'global' language.flv

ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA Lingua Franca (global language): a way of communication between speakers of different first languages. English is a universal language employed in science investigation, trading, political communication between countries, tourism, international aviation, etc. English has a special role of intercommunication recognised in every country. It is the first spoken language in the world. It is taught as the chief foreign language in the vast majority of countries. It is a powerful language because it is spoken in powerful countries (politically, scientifically, economically, culturally, military, etc) The most important thing teaching English as Lingua Franca is comprehension more than production. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZI1EjxxXKw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XT04EO5RSU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowtkM2KHKw

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

LANGUAGES IN CONTACT TASK 12: READING AND DISCUSSION TASK 8: TRUE OR FALSE TEST

BILINGUALISM AND DIGLOSSIA Individual bilingualism: when a speaker is able to speak in two languages at the same level. That is an utopian situation that does not exist in reality. Territorial bilingualism: when there are two territories historically differentiated from a linguistic point of view. Social bilingualism: when a person uses a language or another and the choice does not depend on the personal situation or the territory where she/He lives, but on which social groups is society divided. DIGLOSSIA When languages (or varieties of one language) are chosen depending on the formality of the situation and the intimacy with the interlocutor. The informal variety is the first language for most people. The formal variety is more standardized and has to be learnt during childhood, which entails that people with better access to the education system will have better knowledge of the formal variety. This knowledge is a prerequisite for social mobility, i.e. access to all spheres of public life.

PLURILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION We are living in a multilingual society, multilingual countries. Every language is plural with multilple variations Every school is a space open to plurality of languages and cultures All education is plurilingual as reflex of a multilingual society Every identity is plural: contemporary European society cannot be monolithic and unchanging Goals: 1st Language education as native-like proficiency. English used as Lingua Franca. 2nd Cultural exploration and mediation discovering one’s own culture as well as the cultures of others. Intercultural communicative competence: knowledge, skills and attitudes Knowing the self and the other Knowing how to relate and interpret meaning Developing critical awareness Knowing to discover cultural information Knowing how to relativise oneself and value the attitudes and beliefs of others.

HOMEWORK TASK 9: WRITING (page. 8) TASK 14: INTERNET SEARCH www.ec.europa.eu/education/languages www.ethnologue.com www.123world.com/languages www.aboutworldlanguages.com www.ielanguages.com/ www.nationsonline.org/onworld/european_languages FINAL TASK: WRITING Reflect on the presence of students from diverse sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds in our classrooms. Write a text about the importance and mutual benefit of the integration of students’ languages and cultures in the classroom.