LIN1340 Language in.ppt

1. LIN1340 Language
in Society
Monday: 08.30-10.00
Thursday: 10.00-11.30
RM 257 ARTS
STEPHEN LEVEY
Office: Friday 12:00-14:00
slevey@uottawa.ca

2. Course Outline
By examining how language is used in its
social context, this course takes a broad
view of diverse issues that are central to
the study of language in society. Questions
that will be addressed during the course
include:
 Is non-standard English really just ‘bad
grammar’?
 What is the nature of linguistic variation
and how is it tied to such external factors
such as age and social class?

3.  Do women and men speak the same
language?
 What role do adolescents play in
language change?
 How do varieties of the same language
differ from one another (e.g. how does
Canadian French differ from European
French?)
 Does bilingualism affect people’s ability
to reason and express themselves
effectively

4.  Is the ability of bilingual speakers to
switch and mix languages haphazard, or
is it rule-governed?
 Is the spread of English driving other
languages to extinction?
 How are languages used as markers of
ethnic affiliation?
In order to answer these questions,
examples from a variety of languages in
addition to English will be used.

5. How will the course be
assessed?
 There are 3 assessments. In addition
10% of the marks will be allocated for
regular attendance.
 The first two assessments will be written
examinations of 1 hour each which will
be held IN CLASS
 The last assessment will consist of a
short essay (2,000 words)

6. Assessment dates and details
 Assessment 1 will take place on Thursday, 14th
February and will account for 25% of the final
mark
 Assessment 2 will take place on Thursday, 20th
March and will account for 30% of the final
mark
 Assessment 3 will be a take-home essay.
Essay titles (you will have a choice) will be
released towards the end of March. The essay
is due in on Friday, 25th April. This assignment
accounts for 35% of the final mark.

7. More on assessments
 Preceding assessments 1 and 2, there
will be an in-class review session which
will focus on material that is to be
covered in the assessment.
 For assessment 3, COMPREHENSIVE
guidance will be given with regard to
essay writing WELL BEFORE the final
assessment is due.

8. Student responsibilities
 Students are expected to attend class regularly
and to sign any attendance sheets which are
circulated in class.
 It is the responsibility of each student to attend
the assessments at the designated time on the
dates specified.
 With regard to the take-home assessment,
students are expected to submit this
assignment on time. Late submissions will NOT
be accepted unless there are extenuating
circumstances which will ordinarily require
written supporting evidence (e.g. a doctor’s
note).
 Students are expected to download relevant
information from the Virtual Campus website.

9. Plagiarism
 Like most institutions, the University of Ottawa highlights
the importance of avoiding plagiarism.
 It’s so VERY EASY to do (even unintentionally), but you
must guard against doing it.
 Please consult the following web document for further
advice:
http://www.uottawa.ca/plagiarism.pdf
 We shall return to this issue when we prepare for the final
essay assignment.
 The basic rule is this: if you use another person’s words
or ideas, then these must be acknowledged by placing
their words in quotation marks, and citing the YEAR of
publication and PAGE NUMBER; e.g. According to
Meyerhoff (2006: 177), ‘up until the sixteenth century, it
was perfectly acceptable to use negative concord in
English.’
 Internet sources should also be acknowledged.

10. Resources
 The main textbook for this course is:
Suzanne Romaine (2000). Language in Society
Oxford: Oxford University Press
This textbook should shortly be available
from the university book shop.
 There is also a course pack available from:
Laurier Office Mart, 226 Laurier Avenue East,
Ottawa K1N 6P2.Tel: 613-744-7409. Ask for
LIN1340. It should be available from January 9th
onwards.

11. Frequently Asked Questions
 Can I get through the assessments just by
downloading the POWERPOINT slides from
Virtual Campus?
 The POWERPOINT slides will be detailed, but
you need to do supplementary reading in the
textbook and the course pack, where
necessary. Supplementary reading is indicated
in the course outline.
 So the POWERPOINT slides are not enough?
 No, you should do supplementary reading and
make EXTRA notes using the textbook. YOU
SHOULD ALSO MAKE NOTES IN CLASS!

12. Frequently answered questions
 What will the in-class assessments
require me to know?
 The in-class assessments will require
you to be familiar with most of the
material that has been covered PRIOR
to the assessment. Please NOTE that
the assessments will also cover relevant
related material in the textbook, so you
need to make sure you READ it!

13. Frequently answered questions
 What will I be required to do in the in-
class assessments?
 There will be multiple choice questions,
true and false questions, cloze
questions, short answer questions, and
long answer questions.

14. Course Outline
 Monday January 7th
Introduction and course outline
 Thursday January 10th
Language, Dialects and Varieties
Read the extract from Ronald
Wardhaugh (2006) on Language,
Dialects and Varieties in the course
reading pack.

15.  Monday 14th January
Non-standard language: Is it just bad
grammar?
Read the extract by Lesley Milroy (1998)
on Bad Grammar, and the article by
Peter Trudgill (2002) Standard English:
What it isn’t in the course pack.
 Thursday 17th January
Language and social class
Read Trudgill (1995) on Language and
Social Class in the course reading pack

16.  Monday, January 21st
Language and Gender I
Read the chapter in Romaine (2000) on
Gender
 Thursday, January 24th
Language and Gender II
Read the article by Cameron (1997)
Performing gender identity: Young men’s
talk and the construction of heterosexual
masculinity in the reading pack

17.  Monday, 28th January
Language and Age
Read Romaine (2000) chapter on
Sociolinguistic patterns, and Penelope Eckert
(2004) Adolescent language in the course pack
 Thursday, 31st January
Adolescents changing Canadian English
Read Sali Tagliamonte (2005) So who? Like
how? Just what? Discourse markers in the
conversations of English speaking youth.
Journal of Pragmatics 37: 1896: 1915. A copy
will be downloadable from Virtual Campus.

18.  Monday, 4th February
Language and Ethnicity
Read Carmen Fought (2006) Language
and the construction of ethnicity in
course reading pack.
 Thursday 7th February
Language and the Media
Relevant reading material will be
downloadable from Virtual Campus.

19.  Monday 11th February
Review of material covered in
preparation for Assessment 1
 Thursday 14th February
Assessment 1
READING WEEK 18-22 FEBRUARY

20.  Monday 25th February
Introduction to Multilingualism
Read Suzanne Romaine (2000)
Multilingualism in course pack, and
Romaine (2000) chapter on Language
Choice
 Thursday 28th February
Language contact and code-switching
Read Shana Poplack (1998) Contrasting
patterns of code-switching in two
communities in the course pack.

21.  Monday 3rd March
Principles of language variation and
change
Read Suzanne Romaine (2000) chapter
on Linguistic Change in Social
Perspective
 Thursday 6th March
Changes in Canadian French
Relevant reading material will be
downloadable from Virtual Campus

22.  Monday 10th March
Pidgin and creole languages
Read Suzanne Romaine (2000) chapter
on Pidgin and creole Languages
 Thursday 13th March
Exploring the role of language in social
problems
Read Suzanne Romaine (2000) chapter
on Linguistic problems as societal
problems

23.  Monday 17th March
Review for Assessment 2
 Thursday 20th March
Assessment 2

24.  Monday 24th March
NO CLASS – Easter Break
 Thursday 27th March
Language death
Read Diane Nelson (2007) Language
Death in the course reading pack.

25.  Monday 31st March
The sociolinguistics of language
acquisition
Relevant reading material will be
downloadable from Virtual Campus
 Thursday 3rd April
No class- begin to gather data for final
essay assignment

26.  Monday 7th April
Planning, writing and referencing your
essay
 Thursday 10th April
Essay writing consultation session