LS2SLG-Sociolinguistics

Module Provider: English Language and Applied Linguistics
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites: LS1ELS English Language and Society and LS1SG Sounds, Grammar and Meaning or PL1GML Grammar and Meaning
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2021/2

Module Convenor: Dr Christiana Themistocleous
Email: c.themistocleous@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module is intended for a generation of students which is preparing to confront a host of ‘wicked problems’ involving globalisation and mobility, inequality and discrimination, hybridity and the blurring of boundaries. Luckily, sociolinguistics in the past two decades has been developing tools to address precisely these kinds of wicked problems. ÌýIn this course students will understand how the field has evolved from one concerned primarily with notions of ‘languages’ and ‘varieties’ and their distribution within society, to a more critical, constructivist enterprise in which language is seen as a social practice, with speakers drawing on all kinds of linguistic resources for different communicative purposes.Ìý

Aims:

The module aims to further develop an awarenessÌýand critical understandingÌýof concepts, approaches and theories involved in the study of language and society.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to demonstrate:Ìý

• Familiarity with the main theories,Ìýmethods, principles and practice of sociolinguistic research;


• Knowledge of basic sociolinguistic terms, concepts and research methods;


• Awareness of the links between language, social context, ideology, attitudes, power, mobility;


• Organise knowledge and articulate arguments effectively in writing;


• Ability to display information in visual form (production of an assessed website project);


• Ability to work as part of a group.Ìý

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Additional outcomes:
Students will have an enhanced understanding of the way language is used to create and define the social context. Students will also develop the conceptual and practical tools necessary to analyse and discuss seminal work in the field.

Outline content:

Topics will include: introduction to languages and communities, research methods in sociolinguistics, regional and social dialectology; language variation and change; stylistic variation, language and identity; indexicality, multilingualism and superdiversity; linguistic landscapes, code-switching and translanguaging, language attitudes and ideologies.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
Lectures with seminar-style discussion and guided independent study.