 Introduction

- Language choice and use

- Functions of language: primarily affective or referential information
- Micro sociolinguistics vs Macro sociolinguistics
- Knowledge of a language: Competence vs performance+Descriptive vs prescriptive Gr
- Concepts:
Variation
Speakers and their groups
Language and culture
Language and indentity
- Methodological concerns

 Languages, dialects and varieties 1

Language or dialect
Vernacular languages vs Standard languages
Process of Standardization

- Difference between language, dialect and vernacular

- Definition of a language (making a distinction between language vs dialect):
Non-valid explanations vs valid explanations= need to rely on non-linguistic factors=
sociopolitical factors
- Process of standardization:
e.g. Standardization of Eng
- Variation in Standard English: written vs spoken, different standard Englishes, formality
Impact of development of electronic communication systems

 Languages, dialects and varieties 2

Focus on users 1
Variation: lgx, regional & social
Regional dialects/social dialects
Language and social class/status

- Accent vs dialect
- Regional dialects and social dialects
• Regional variation: international vs Intra-national or intra-continental variation
• Isoglosses
• Dialect chains
- Social variation :
 Social accent vs dialect
 Caste dialects
 Social class dialects: voc/pr/gr
- Data collection+findings
  Languages, dialects and varieties 3: focus on users 2
Language and gender
Language and age
Language and ethnicity

Gender:
- Gender-exclusive speech differences vs gender preferential speech differences
- Correlation between gender differences and social class
- Correlation between gender and standard forms:Non-valid explanations vs Alternative
explanations
- Social status, Woman’s role as guardian of society’s values, Subordinate groups must
be polite, Function of speech in expressing gender identity, especially masculinity
VS
- Standard forms are used to reflect social background+ Women’s sensitivity to
contextual factors: Influence of the context+ Influence of the interviewer : speech
accommodation+ Gender of the interviewer+Questions asked/topic…..

Age:
- Age grading (features+data+ bell/V shaped) vs language change=(S shaped)
- Age and social dialect data
Language and ethnicity
- Examples/features of: AAVE, British Black English, New Englishes: Fiji English,Singapore
English, Indian English…
- Relationship between ethnicity and social class
- Social networks ( Density vs plexity) and communities of practice
- Importance of social networks and communities of practice: macro level categories (age,
gender….) vs micro level categories (social networks and communities of practice)

 Language change/change in English

- Language change vs language variation

- Diachronic variation vs synchronic variation

- Questions to ask about the progression of a linguistic change: constraints, actuation, transition,
embedding and evaluation

- The study of language change (apparent time hypothesis + real time data)

- Factors behind language change

- Resistance to change: linguistic conservatism+strong networks vs weak vs in betweens

- Role of face-to-face interaction vs media in language change
- Requirements for language change to happen
  Styles, registers and genres & contexts
- Style, register and genre: Definitions, factors and use
- Addressees and the context vs language choice and use
- Addressee and style
- Factors and stylistic features: age, social background….
- Accommodation theory: speech convergence and speech divergence= definition, factors and issues
- Formal context and social roles
- The interaction of social class and style
- Hypercorrection/super standard

 Multilingualism as a social phenomenon: beliefs/ideologies, competencies and attitudes

- Multilingualism as a Societal Phenomenon : Art of knowing the appropriate language for each
social context
- Language shift vs language maintenance
- Competencies in multilingual contexts
- language ideologies surrounding multilingualism : inferiority vs superiority
- Linguistic landscapes in multilingual societies : what they are+ what they can tell us about the
languages used in a society
- Language attitudes in multilingual settings
- Monoglossic ideology vs pluralistic ideology
- Factors affecting one’s choice of a variety or code
- Accommodation : Speech convergence/divergence

 Multilingualism: diaglossia& codeswitching

Diaglossia
- Definition, domains of use (L VS H) and attitudes towards L vs H
- Diaglossia with or without Bilingualism
- Difference between diaglossia, triglossia and polyglossia
Codeswitching
- Definition, types (situational vs metaphorical), factors (Identity& relationship between
participants + topic (referential vs affective functions )
- Linguistic and non-linguistic constraints of codeswitching
- Attitudes towards code-switching (monolingual speech communities vs Multi speech
communities
- Difference between codeswitching and code mixing (Lexical borrowing/Code Mixing: when it
happens, how it happens and why it happens

 Languages in Contact and Multilingualism 3

World Englishes; Lingua francas; Pidgins and creoles
- Pidgins and creoles as result of languages in contact=special cases of language change
- Difference between jargon, pidgin and creole
- Pidgin: how it develops+why it develops/ its functions, linguistic structure and attitudes
- Creole : how it develops+why it develops/ its functions, linguistic structure and attitudes
- What happens to creoles: in Societies with rigid social divisions vs in Societies with fluid
social divisions (process of decreolization)
- Importance of Pidgins and Creoles for linguists
- Role of English (Lexifier+ degree of difference=acrolect(closest);meslects;
basilect(farthest)…)
- Some features and examples of English- lexifier pidgins and creoles
- Vernacularization/ Deanglicisation
- Impacts of the Global spread of English= advantages vs disadvantages
- Language shift= e.g. English dominance vs minority/indigenous languages
o What to do about it: language maintenance and language planning/policy
- New Englishes and English as a lingua franca

 Language planning/Language policies

- Definitions of language planning and language policy+difference between them
- How to plan a language: Types of language planning: status planning, corpus planning,
prestige planning and acquisition planning
- Motives behind language planning
- Planning English in England: process, motives, type of planning
- Language planning beyond England.
English in Kenya
English in Sri Lanka
English in EU
- Effects of globalization of English on language planning: advantages vs disadvantages
- English as a global language =a factor to be taken into account in language policy by any
nation state

 Sociolinguistics and education

- elaborated code/restricted code

- immigrant bilingualism/elite bilingualism
- linguistic inequality/elite closure
- inner circle/outer circle/expanding circle
- globalization/glocalization
- immersion/two-way immersion

- Ways a nonstandard dialect / minority language / local language can be used in a

classroom which is aimed at teaching a standard, socially dominant variety
- Ideologies that encourage or discourage the use of these varieties in educational contexts
- Research about the effectiveness of the use of students’ home languages in education
- Elite closure and social inequalities
- Sociolinguistics and applied linguistics