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 TEACHER’S SPEECH

STANDARD ENGLISH. ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA TASKS 10 AND 11 TEACHER’S SPEECH

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY TASKS 12 AND 8 TEACHER’S SPEECH

THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS IN PLURILINGUAL EDUCATION READING TEACHER’S SPEECH

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.com/watch?v=u9vdObWYjsc

The river Humber marks the linguistic distinction

SOUTH:

English EnglishCockneyWest country dialect (Mummerset)

THE MIDLANDSBrummie

EAST ANGLIA DIALECTS

NORTHERNYorkshire GeordieLancashire PitmaticCumbrianMackemScouse

FOOT-STRUT split: northern dialects don’t have /ʌ / as separate vowel. There is no difference in pronunciation between foot and strut.

Geographical variation: Consecutive dialects

English as official language In Canada In South-Africa In New Zealand In Philippines In IndiaEnglish the major spoken language but not the

official In the States In AustraliaOther speaking states:EUROPE: Malta, IrelandAFRICA: 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,

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=Ot92Yfovvvghttp://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=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2XVdDSJHqY

SOCIAL VARIATION

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: SLANG

UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Hugh Laurie the British accent vs the American.flv

TASK 4: SLANG TASK 5: REGIONAL ACCENTS

UNIT_ 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)1. Field: The subject matter of the discourse2. Tenor: The participants and their relationships3. Mode: The channel of communication (spoken or written)4. Context: place, situation5. 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 MULTICULTUR

ALISM\Global English with David Crystal.flv UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTUR

ALISM\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 BILINGUALISM

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 attitudesA. Knowing the self and the otherB. Knowing how to relate and interpret meaningC. Developing critical awarenessD. Knowing to discover cultural informationE. 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.