UNIT 6. SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM

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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.

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LESSON PLAN

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

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LINGUISTIC VARIATION

• INITIAL QUESTIONNAIRE
• TASK 1 READING AND DISCUSSION
• TASK 2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL GREETINGS

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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

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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

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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

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Geographical variation Constitutive dialects
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vu9vdObWYjsc

• 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 dont have
  /? / as separate vowel. There is no difference
  in pronunciation between foot and strut.

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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,

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SOCIAL VARIATION

• According to the speakers 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?vOt92Yfovvvg
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwYmrg3owTREfeatur
  erelated
• JARGON is a set of vocabulary items used by
  members of particular professions, that is their
  technical terms
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vGkokP-kGTMkfeatur
  erelated
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vP2XVdDSJHqY

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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

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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

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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

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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 Queens 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?vIowtkM2KHKw
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vEEsI2t-mvZkfeature
  related
• American Standard English http//www.youtube.com
  /watch?vW68VaOuY6ew

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ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

• TASK 10 group discussion
• TASK 11 DAVID CRYSTAL
• UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Glob
  al English with David Crystal.flv
• UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Davi
  d Crystal - Which English.flv
• UNIT_ 6_SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND MULTICULTURALISM\Davi
  d Crystal - Should English be taught as a
  'global' language.flv

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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?vWZI1EjxxXKw
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v0XT04EO5RSU
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vIowtkM2KHKw

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LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
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LANGUAGES IN CONTACT

• TASK 12 READING AND DISCUSSION
• TASK 8 TRUE OR FALSE TEST

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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.

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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 ones 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.

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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.