660 Spring 2011

Schedule of readings
Project/Paper 1
Project/Paper 2


Course description
This course introduces basic concepts, findings, issues and research methods in sociolinguistics as they relate to second and foreign language issues. Two questions we will revisit throughout the course are, 1) What is the role of regional and social variation in the teaching, learning, and use of second and foreign languages? and 2) How does our understanding of the social meanings produced in language inform language teaching, learning, and use? To begin to answer these questions, we will engage in extensive reading and discussions, class presentations, and two papers. Course readings and lectures will examine topics that are relevant to learning/teaching, such as the role of language policy in teaching and learning of languages, the relationship between identity and language learning, the process of language socialization, the role of power and privilege in language teaching/learning/use, the nature of linguistic variation in first/second language varieties, and the politics of teaching English as an international language. Through our examination of these topics, we will problematize key concepts used in much SLA research, including target language , standard language , native speaker , motivation , and language proficiency , and we will examine how these ideas relate to more contemporary concepts such as linguistic and social identity , competent language user , investment , appropriation , localization , and legitimacy .

Required Texts:
1. Course Packet. Available on Laulima
2. Hornberger, N. & McKay, S. (eds.) (2010). Sociolinguistics and language education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Sample Digital Media Projects (from other courses)
note: These projects are grander in scale than what I would expect for a course project in SLS 660. However, they give you an idea of what is possible with regard to conceptualizing a web-based project in lieu of a traditional course paper.

Local Language in Hawai'i
(Critical pedagogy and localizing teaching) This site was created by Angela Haeusler (Ph.D. student) for SLS 680P (Localizing TESOL) as a way to respond to her own ELI students' interest in understanding more about local language in Hawai'i. Often, international students at UH only have the opportunity to enhance their academic English. However, they are often exposed to other kinds of language, including informal English, Hawai'i Creole, and multiple other languages, and they want to know more about these languages in order to use them with a range of people, both on and off campus.

Critical Literacy in Nepal
(Critical pedagogy and localizing teaching) This site was created by Bal Sharma (M.A. student) for SLS 680P (Localizing TESOL) as a way to encourage teachers of English in Nepal to engage with the local social contexts in their English language teaching. Though some Nepalese textbooks include materials linked to daily life in Nepal, many of the activities are focused on grammatical forms. To encourage students and teachers to develop critical reading and critical literacy skills, Bal developed materials that would enhance linguistic knowledge while also providing opportunities to raise discussion about social issues relevant to students' lives.

Multilingualism and the Role of English in Japan
(Critical pedagogy, multilingualism, and minority languages) This site was created by Yuka Sano, Kuniki Miyachi, and Marina Ruiz-Tada (M.A. students) for SLS 680P (Localizing TESOL) in order to promote multilingual awareness and tolerance in Japan. They created a workshop for language teachers in the form of a website that displays the stories of "foreigners" with differing ethnic, linguistic, and national backgrounds living in Japan who speak various languages. The website also hosts a play written by Sano, Miyachi, and Ruiz-Tada which provides teachers with pedagogical materials for engaging with discussions of multilingualism in Japan, with particular reference to Portuguese speakers in the Shizuoka Prefecture.

Schedule of readings and assignments

Week 1 Jan 11 intro to course
     
  Jan 13 Mckay, S. 2008. Sociolinguistics of language education. In N. Van Deusen-Scholl & N. Hornberger (eds.) Encyclopedia of Language and Education (pp. 17-27). Springer.
Week 2   Variation in English: Global and Local Models
  Jan 18 McKay, S. 2010. English as an international language. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (eds.) Sociolinguistics and Language Education (pp. 89-115). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
     
  Jan 20 Tan, M. 2006. Authentic language or language errors? Lessons from a learner corpus. ELT Journal 59, 126-134.
    Morrison, R. & White, M. 2005. Nurturing global listeners: increasing familiarity and appreciation for World Englishes. World Englishes, 24, 361-370.

Week 3   Diversity, Local Knowledge and Localized Language in Classrooms
  1/25 Holliday, A. 2006. Native speakerism. ELT Journal 60, 385-387
Do You Speak American? (excerpts) Ha Kam Wi Tawk Pidgin Yet? (excerpts) - videos in class
     
  1/27 Shin, H. & Crookes, G. 2005. Exploring the possibilities for EFL critical pedagogy in Korea - a two part case study. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 2, 113-138.
    Hino, N. 2009. The teaching of English as an International Language in Japan: An answer to the dilemma of indigenous values and global needs in the Expanding Circle. AILA Review, 22, 103-119.
Discussion leaders  Monica, Sena, Jon, Kazu

Week 4   Problems and transformative practices in S/HL education        
  2/1 Dicker, Susan J. 2000.   Official English and bilingual education: The controversy over language pluralism in U.S. society. In J. K. Hall & W. Eggington (eds .) The sociopolitics of English language teaching . Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
   

Davis, Kathryn, Cho, Hye-Sun, Ishida, Midori, Soria, Julius, & Bazzi, Sarah. 2005."It's our Kuleana ": A critical participatory approach to language minority education. In Lucinda Pease-Alvarez and Sandra R. Schecter (eds.) Learning, Teaching, and Community (pp. 3-25). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Speaking in Tongues (excerpts in class)

     
  2/3 Helot, C. & Young, A. 2005. The notion of diversity in language education: Policy and practice level in France. Language Culture & Curriculum 18, 242-257.

Week 5   Bi/multilingual practices in schools and society
  2/8 Kamwangamalu, N. 2010. Multilingualism and codeswitching in education. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (eds.) Sociolinguistics and Language Education (pp. 116-142). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
     
  2/10 Park, J. S-Y. 2009. Chapter 4 "Playing with English: Language ideologies in Korean- English yumeo" in The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea (pp. 96-130). Berlin: Mouton.
    Higgins, C. 2009. Chapter 6, "Selling fasta fasta in the East African marketplace," in English as a local language: Post-colonial identities and multilingual practices (pp. 116-147). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Discussion leaders  Hui Ju, Amanda, Jae Won, Hye Jeong, Hammal

Week 6   Language Socialization and Communities of Practice
  2/15

Duff, P. 2010. Language socialization. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (eds.) Sociolinguistics and Language Education (pp. 370-397). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

     
  2/17 Morita, Naoko. 2004. Negotiating participation and identity in second language academic communities. TESOL Quarterly , 38, 573-603.
Discussion leaders  Yuta, Hui Ju, Joseph, Bintari

Week 7   Student Presentations
 P1 Presentations 2/22  
     
 P1 Presentations 2/24  

First draft of paper #1 due Feb 19 by email

Week 8   Identity construction and reconstruction
 P1 Presentation 3/1  
  March 1 Norton, B. 2010. Language and identity. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (eds.) Sociolinguistics and Language Education (pp. 349-369). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
    Kinginger, Celeste. 2004.   Alice doesn't live here anymore: Foreign language learning and identity reconstruction. In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (eds.) Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts (pp. 219-242). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
     
  March 3 Ohara, Y. (forthcoming). Identity theft or revealing one's true self? : The media and construction of identity in Japanese as a foreign language. In C. Higgins (ed.) Negotiating the self in a second language: Identity formation in a globalizing world. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Discussion leaders  Amanda, Monica, Jon, Jae Won

Final draft of paper due March 6 by email

Week 9   Narrative inquiry and L2 identities                            
  March 8 Pavlenko, A. 2007. Autobiographic narratives as data in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics 28, 289-322.
    Higgins, C. (forthcoming). Western women's resistance to identity slippage in Tanzania. In C. Higgins (ed.) Negotiating the self in a second language: Identity formation in a globalizing world. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     
  March 10

Barkhuizen, G. (2009). An extended positioning analysis of a pre-service teacher's better life small story. Applied Linguistics 31, 282-300.

Discussion leaders  Sena, Linda, Hammal, Hye Jeong

Week 10   Co-constructing cultural difference in discourse: Interactional Sociolinguistics
  March 15

Kasper, G. & Omori, M. 2010. Language and culture. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (eds.) Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 455-491). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Axelson, E. 2007. Vocatives: a double-edged strategy in intercultural discourse among graduate students. Pragmatics 17, 95-122.
     
  March 17 in class practice utilizing IS approaches

Proposal for Paper/Project due by March 19 (email)
Week 11 March 21-25 Spring Break

Week 12   Membership Categorization
  March 29

Sidnell, J. 2010. Conversation analysis. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (eds.) Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 492-527). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Mori, J. 2003. Construction of interculturality: A study of initial encounters between Japanese and American students. Research on Language and Social Interaction 36, 143-184.
     
  March 31 Higgins, 2009. "Are you Hindu?": The intersection of language alternation and membership categorization. In G. Kasper & H. Nguyen (eds.) Talk-In-Interaction: Multilingual Perspectives (pp. 111-136). Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press.

In-class practice with MCA

Week 13 April 5 Revisiting narrative analysis: Focus on context
    Menard-Warwick, J. 2005. Intergenerational trajectories and sociopolitical context: Latina immigrants in adult ESL. TESOL Quarterly 39, 165-185.
    Lee, E. & Simon-Maeda, A. 2006. Racialized research identities in ESL/EFL research. TESOL Quarterly 40, 573-594.
  April 7

Microanalysis workshop - bring your data


Week 14   Culture, politeness and language                            
  April 12 Cook, Haruko. 2001. Why can't learners of JFL distinguish polite form impolite speechstyles? In K. Rose & G. Kasper (eds.) Pragmatics in language teaching (pp. 80-102).Cambridge.
    Liddicoat Anthony J. 2006. Learning the culture of interpersonal relationships: Students' understandings of personal address forms in French. Intercultural Pragmatics , 3, 55-80.
     
  April 14 Miller, L. 2008. Negative assessments in Japanese-American workplace interaction. (pp. 227-249). In H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Culturally speaking: Culture, communication and politeness theory (pp. 48-70). London: Continuum.
Discussion Leaders  Kazu, Yuta, Bintari, Linda

First draft of Paper 2 due by April 16by email

Week 15   Intercultural Pedagogy
  April 19 Byram, M. 2008. The intercultural speaker: Acting interculturally or being bicultural. Ch. 4 in From froeign language education to education for intercultural citizenship: Essays and reflections (pp. 57-73). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
    O'Dowd, R. 2003. Understanding the "other side": Intercultural learning in a Spanish-English email exchange. Language Learning and Technology 7, 118-144.
     
  April 21 Intercultural spaces
    Pennycook, A. 2010. Nationalism, identity, and popular culture. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay, (eds.) Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 62-86). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Week 16   Student Presentations
 P1 Presentations 4/26  
   
 P1 Presentations 4/28  

Week 17   Student Presentations, evaluations
 P1 Presentations 5/3  
  course evaluations

Final draft of Paper 2 due by email by May 11

 

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