Introduction to Language, Culture and Communication

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Apply models of communication to a wide range of language interactions 
• Critically assess key issues and approaches to communication and language in use
• Describe how language and cultural models influence communication
• Evaluate ways in which communication can be analysed through language and cultural models
• Analyse primary data and case studies

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• mapping of the conceptual and analytical tools which can be used to critically analyse language in use
• methodologies for the study of language in use and its underpinning communicative approaches
• the links between meanings, symbols and contexts attached to language in use
• the intersection between language, culture and communication
• of the theoretical approaches to communication, language and culture

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• work effectively in different modes: carrying out individual research and using this as input to collaborations with partners in seminars
• apply critical thinking and problem-solving techniques in order to address new issues and new data; 

The module will outline the main theories of communication which intersect with language and cultural models. It aims to provide students with a solid introduction to how language in the form of communication works in everyday life and how it shapes, but at the same time is shaped by culture, starting from a wide range of concrete language behaviours from speech communities, multiligualism, language ideologies, discourse, social power and control to more social practices.

Teaching and learning methods

There will be one double seminar each week. During the session, short lecture by the tutors will serve to introduce the main theories of communication and its underpinning key language and cultural concepts. Lectures will also introduce students to selected conceptual, analytical and methodological frameworks that can be used to study communication in concrete situations of language interaction. Readings carried out in advance of seminars lead to small group discussions and class debates.

Students play an active role in the seminars through a ‘workshop’ approach, in which they will take it in turns to lead discussions and carry out small-group activities. The module places considerable emphasis on formative and collaborative forms of learning, in particular through Blackboard reading groups in which they will discuss topics in advance of seminars and reflect on them afterwards.

The module will also encourage you to explore communicative interactional situations and draw on

Your observational and analytical skills to explore critically communication in human language. It will provide an occasion for you to engage with specific areas in more detail, through investigation and collaboration.

Learning activities will include:

• Completing specified preparatory reading tasks;
• Reading, analysis, reflection and discussion of language data;
• Individual and collaborative research and analysis of data
• Written and oral presentation of findings;
• Practical exercises, group discussions and class debates on selected topics;
• Individual essays and research projects (assessed).

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Ethnographic Encounters Project: Cultural Knowledge for Language Learners.

Journal Articles

Li Wei (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), pp. 9-30.

Rampton, B., Maybin, J., & Tusting, K. (2007). Linguistic ethnography: Links, problems and possibilities. Special issue of the Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(5).

(2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), pp. 585-614.

Textbooks

Rymes, B. (2014). Communicating beyond language: Everyday encounters with diversity. London and New York: Routledge.

Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations of Socio-linguistics. London: Routledge.

Woolard, K. A. (1989). Double talk: Bilingualism and the politics of ethnicity in Catalonia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Delamont S. (1995). Appetites and Identities. London: Routledge.

Gumperz, J. J., & Hymes, D. (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Bonvillain, N (2020). Language, Culture and Communication. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Rings, G; Rasinger, S. (2020). The Cambridge Handbook of Intercultural Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tusting, K. (2019). The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography. London & New York: Routledge.

Copland, F., & Creese, A. (2015).  Linguistic ethnography: Collecting, analysing and presenting data. Los Angeles: Sage.

Goffman, E. (1971). Relations in Public. London: Allen Lane.

Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2010). Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London: Continuum.

Grillo, R (2018). Interculturalism and the Politics of Dialogue. Lewes: B and RG Books of Lewes.

Bourdieu, P (1991). Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External