Language, Ideologies and Attitudes

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• how particular beliefs about language, including stereotypes and prejudice, emerge and develop.
• Sociolinguistic phenomena relating to language ideology, and sociopsychological phenomena relating to language attitudes;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• evaluate sociolinguistic data using theoretical and methodological models
• recognise principles underlying the analysis and significance of sociolinguistic data in a global context
• synthesise your own commentaries of sociolinguistic case studies

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• display both self-confidence and self-awareness in your studies
• show capacity for problem solving, information gathering and presenting your findings
• demonstrate written communication skills through the development of ideas and arguments
• display individual learning, study and performance skills and time management through your independent learning activities

The module will cover three main topics: language ideology, language attitudes, and language policy-planning. Within these areas, specific subtopics are likely to include:

• language standardisation in a globalised world
• the role of national identity in language ideologies
• language prestige
• critical language awareness
• language as a community of practice
• Speaking ‘English’ in the UK and in the world
• language, culture, and identity
• language planning and policy
• ethnographic approaches to language

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• 1 lecture per week
• 1 seminar per week

Lectures will serve to introduce, analyse and investigate key aspects of sociolinguistics with respect to language ideologies and language attitudes. The weekly seminar will be mostly student-led and will offer an opportunity to discuss key themes through discussion of various activities prepared individually and in groups.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Lippi-Green, Rosina (2012). English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.

Garrett, Peter (2010). Attitudes to language. Cambridge: CUP.

Gal, S. and J. Irvine (2019). Signs of Difference: Language and Ideology in Social Life. Cambridge: CUP.

Milroy, J. and Milroy, L. (2012). Authority in Language Investigating Standard English. London: Routledge.

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