Language, Ideologies and Attitudes

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• display individual learning, study and performance skills and time management through your independent learning activities
• show a capacity for teamwork and demonstrate interpersonal skills by working with other students, by problem solving, information gathering and presenting your findings collaboratively
• display both self-confidence and self-awareness in your studies
• demonstrate oral communication skills through the development of ideas and arguments informally in class
• demonstrate written communication skills through the development of ideas and arguments in a variety of written formats

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

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

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• a good understanding of sociolinguistic phenomena relating to language ideology, and sociopsychological phenomena relating to language attitudes;
• a good understanding of how particular beliefs about language, including stereotypes and prejudice, emerge and develop.

The module will cover three main topics: language Ideology, language attitudes, and language policy-planning. A number of various 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

The 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

Journal Articles

Dicker, S. J (2000). Official English and bilingual education: the controversy over language pluralism in U.S. society. The sociopolitics of English language teaching, pp. 45-66.

Bradac, J., A. Cargile and J. Hallet (2001). Language attitudes: retrospect, conspect, and prospect. The new handbook of language and social psychology, pp. 137-155.

Montgomery, C. and J. C. Beal (2011). Perceptual dialectology. Analysing variation in English, pp. 121-148.

Pearce, Michael (2009). A perceptual dialect map of North East England. Journal of English linguistics, (37), pp. 162-192.

Beal , Joan C. “You’re Not from New York City, You’re from Rotherham”: Dialect and Identity in British Indie Music.. Journal of English linguistics, 37(3), pp. 223-240.

Bayard, D., A. Weatherall, C. Gallois, and J. Pittam (2001). Pax Americana? Accent attitudinal evaluations in New Zealand, Australia and America’. Journal of sociolinguistics, 5, pp. 22-49.

Eckert, P (2006). Messing with Style. The art of English: everyday creativity, pp. 124-130.

Eckert, P (2008). Variation and the indexical field. Journal of sociolinguistics, 12(4), pp. 453-476.

Montgomery, C (2012). Perceptions of Dialects: Changing Attitudes and Ideologies. The Oxford handbook of the history of English., pp. 457-469.

Milroy, J (2003). Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of sociolinguistics, (5), pp. 530-555.

Irvine, J. T. and S. Gal. Language ideology and Linguistic Differentiation. Regimes of language: ideologies, polities and identities, pp. 35-84.

Coupland, N (2010). Language, ideology, media and social change. Performing the Self, pp. 127-151.

Coupland, N. and H. Bishop (2007). Ideologised values for British accents. Journal of sociolinguistics, 11(1), pp. 74-93.

Preston, D. R (2002). Language with an attitude. The Handbook of Language Variation and Change.

Dixon, J., B. Mahoney and R. Cocks (2002). Accents of guilt? Effects of regional accent, race, and crime type on attributions of guilt. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 21, pp. 162-8.

Morgan, M (2001). ‘Nuthin' but a G thang’: Grammar and language ideology in hip hop identity. Sociocultural and historical contexts of African American vernacular English, pp. 187-210.

Williams, A., P. Garrett and N. Coupland (1996). Perceptual dialectology, folklinguistics, and regional Stereotypes: Teachers’ perceptions of variation in Welsh English.. Multilingua, (15), pp. 171-199.

Textbooks

Blommaert, J (1998). Language ideological debates. Berlin/New York de Gruyter.

Niedzielski, N. and D. Preston (2003). Folk linguistics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Garrett, P (2010). Attitudes to language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ryan, E. B. and H. Giles (1982). Attitudes towards language variation: social and applied contexts. London: Edward Arnold.

Ager, D (2003). Ideology and image: Britain and language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Eckert, P. and J. R. Rickford (2001). Style and sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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

Coupland, N (2007). Style: language variation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Preston, D (1999). Handbook of perceptual dialectology. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Cameron, D (1995). Verbal Hygiene. London: Routledge.

Crowley, T (2003). Standard English and the politics of language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

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 Information

Repeat type: Internal & External