Chapter 8 Language and society

1. Chapter 8 Language and society • Sociolinguistics ---- a sub-field of linguistics that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.

2. The relatedness between language and society ----There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society. • Language is often used to establish and maintain social relationships. (e.g. greeting) • The use of language is in part determined by the user’s social background. (social class, age, sex, education level, etc.) • Language, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. (“snow” for Eskimo) • the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social ( the postvocalic [r] ).

3. Speech community and speech variety • Speech community­---- the social group that is singled out for any special sociolinguistic study is called the speech community. • Speech variety or language variety---- any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. In sociolinguistic study three types of speech variety are of special interest, i.e. regional dialects, sociolects and registers.

4. Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies • Macro sociolinguistics, i.e. a bird’s-eye view of the languages used in society; • Micro sociolinguistics, i.e. a worm’s-eye view of language in use.

5. Varieties of language • Dialectal varieties • Register • Degree of formality

6. Dialectal varieties • Regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region(e.g. Br.E. & Am.E.). • Sociolect is a linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class. (e.g. Received Pronunciation) • Language and gender (e.g. intonation, lexicon) • Language and age (Lexical difference: icebox---- fridge, wireless----boombox) • Idiolect---- a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations(e.g. Hemingway, Luxun). • Ethnic dialect----a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences; it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation (e.g. Black English).

7. Register • Register, in a restricted sense, refers to the variety of language related to one’s occupation. • In a broader sense, according to Halliday, “language varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations.” The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register. • Halliday further distinguishes three social variables that determine the register: field of discourse, tenor of discourse, mode of discourse.

8. Three social variables • Field of discourse: what is going on: to the area of operation of the language activity. It is concerned with the purpose (why) and subject matter (about what) of communication. It can be either technical or non-technical.) • Tenor of discourse: the role of relationship in the situation in question: who are the participants in the communication and in what relationship they stand to each other. (customer-shop-assistant, teacher-student, etc.) • Mode of discourse: the means of communication. It is concerned with how communication is carried out. (oral, written, on the line…)

9. Degree of formality ----Five stages of formality (Martin Joos) • Intimate: Up you go, chaps! • Casual: Time you all went upstairs now. • Consultative: Would you mind going upstairs right away, please? • Formal: Visitors should go up the stairs at once. • Frozen: Visitors would make their way at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase. ----Note: Different styles of the same language can be characterized through differences at three levels: syntactic, lexical and phonological(P121).

10. Standard dialect • The standard variety is a superimposed, socially prestigious dialect of a language. It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, including school settings where the language is taught as a foreign or second language.

11. Pidgin and Creole • A pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading. • When a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community, and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native language, it is said to have become a Creole.

12. Bilingualism and Diglossia • In some speech communities, two languages are used side by side with each having a different role to play; and language switching occurs when the situation changes. This constitutes the situation of Bilingualism. • According to Ferguson (1959), diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic situation similar to bilingualism. But in stead of two different languages, in a diglossia situation two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play.

13. The role of native language in 2nd language learning • Language transfer: positive & negative (behaviorism) • Mentalists argued that few errors were caused by language transfer; transfer is not transfer, but a kind of mental process. • Three interacting factors in determining language transfer: A learner’s psychology Perception of native-target language distance Actual knowledge of the target language

14. 2nd language learning models and input hypothesis • Behaviorism model emphasizes the role of imitation and positive reinforcement, a “nurture” position; • The mentalists or the innativists shift to a “nature” position by stressing that human beings equipped innately with language acquisition device, are capable of language learning provided with adequate language input. • The social interactionists argue that language and social interaction cannot be separated.

15. Krashen’s Input Hypothesis • Krashen make a distinction between acquisition & learning. • He put forward that learners advance their language learning gradually by receiving comprehensible input. • He defined comprehensible input as “i + 1” : “i” represents learners’ current state of knowledge, the next stage is an “i + 1”. • Krashen mistook input and intake, thus receive criticism.

16. Individual differences • Language aptitude • Motivation • Learning strategies • Age of acquisition • Personality

17. Language aptitude • Language aptitude refers to a natural ability for learning a second language. It is believed to be related to a learner’s general intelligence. John Carroll identified some components of language aptitude: • Phonemic coding ability • Grammatical sensitivity • Inductive language learning ability • Rote learning ability

18. Motivation • Motivation can be defined as the learner’s attitudes and affective state or learning drive. It has a strong impact on his efforts in learning a second language. Generally four types of motivations have been identified: • Instrumental motivation • Integrative motivation • Resultative motivation • Intrinsic motivation

19. Learning strategies • Learning strategies are learners’ conscious, goal-oriented and problem-solving based efforts to achieve learning efficiency. According to Chamot (1986) & Oxford (1990), three types of strategies have been identified: • Cognitive strategies ---- analyzing,synthesis and internalizing what has been learned. • Metacognitive strategies ---- planning, monitoring and evaluating one’s learning. • Affect/social strategies ---- the ways learners interact with other speakers. • Cohen (1998) further distinguishes language learning strategies and language using strategies.

20. Age of acquisition • The Critical Period Hypothesis • Recent studies support the hypothesis that in terms of learning achievement and grammaticality the younger learners outperform the adults.

21. Personality • In terms of communicative ability rather than grammatical accuracy or knowledge of grammatical rules, the personality traits such as extroversion, talkative, self-esteem, self-confidence can be found in successful second language learners ( as in the case of Liyang: Crazy English).

22. SLA & its pedagogical implications