requirements | texts | online access | extra credit | special needs | succeeding | reading list
REQUIREMENTS
REQUIRED READINGS
There is no textbook for this course. The required course readings are available electronically as PDF files through ERes (see information below). If you prefer, a set of hard copies of the course readings are available to photocopy from the Linguistics Department office.
ACCESSING ONLINE MATERIALS
Passwords are required for two kinds of online materials for the course: (1) the assigned readings, accessible through ERes, and (2) lecture notes, class assignments, and other copyrighted materials on the course website. (Other online course materials do not require a password.)
The ERes website is separate from the course website and requires a different password. You may access ERes via this course website on the link in the menu bar above. You must use the ERes password to access the readings. You may then download them and read them or print them. There is no cost for using ERes.
The course website provides the most up-to-date information about the course; any changes will be posted on the website and announced in lecture. You should bookmark the URL above (or Google "Linguistics 70") and visit it often. Lecture notes will be available on the website after each lecture. If you miss class or lose an assignment or handout, you can download it from the course website. The course website also includes links to the web assignment materials and to resources for the study of sociocultural linguistics.
The ERes password, the course website password, and the username for the course website are listed on the course information packet distributed the first day of class. If you misplace the course information packet, you can download a copy; however, you will need to have the course username and password listed on the top of the first page of the packet. You can also request both passwords via email from Professor Bucholtz or the TA, Jennifer Garland. Your name must appear on the class list in order for you to receive the password. If it doesn't, you will need to make your request in person.
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION
You are expected to attend all lectures and to participate in a weekly discussion section. You are expected to come to section each week prepared to take the quiz, discuss the readings, and hand in your web assignment. If you do not usually feel comfortable speaking up in a group setting, rest assured that there will be numerous opportunities to participate relatively painlessly throughout the quarter. Attendance is a crucial part of the course; if you are unable to be present at a lecture or section meeting, you must let me or the TA know in advance and/or bring a doctor's note.
QUIZZES
To help you keep up with the readings, to be sure you understand both readings and lectures, and to help prepare you for the final exam, there will be 9 short quizzes throughout the quarter. Quizzes will cover material from the current week's lectures and assigned readings. Questions will often have more than one possible correct answer. Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. Quizzes will be given at the beginning of section; if you arrive in section late, you may take the quiz as long as the completed quizzes have not been collected, but you will be held to the same time limit as students who arrived on time. If you have an excused absence from section, you will not be responsible for the missing quiz. NOTE: Missed quizzes cannot be made up.
WEB ASSIGNMENTS
In addition to your reading assignments, you will visit one or more websites each week and write a short response to the site content, in the context of the readings and lectures for the week. Web assignments are due each Friday in section. Assignments are due at the beginning of section.
WARNING: The assigned website material is often offensive. Please view/listen to it with discretion in order to avoid offending others, and please try to approach the material analytically rather than emotionally.
FINAL EXAM
The final exam will involve a combination of data analysis, identifications, short-answer questions, and a take-home essay. It is designed to take an hour and a half but you will have three hours to take it. There will be some choice among questions for most sections of the exam.
RESEARCH PROJECT
During the quarter, you will carry out a project with a team of two or three other students on some aspect of language ideologies in the United States. For this project, you will conduct short video interviews with people either about the language ideologies they have about a particular social group or about the language ideologies that other people have toward their own social group. Each group member will then analyze an excerpt of the data in a five-page paper. Guidelines for how to borrow and use a videocamera, how to collect and analyze your data, and how to write your paper will be distributed separately.
EXTRA CREDIT
You may earn credit for a total of three extra credit opportunities during the quarter, no more than two of which may be the following videos (where two videos are listed together, the two count as one video and both must be viewed for full credit):
- American Tongues
- Yeah, You Rite! AND Transitions: Destruction of a Mother Tongue
- The Global Tongue: English AND Hablas Ingles?
- Diverted to Delhi
All of the above videos are on reserve in the Learning Lab on the second floor of Kerr Hall. For each video (or pair of short videos) that you view, you must write a 2-page typed, double-spaced reaction paper that includes (1) an overview of the main ideas or theme of the video, (2) a discussion how the ideas in the video connect up to issues discussed in lectures, sections, and/or readings, and (3) your own response to the video. In addition, other extra credit opportunities may be made available throughout the quarter. Click the "Assignments" link above for updated information.
Extra credit does not have a fixed value but is taken into account in calculating final grades.
All extra credit is due at the beginning of section the last day of class (Friday, June 9).
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS
If you need special accommodations or if you have other learning needs the TA and I should be aware of, you may request accommodations by contacting the Disabled Students Program (893-2668, 1201 SAASB).
HOW TO SUCCEED IN LINGUISTICS 70
Come to class. You are expected to be on time for every lecture and section and to remain for the entire class period. If you absolutely must arrive late or leave early, you should let the instructor know (in advance, if at all possible). In return, we'll do all we can to make lecture and section time interesting and fun.
Do the work. The workload for this course is not extremely difficult, if you stay on top of it. Don't fall behind on readings, meet your deadlines (especially for the group project), and do your best work. If you're having trouble understanding something, talk to the TA or me in office hours.
Use the website. The course website not only has the most up-to-date information about the course, but it also includes all lecture notes, assignments, and other materials, as well as tips on how to read articles in sociocultural linguistics, how to conduct research and write a paper on sociocultural linguistics, and other useful information.
Meet with the TA and me. We're here to help you, but we can't unless you come see us. We're glad to give feedback on drafts of assignments in office hours (however, due to time constraints we can only read and comment on papers in face-to-face meetings, not via email). If you can't make our regularly scheduled office hours, make an appointment. You'll also have a better learning experience if your instructors know who you are. For that reason, every student is strongly encouraged to sign up for a brief five-minute meeting with me to introduce themselves sometime during the quarter (preferably early on). A sign-up sheet is posted on my office door each week, or you can email me and request a time or simply drop in if no one is scheduled.
NOTE: This course discusses sensitive issues and offensive attitudes. It is expected that you will often have strong opinions about the course material. The goal is for you to respond to the material with solid evidence, not your own emotional reaction. If you are highly sensitive about offensive material, you should not take this course.
REQUIRED READINGS
Lippi-Green, Rosina (2004). Language ideology and language prejudice. In Edward Finegan & John R. Rickford, eds., Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 289-304.
Milroy, James, & Lesley Milroy (1999). Two nations divided by the same language?: The standard language ideology in Britain and the United States. In Authority in language: Investigating Standard English. 3d ed. London: Routledge. 150-160.
Jones, Katharine W. (2001). "Gee, I love your accent": English people and Americans interact. In Accent on privilege: English identities and Anglophilia in the U.S. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 108-140.
Bucholtz, Mary (forthcoming). Word up: Social meanings of slang in California youth culture. In Jane Goodman & Leila Monaghan, eds., A cultural approach to interpersonal communication: Essential readings. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Dailey-O'Cain, Jennifer (2000). The sociolinguistic distribution of and attitudes toward focuser like and quotative like. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4(1):60-80.
Lippi-Green, Rosina (1997). Hillbillies, rednecks, and southern belles: The language rebels. In English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. New York: Routledge. 202-216.
Fought, Carmen (2002). California students' perceptions of, you know, regions and dialects? In Daniel Long & Dennis R. Preston, eds., Handbook of perceptual dialectology. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 117-136.
Green, Lisa (2004). African American English. In Edward Finegan & John R. Rickford, eds., Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 76-91.
Ronkin, Maggie, & Helen E. Karn (1999). Mock Ebonics: Linguistic racism in parodies of Ebonics on the Internet. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(3):360-380.
Crawford, James (2000). Anatomy of the English-only movement. In At war with diversity: U.S. language policy in an age of anxiety. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 4-30.
Walters, Keith (2001). English-only rules in the workplace and the courts' response. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 7(3):295-309.
Fillmore, Lily Wong (2004). Language in education. In Edward Finegan & John R. Rickford, eds., Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century\. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 339-360
Tamura, Eileen H. (2002). African American Vernacular English and Hawai'i Creole English: A comparison of two school board controversies. Journal of Negro Education 71(1-2):17-30.
Chun, Elaine W. (2004). Ideologies of legitimate mockery: Margaret Cho's revoicings of Mock Asian. Pragmatics 14(2-3):263-289.
Meek, Barbra A. (2006). And the Injun goes "How!": Representations of American Indian English in white public space. Language in Society 35(1):93-128.
Crawford, James (2000). Endangered Native American languages: What is to be done, and why? In At war with diversity: U.S. language policy in an age of anxiety. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 52-65.
Hinton, Leanne (1999). Trading tongues: Loss of heritage languages in the United States. English Today 15(4):21-30.
Martin, Elizabeth (2002). Cultural images and different varieties of English in French television commercials. English Today 18(4):8-20.
Park, Joseph Sung-Yul (forthcoming). "Baby, darling, honey!": Constructing a competence of English in South Korean TV shows. Texas Linguistic Forum 46 (Proceedings of the eleventh annual Symposium About Language and Society--Austin).