This page summarizes key concepts of Sociolinguistics and Conversation
Analysis that inform TESL and SLA. References
Terms:
Communicative Competence:
Gumperz 1972: Whereas linguistic competence covers the speaker's
ability to produce grammatically correct sentences, communicative
competence describes his ability to select from the totality of grammatically
correct expressions available to him, forms which appropriately reflect
the social norms governing behavior in specific encounters.
Sociolinguistic Variable:
A linguistic variable is a linguistic item that has identifiable variants.
A sociolinguistic variable describes how a linguistic item varies across
individuals and speech communities. These variables include phonological,
lexical, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic classes.
Speech Community:
A group of people, socially or geographically organized, that share
a number of linguistic variables and practices. Labov 1972: The
speech community is note defined by any marked agreement in the use of
language elements so much as by participation in a set of shared norms. Implicit in
this relationship is a bond between language use and social
structure. Also not only use but perceptions of language use. We therefore
cannot limit the definition solely to linguistic criteria.
Each individual is a member of several speech communities. These communities
may or may not overlap. Each community and individual has its own repertoire
of linguistic varieties.
Language Acquisition Device:
The highly sophisticated innate ability to acquire language. N.B. Chomsky Caretaker's Speech:
Modified speech as a result of communication between a caretaker and
the child. How does this aid in language acquisition? Parker and
Chaudron 1987 showed that simplifications resulting from discourse elaboration
or modification of the conversation structure are more likely to aid comprehension
than those simplifications which result from simplification at the linguistic
level.. Sociolinguists are interested at how discourse is modified
cooperatively and communicatively.
Language vs. Dialect (problems, difficulties, examples)
Dialects are defined as varieties of language which are spoken in different
geographical or social, areas that are mutually understandable. Dialects
are not inherently better than one another. This contrasts with the notion
that a language is a dialect that is accepted as the norm because power
or prestige of that dialect group.
All the languages in the repertoire of a multilingual community are
not equally distributed in terms of power, prestige, vitality, or attitude.
This phenomenon can be referred to as the asymmetric principle of multilingualism.
The larger number of desired roles a language enables its speakers to play
in a given society, the higher its place on the hierarchy. Sridhar
and Kachru 1978
Isoglosses: The statistical line of convergence of linguistic variables
Regional vs. Social Dialect: Social dialects do not necessarily follow
geographic boundaries but adhere to age, social class, or social networks.
Matched Guise Technique (Holmes): a technique that demonstrates your
perceptions of language. How is the same person judged in language A or
B.
Vernacular Dialects and Educational Disadvantage (Holmes):
Students are attributed negative characteristics if they do not speak
the standard. These negative attitudes influence classroom interaction
and performance. Vernacular forms express the relaxed attitudes appropriate
in casual contexts.
Standard English
Speech Act Theory (Austin and Searle):
A speech act changes in some way the conditions that exist in the world.
Illocutionary force express the intent of the speaker. Perlocutionary force
gets the listener to do things.
Speech act theory was insufficient to define the cohesion of a conversation:
is a conversation merely a sequence of speech acts? The theory is defined
in terms of the speakerís intentions and beliefs but does not help
define interaction between speaker and hearer. Speech Acts are multifunctional.
Conversational understanding is achieved by reconstruction of levels of
intent beyond and above and integrative of those that lie behind particular
utterances. Enter CA.
Prescriptive Grammar:
Rules usually taught in school without regard for the way native speakers
actually use the language. Perhaps sociolinguistic goals include bringing
prescriptive and descriptive closer together.
Descriptive Grammar:
Describes language and grammar as it is used.
Competence vs. Performance:
A Chomskean notion that competence describes the knowledge of a language
and performance describes the use of language. Chomskean theory does not
account for the communicative aspect of language but rather focuses on
its structure.
Whorfian Hypothesis: The structure of language influences how people
view the world
Gricean Norms of exchange that adhere to the cooperative principle.
- Quantity: contribute as much information as required, not more
nor less.
- Quality: Don't say what is false or inadequate
- Relation: Be relevant
- Manner: Say it in a brief, orderly and clear way
Adjacency Pairs:
The central problem of discovering the connections between utterances
and interaction, and the sequencing rules that apply. Adjacency pairs are
utterances produced by two successive speakers such that the second utterance
is identified as related to the first as an expected follow-up. Provides
for turn taking.
Turn Taking Organization and relevance to applied linguistics:
TTO is relevant to how the nuts and bolts of language are used in communication.
It accommodates the unity of linguistic information from phonology up to
pragmatics and its relevance to discourse created between two people.
Notion of Repair:
Repair is evidence of the desire to maintain communicative contact
between two parties. There are several types of repair initiation: self
and other initiation and several types of repair: self and other. Self
repair is often the preferred. Studies in repair examine how repair sequencing
contributes to language acquisition ie. Its occurrence in discourse modification
(caretaker speech/ foreigner talk etc.)
The Open Person and Civil Inattention:
Language has a subtle way of denoting the marked person. Chairman but
Chairperson. Language reflects power issues and sense of otherness. The
other is the open person.
Street remarks have the illocutionary force of telling the marked person
they are out of role. By performing a remark, the marked person is by obligation
engaged in a turn taking sequence that she/he did not initiate. Failure
to comply to the Turn Taking Obligation serves itself as a type of reply
back to the initiator. There is pressure to ratify the first turn. OR they
are not supposed to ratify a taboo subject.
There is a norm of civil inattention between unacquainted people. Street
remarks break this norm.
Civil inattention may be breached when the citizen is accompanied by
or in an open category: different from the fellow citizen.
Definition of CA:
The central problem of discovering the connections between utterances
and interaction, and the sequencing rules that apply in authentic speech.
CA and applied linguistics:
Studies in repair examine how repair sequencing and turn taking contributes
to language acquisition ie. Its occurrence in discourse modification (caretaker
speech/ foreigner talk etc.)
Role of teacher in teaching language minority children. Discuss
how perceptions, attitudes and expectations influence.
Code Switching
Negotiation of Conversation
Evelyn Hatch
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