This subject guide is not designed as an overview of the whole field of sociolinguistics. It will largely be up to you to structure a course of study for yourself which will consist of topics or issues outlined in this subject guide. The guide is not, therefore, the subject itself, but a guide to how an appropriate course of study could be constructed by you. The range of material outlined in the guide is the minimum needed for you to sit the examination with confidence.
Simple regurgitation in the examination of the illustrative material in this subject guide constitutes plagiarism (academic dishonesty) and as such will be heavily penalised. You must adapt the material in ways appropriate to the syllabus you have decided to follow, which will be based on this guide. Examiners always look unfavourably at examination answers that consist solely of the illustrative material presented in this or any of the other subject guides.
This guide is intended as a model of how you might organise your programme of study, but you will be expected to adapt the model to suit the programme you have decided to follow. Each chapter focuses on a selection of topics, some of which you may like to study in depth. But you are not limited only to the topics discussed. There may be others connected with a particular area that you will decide to focus on. This will become apparent to you during your own study and research for this course.
You should organise your course of study around sociolinguistic theory and research, but this should be backed up by your own independent research on various topics and issues. You will draw on the data and research findings from sociolinguistic research to form your own independent and critical perspective. You are required to familiarise yourself with terms and concepts introduced on the course and others you will come across during your study. You should ensure that, in addition to the sociolinguistics books suggested for this course, you also have access to introductory books on linguistics, for example Yule (2010) or Fromkin et al. (2010) and a linguistics dictionary such as Swann et al. (2004).
Below is a suggested 22-week outline which gives you an idea of how a syllabus could be constructed for this course:
Weeks 1–2
Introductory readings on linguistics, language, sociolinguistics, linguistic variation. Become familiar with terms and concepts, e.g. language varieties, accents, dialects, regional and social variation, linguistic and social variables.
Weeks 3–4
Focus on language standardisation, the Standard English debate and attitudes to (non-standard) linguistic varieties.
Weeks 5–6
Language and ethnicity: Pidgins and creoles, London Jamaican (LJ), African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Weeks 7–8
Study the concepts of monolingualism, bilingualism, multilingualism and code-switching.
Weeks 9–10
Language and gender: What is gender? Stereotypes and empirical research on gender differences in language use.
Weeks 11–12
Analysing spoken discourse: The Ethnography of Speaking; Interactional Sociolinguistics; how are transcriptions represented?
Weeks 13–14
Analysing spoken discourse: Conversation Analysis.
Weeks 15–16
Language, thought and representation: Saussure; Sapir–Whorf, sexist language.
Weeks 17–18
Hands-on analysis of language: recording, transcribing and analysing spoken language; analysing extracts of written language.
Weeks 19–20
Analysing written discourse: rhetorical strategies, political and media language.
Weeks 21–22
Revision and review: draw up a schedule of topics to revise and study the sample examination questions.
Key texts for this course are:
Mooney, A., J. Stilwell Peccei, S. LaBelle, B.E. Henriksen, E. Eppler, A. Irwin, P. Pichler and S. Soden Language, Society and Power. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011) third edition [ISBN 9780415576598].
Holmes, J. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2008) third edition [ISBN 9781405821315].
Cameron, Deborah Working with Spoken Discourse. (London: Sage, 2001) [ISBN 9780761957737].
Introductory books on linguistics:
Fromkin, V., R. Rodman and N. Hyams An Introduction to Language. (Boston: Wadsworth, 2010) ninth edition [ISBN 9781428263925].
Yule, G. The Study of Language. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) fourth edition [ISBN 978052174922].
You will need a linguistics dictionary, such as:
Swann, J., R. Mesthrie, A. Deumert and T.M. Lillis A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004)
[ISBN 0748616918].
Other texts and sample examination questions can be found in each chapter of this subject guide.
You should ensure you have access to these books, but you will need to make use of many others which will be suggested in the individual chapters, and there will be those you will come across during your independent study of particular topics.
Important: the information and advice given here are based on the examination structure used at the time this guide was written. Please note that subject guides may be used for several years. Because of this we strongly advise you to always check both the current Regulations for relevant information about the examination, and the virtual learning environment (VLE) where you should be advised of any forthcoming changes. You should also carefully check the rubric/instructions on the paper you actually sit and follow those instructions.
You will be assessed by one three-hour examination. In it, you will have to answer three questions selected from around 10 to 15 questions. The examination paper will be quite wide-ranging, and will contain questions on a selection of topics from the course as a whole. You should not present substantially the same material in any two answers, whether on this paper or in any other parts of your examination. This illustrates that it is important for you to prepare to answer questions on a range of topics: we suggest at least six. You will find sample examination questions attached to each chapter.
If you have followed the instructions offered in the subject guide, have read as much of the suggested syllabus as possible and engaged with the topics under consideration, you should be well prepared for the examination. However, to do justice to yourself and the subject on the day of the examination, it is useful to think about your examination technique. Certain basic procedures should be followed.
One of the most useful examination techniques is the ability to choose the kind of question that you are well equipped to answer, that will enable you to demonstrate the particular knowledge and skills you have acquired during your course of study. For instance, if a question asks you to discuss and evaluate attitudes towards Standard English you will need some historical knowledge of the development of the Standard variety in the British Isles to answer this question adequately. You are completely free to organise the essay in whatever way you consider appropriate to answering the question, but a good answer will always include the historical background in the discussion. A first-class answer will always show some independence of thought and so this would be your chance to develop your own arguments on the topic you are discussing. In relation to a question on attitudes towards Standard English, this might include comparing and contrasting opinions and research, critically engaging with the material you are discussing before coming to an informed judgment of your own.
To answer questions effectively, it is important to understand what you are being asked to do, so look at the terms of the question (i.e. to ‘consider’, ‘compare’, ‘contrast’, ‘define’, ‘evaluate’ or ‘discuss’) and make sure you do what the question asks you to do. If you are asked, for example, to ‘consider the relationship between ‘gender’ and language use’, it is not sufficient to list the differences in the ways that men and women speak. To describe or list is not to ‘consider’. The question is asking you to critically engage and evaluate the issues surrounding language use and gender, drawing on the research that has been done in this area.
You may like to begin by saying that the relationship is a complicated one in that it is difficult to generalise about language use and gender. For example, one common point often made is that women use more tag questions than men (tag questions are questions which are ‘tagged’ onto the end of declaratives or statements, for example, ‘The lecture starts at midday doesn’t it?’). This, according to Robin Lakoff (from her observations and intuition), is because women tend to be more indirect and less forthright than men. However, other scholars have shown that, in certain situations, men use more tag questions than women and that women tend to use tag questions more to facilitate the conversation with others, whereas men tend to use them more when they are lacking information. You could also consider whether the postulated differences are merely stereotypical differences or whether there is real linguistic evidence to support them.
How you choose to answer this question will depend, to a large degree, on the texts you use and the arguments you wish to construct, but the important thing is to engage with the question asked and to develop an answer which is clearly and consistently relevant to the question. Therefore, when writing your answer, it is useful to begin with a (brief) definition of the key terms. You should also pay special attention to terms which are in quotation marks: this may signal that these terms require definition or discussion.
Remember, it is important to check the VLE for:
In selecting topics on which to write practice essays, remember that your essays will prepare you to answer examination questions, and therefore you should select essay topics that relate to the questions you will revise for.
Please note that additional study resources may be available to you for this course. A particularly important resource is the virtual learning environment (VLE) for the English programme, which you can access via the Student Portal – see the Student handbook for details of how to log in.