1. Language and Literacy EDCI 585 - Zimmerman
Welcome to Language and Communication
These materials were designed to help you better understand the issues involved in how we learn language and how we communicate.

2. Linguistics Two Subdivisions of Linguistics
Psycholinguistics – psychology + linguistics
Sociolinguistics
Linguisitics is the science of language. There are
Two subdivisions of linguistics
Psycholinguistics – psychology + linguistics
deals with language acquisition, neurolinguistics, language and the brain, brain damage, aphasia
Sociolinguistics
deals with how language actually works in the world, in society, and how language users adapt their uses of language to different social contexts.
Sociolinguistics is what we will focus on.

3. Contexts for Language Social contexts school shopping
peer interactions
work
entertainment
First of all let’s think about what are the social contexts for your students?
School, shopping, peers, work, entertainment
These are the types of activities they most likely engage in the most.

4. Language for Social Contexts
Standard American English
Shopping English
English of their peers
Work English
Academic English
What can we call the language that they must use in each context?
Standard American English, Shopping English, English of their peers, Work English, Academic English
Can you see any differences in the type of English your students need to learn?

5. Registers of English Formal English Informal English
The degree to which they become more proficient in Standard American English, the wider the range of options available to them in their lives.
We will call the types of English your students need
Formal English and Informal English
A year or so ago, I was listening to a program on NPR and language was the topic. John McWhorter was talking about his book, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care. His thesis is that while evolution of language is inevitable, the near-total loss of formal expression in American language is a crisis in our culture in which our very ability to convey ideas and arguments effectively is gravely threatened. A young woman who was an English teacher called in to say that she agreed and that as an English teacher she is rather at a loss how to deal with it. She gave the example that her students cannot change registers when they write. They write a formal research paper in the same breezy, colloquial fashion that they would a journal entry.
As we think about these ideas, we need to consider the needs of our students. Which English is it more important that they learn – formal or informal? Why?
The degree to which they become more proficient in Standard American English, the wider the range of options available to them in their lives.
What do you think this means?

6. Language and Status Accepted or “correct” way of speaking
Differences in speech and language patterns
accent
dialect
slang
Language Variations
word choice
sound
syntax
communication patterns
Language is also closely related to social status. You tend to learn the language and language patterns of your family and community which gives you membership in this particular linguistic community. Language can help create racial, ethnic, and/or social identity.
Most social groups recognize that there is usually an
accepted or “correct” way of speaking
by members of this group.
If you talk differently may sound “uneducated” or you may sound like you are “putting on airs.” In either case, your language doesn’t fit somehow.
Differences in speech and language patterns can be defined several ways.
Accent – the way words are pronounced
Dialect – variations of language, including differences in grammar, spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, etc.
Slang – words, phrases, or uses that are generally regarded as very informal. Slang is often seen as being dated quickly. On another NPR program I was listening to around New Year’s, a young woman was talking about which slang was in and out for the new year. She said that you could always tell when a slang term was on its way out when you heard your mother using it.
Language variations are a normal and pervasive feature of all languages, and these differences can be culturally determined, determined by the region where you live, or determined by how those around you talk.
word choice – soda v. pop
sound – accent, pace of speaking, clarity of speech, how well they can hear you
syntax – structural or grammar patterns – double negatives; I done it
communication patterns – turn taking in conversation; how speaker makes requests or offers criticism or advice, or expresses feelings
Prestige is attached to some dialects. What are some examples? Don’t people generally think a British accent sounds much more refined than a Midwestern accent?
Judgments may be made about the speaker’s intelligence, motivation, or even morality based on how they speak.
I interviewed an African-American woman for a project about language, and she commented that she had grown up speaking Standard American English, not the local dialect that many African-Americans in her community spoke. One day at school another girl threatened to beat her up for “talking white”.
What did she mean by, “talking white”? How does this example relate to the ideas of prestige being given to some ways of speaking or of judgments being made about someone based on how they talk?

7. Standard American English
Non-standard English
Why is or is not the use of Standard English important?
What makes something
Standard American English or non-standard English?
How does this happen? – standard is defined by the dominant group. What is standard is influenced by regional practices as well as cultural communities.
Why is or is not the use of Standard English important?
How do we respect one another through the use and understanding of our own or others’ languages?
Think about the article you read by Carter. How did she set up a mechanism for differentiating between poor English usage by her students and using Black dialect usage?

8. Functions of Language
Interactional – used primarily to establish and maintain social relations.
Transactional - to transmit knowledge, skills or information
Direct communication – intentional – often direct factual type statements
Indirect communication – inferential – involves metaphors and idioms
Now that we have considered some of the implications of language and communication, we need to back up a little and think about
Why do people learn language? Because they are in real situations communicating about important and interesting things. This communication is seen and perceived as something which is highly valued.
Functions of language:
Interactional – used primarily to establish and maintain social relations.
Examples of this would be – Talking about the weather – where you went shopping
Which register of language would this more likely be related to? Yes, this is informal communication.
Transactional - to transmit knowledge, skills or information
Examples would be faculty meetings - classrooms
Which register of language would this more likely be related to? If you said formal, you are right. Of course, there can be informal communication in these examples, but overall, more formal language is used.
Direct communication – intentional – often direct factual type statements.
Examples of direct communication are: He caught a 5 pound fish. She works in Israel.
Indirect communication – inferential – involves metaphors and idioms
so it is not straightforward.
For example: You’re way off base. That lesson was piece of cake.
Start paying attention to the language that you and the people around you use, and how it affects their communication with others. Do you know some people who use a lot of informal English? formal English? direct communication? indirect communication?

9. Context of Language
the degree to which the environment gives meaningful clues to help the language learner decipher and interpret the language being used
Contextualized
Decontextualized
Now, I’d like to talk about the context of language in a little different way than we did earlier. Context can be defined as
the degree to which the environment gives meaningful clues to help the language learner decipher and interpret the language being used.
Think about the context of a face-to-face encounter with someone, what I will call a
contextualized
encounter. In such encounters there are non-verbal cues that the listeners watches for. You listen for tone of voice. You may also be watching how the other interacts
If language or communication is
decontextualized
there are fewer clues in the environment. For example, phone conversations may allow you to hear a the other person’s tone of voice, but you cannot pick up on their body language. In the academic setting decontextualization takes on a little aspect. This may relate to reading something with no pictures, or listening to lectures with no visual aids. Many academic subjects also require that you learn specialized vocabulary outside of normal conversational vocabulary.
Context is why you may notice that a student who is a New Learner of English can talk about social activities with their friends in the hall and come into the class and seem to understand nothing. Social language is more contextualized than academic language.

10. Language and Education
Characteristics of standard American education
label objects
answer questions
create extended narratives
predict and maneuver events through imaginative storytelling
build on and extend already existing schemata
Some of the characteristics of standard American education are that children must be able to
label objects
answer questions
create extended narratives
predict and maneuver events through imaginative storytelling
build on and extend already existing schemata
These are characteristics that many middle class mainstream children learn at home. Since many of them come to school with this background, how well do you think they tend to do in school?
If a student comes from a background where the home language patterns are different from this – what happens in school? Problems occur when there is a mismatch between what children bring from home and what is expected and taught in school. For example:
Many Chinese-American children tend to do well in American schools because they are accustomed to parent-controlled conversations at home. Parents ask children questions requiring factual answers and they monitor children’s talk and activities through verbally correcting them, explaining, and evaluation. This prepares them for school interactions with teachers.
Many recent Mexican-American immigrants have a different home experience. Parents model behavior – they do not typically explain their actions with step-by-step directions. They seldom ask children to verbalize what they are doing as they work, and seldom ask children to repeat facts or the sequence of events. These children are often surrounded by extended family of all ages – so while little talk is directed at them, they have a variety of language modeled from other children and adults. Children are taught to be respectful of adults, answer talk directed at them, and not to initiate social conversation with their elders.

11. Carter Article Discussion
Should it matter how you speak/write English?
Comment on her teaching using black dialect and standard English. What do you think of her reasoning and the activities she used?
Is this something you would try to do in your classroom? If so, how?
As you conduct your online discussion, these are some of the questions I would like for you to consider relating to the article by Carter.
Should it matter how you speak/write English?
p. 149 – Comment on her teaching using black dialect and standard English. What do you think of her reasoning and the activities she used?
Is this something you would try to do in your classroom? If so, how?