Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching: Understanding the Connection, Resúmenes de Literatura inglesa

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University of Panama College of humanities English department Topic: Sociolinguistic and language teaching Professor: Marisol Ortega Group members: Eliecer Aldoban Maria Bermúdez Andrés García Date: Tuesday, October 4th, 2022 2 Table Of content Introduction 3 What is the connection between sociolinguistic and language teaching? 4 Ethnicity 4 Gender 4 Geography 4 Social Class 5 Occupation and Role 5 How does sociolinguistics affect teaching? 5 Why is sociolinguistics important for a language teacher? 6 What are the main problems discussed or studied in sociolinguistics? 7 Political 7 Historical 7 Cultural Issues 7 Bureaucratic 8 How does the study of sociolinguistics help us in understanding language? 8 How does sociolinguistic affect language? 9 Conclusion 11 Glossary 12 Bibliography 13 5 Social Class There are observable differences in language across class boundaries in a society. Just as higher social groups use language to distinguish themselves, some groups deliberately employ inferior forms in order to disassociate themselves from mainstream society. Occupation and Role Of all the variations in language that are an everyday occurrence, it is felt that the changes that we most commonly overlook are the changes in language owing to the profession of the writer or speaker, or their relationship to others. How does sociolinguistics affect teaching? Closely related to the social context is the educational context. Studies on the educational contexts grounded in educational psychology emphasize the inseparability and reciprocal influence of educational institutions and settings in which learning and teaching operations are embedded (Bloom & Green, 1992). In the context of second language development, it is the educational context that shapes language policy, language planning, and most importantly, the learning opportunities available to the second language learner. According to Kamaravadivelu (2001), It is impossible to insulate classroom life from the dynamics of political, educational, and societal institutions, because of the experiences, participants bring to the classroom are shaped not only by the learning and teaching episodes they have encountered in the classroom, but also by a broader social, economic, educational, and political environment in which they grow up. As Tollefson (2002) and others pointed out, it is the educational context that determines the types as well as the goals of instructional programs made available to the second language learner. For instance, the educational context will condition the relationship between the home language and the school language, between “standard” language and its “nonstandard” varieties. As a result of decisions made by educating policymakers, the second language learners will have a choice between additive bilingualism, where they have the opportunity to become active users of the second language while at the same time maintaining their first language, or subtractive bilingualism, where they gradually lose their first language as they develop more and more competence and confidence in their second language. Similarly, as Norton (2000) and Pavlenko (2002) asserted, the educational context can also shape the complex relationship between power, status and identity by determining “how access to linguistic and interActional resources is mediated by nonnative speaker status, race, gender, 6 class, age, and social status, and to ways in which discourses appropriated by second language learners are linked to power and authority” Why is sociolinguistics important for a language teacher? It may seem that pedagogy and methodology are things that English teachers need in order to teach English to speakers of other languages who have already mastered their first language, but it does not work that way. The concept of sociolinguistics should be taken into consideration expected to consider sociolinguistics features during the teaching and learning process, such as culture, social inequality, and communicative competence. Additionally, a lot of linguists have claimed that because language and culture are interconnected, they cannot be separated into separate categories. In actuality, the L1 learner's behavior and linguistic principles will exert some influence on the L2 students. An illustration of basic relationship linguistics is provided to substantiate this claim. Learning vocabulary to address family members is how nearly all ESL textbooks, including those found in Malaysia, introduce the concept of language function. According to Afful (2006), the term "addressing" establishes an essential part of verbal behavior, norms, and practices of a society can be identified. In contrast to Chinese culture, which uses a specific term for male siblings on both the maternal and paternal sides while also taking into account the sibling's place in the family hierarchy, English culture only has one term to describe the relationship between the parents' male siblings: "uncle." For instance, the teacher should be aware of the cultural differences that are presented through language and how they either help or hinder a student's acquisition of English as a foreign language. In this case, a common error made by students is thinking of the parents' entire male sibling as "Uncle" without stating the family structure. Because of this, it's possible that the students will come up with terms like Big Uncle for the older male sibling and Small Uncle for the younger sibling. In a methodology feature, the teacher will have to use another method to raise the students' awareness of the cultural differences that led to the linguistic glitch. However, it is expected that the teacher is aware that the majority of sociolinguists, including Labov, believe that the value and usage of all languages are the same. Because of this, it's crucial to ignore any intolerance or prejudice against the student's native culture and English culture when teaching English. Rich heritage, high levels of linguistic modernization, significant levels of international standing, or the prestige of its speakers have all been categorized as 7 contributing factors to the idea that a language is of a higher class or more prestigious. In Malaysia, there is a wide variety of cultures, languages, and dialects, depending on the demographic of the individual. In addition, some people think that the most prestigious dialect is one particular standard dialect of English that everyone should be able to speak (Fox,1999).in this situation. The primary reason that sociolinguistics knowledge should be incorporated into foreign language instruction is that students who already speak a first language (L1) will have a set of values and cultural awareness that have been drilled into them throughout their lives before being exposed to a second language (L2). For instance, in Malaysia, English teachers are What are the main problems discussed or studied in sociolinguistics? The main focus of sociolinguistics, the study of language as social behavior, is on problems caused by language in society. Several problems that can be encountered while studying sociolinguistics include political, historical, cultural and bureaucratic. Political Political problems may arise as a result of the phenomenon of dominant and minoritized languages in linguistic regions. Clara Chu, a linguist at the University of Chicago, contends that this phenomenon, which can result in social segregation and possibly even political disenfranchisement, occurs when the dominant language in a community dictates the terms of the culture to linguistic minorities. Sociolinguistics studies the political issues arising from interactions between linguistic groups, such as problems with interpretation, problems with social exclusion, and even issues with oppression. Historical History informs both language and society. Due to historical developments, there are two distinct sociolinguistic problems: First, linguistic differences frequently result from historical events, like the division of nations; second, linguists must rely on historical records to chart the evolution of languages over time. The methodology and matter of sociolinguistics therefore include historical issues. Cultural Issues Language shapes culture in many ways. Often, the literature and philosophy that define a nation are written in the language that is indigenous to that nation. However, a large portion of the literature and philosophy of a nation may be imported into nations with 10 However, C.M. Millward, in his work A Biography of the English Language, said “changes in language may be systematic or sporadic”. When a new word comes out because there were no others to describe a new activity or product, the sporadic change occurs, but serious changes are not noticeable. On the other hand, Systematic alterations, as the phrase suggests, have an impact on the language's overall system or subsystem. Whether linguistic or extralinguistic, context or environment causes a conditioned systematic shift. As a result, systematic change tents to affect the most because it had happened through time almost without forcing its use and adapting to the need of speakers which started to change or use a word and a whole community acquired that certain use. So, based on this brief studies of how language is affected, we may conclude and suggest that even tough sociolinguistic could not directly affect the language by just prescriptive ideas that might not be accepted in the common use of a language, they could teach new generations certain rules that will indirectly cause changes to the use of language in certain communities. Also, since language does not have such a thing as consciousness, it can not be aware of the observation or studies applied to itself nor stop changing because of it. 11 Conclusion To conclude, sociolinguistics has an important role in language teaching because it consists of the study of the link between language and society, of language variation, and the attitudes about language. It is noteworthy in learning language because it can give the suitable perspective of language. Sociolinguistics also ably lead the learners to speak in appropriate social context, therefore, it is very important to the teachers to introduce sociolinguistics through teaching language materials in order the students will have knowledge about the relationship of language and social context. They may just not focus on how to speak fluently, but speak appropriately is needed too. So much of actual communication is beyond knowing just words and grammar, and without considering communication in its entirety, the learners will never really fluent in another language. 12 Glossary Sociolinguistics:The study of the link between language and society, of language variation, and attitudes about language forensic linguistics: A discipline within Applied Linguistics that is responsible for analyzing the relationships that language maintains with the judicial and legal field. Lexicography: the practice of creating books, computer programs, or databases that reflect lexicographical work and are intended for public use. These include dictionaries and thesauri, which are widely accessible resources that present various aspects of lexicology, such as spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. Extralinguistic:not included within the realm of language or linguistics Prescriptivist: believing that there are correct and wrong ways to use language and that books about language should give rules to follow, rather than describing how language is really used Pedagogy: the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept. Inequality: the quality of being unequal or uneven: such as. a : social disparity. b : disparity of distribution or opportunity. c : lack of evenness. Demographic is the statistical characteristics of human populations (such as age or income) used especially to identify markets. Ethnicity: the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. Pidgin language: it is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from several languages. Bilingualism: fluency in or use of two languages. Interactional linguistics: it is based on the principle that linguistic structures and uses are formed through interaction, and it aims at helping to understand how languages are shaped through interaction. The approach focuses on temporality, activity implication and embodiment in interaction.