English 404: Language, Power, & Identity Summer 2011: Third Four-week Session (Jul 25-Aug 18) CRT

108 Patricia Mayes Office Hours: M&W 3:30-4:30 & by appointment Office: 486 Curtin Hall, ext. 6992 E-mail: mayes@uwm.edu Required Readings There is no textbook All course readings are on electronic reserve at the library. Course handouts and assignment sheets will be available on D2L.

Course Description: This course is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of the relationship between language and society. In investigating this relationship, we will consider how language is involved in the construction of social identity and power structures. Our investigation of social identity will include not only examining how individuals construct their identities but also how language is implicated in the formation of social groupings such as class, ethnicity, gender, and regional affiliations. The approach taken in this course is both descriptive and critical in that we will examine how language is implicated in creating and maintaining power for certain groups through such constructs as standard dialects and more broadly through public policies. Course Requirements 1. Reading and Participation: Please follow the procedure below when doing the readings: a. Read each selection carefully and completely. b. There will be a set of reading questions for many of the readings on D2L. Print these off and try to answer them as you do the readings. Also, make notes of any other points each piece raises for you. c. We will use the reading questions and your reactions or questions in our class discussion on the date the reading is listed on the schedule. d. Keep written notes of (b) and (c) for later reference. e. You will not need to hand in any of your notes about the readings or questions. 2. Quizzes: There will be weekly true/false and multiple-choice quizzes set up on D2L. You will need to do the quiz for each week by the end of the week in which the material was covered in class. All quizzes will be due by 11:55 pm on Sundays. (See the schedule below.)

3. Group Work: We will be doing a lot of in-class activities and discussions in groups. Four or five of these will be graded. In some cases you will hand in the work that your group has done at the end of the class period, and in other cases, it will be submitted through a dropbox on the D2L site. 4. Final Essay (Undergrads Only): As part of the final (the last quiz), you will write a 500-word (two-page, double-spaced) essay. Youll be able to choose among several questions, which will be made available at the end of the second week in the Course Documents folder. 5. Final Papers (Grads Only): If you are enrolled for graduate credit, you will need to write a paper. There are two options for the paper, which should be 10-12 pages, double-spaced: a. a literature review in which you come up with a question that you try to answer by discussing relevant literature on the topic b. a research paper in which you try to answer a question concerning some aspect of the relationship between language and society. For this option, you will need to collect linguistic data (or use data already available to you), analyze it, and present your findings in a research paper format. There are more specific guidelines in the document called Graduate Paper Guidelines in the Course Documents folder. You should plan to discuss your paper topic with me before you begin doing your research. Grading Undergraduates Attendance & Participation Quizzes Group Work Final Essay Graduate Students Attendance & Participation Quizzes Group Work Final Paper Course Policies I do not accept e-mailed assignments or late assignments. Hard copies of all written assignments must be turned in on or before the due date. 10% 30% 30% 30% 15% 35% 35% 15%

If you need special accommodation due to a disability, religious observance, or military duty, let me know as soon as possible. Tentative Schedule Note: The readings and assignments should be done before class on the date they are listed. Week 1 M (7/25) Introduction/The relationship between language and social life Lippi-Green (1997) Chapter 1: The linguistic facts of life The Relationship between language and social life Finegan (1985) Chapter 5: Unconscious attitudes toward linguistic variation The role of language in the construction of social identities Bucholtz & Hall (2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach The role of language in the creation and maintenance of power van Dijk (1986) Structures of discourse and structures of power (excerpt)

T (7/26)

W (7/27)

R (7/28)

Quiz 1 due by Sun (7/31) 11:55 pm Week 2 M (8/1) The role of language in the creation and maintenance of power Lakoff (1990) Chapter 15: Language Bosses Standard languages Lippi-Green (1997) Chapter 3: The standard language myth The linguistic construction of regional social groups Wolfram & Schilling-Estes (2006) Chapter 5: Regional dialects The linguistic construction of social class Wardhaugh (2002) pp. 144-150; 333-338 (excerpts) Atherton, J. (2002) Language codes

T (8/2) W (8/3)

R (8/4)

Quiz 2 due by Sun (8/7) 11:55 pm

Week 3 M (8/8) The linguistic construction of gender Eckert & McConnell-Ginet (2003) Introduction (excerpt) Eckert & McConnell-Ginet (2003) Chapter 1: Constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing gender The linguistic construction of social class and gender Bucholtz (1999) Purchasing Power: The Gender and Class Imaginary on the Shopping Channel The linguistic construction of ethnicity Molesky (1988) Understanding the American linguistic mosaic: A historical overview of language maintenance and language shift (excerpt) Scollon & Scollon (1990) Athabaskan-English interethnic communication The linguistic construction of ethnicity (AAE/AAL) Morgan (2002) Chapter 2: Forms of speech: Verbal styles, discourse and interaction Morgan (2002) Chapter 3: Language norms and practices

T (8/9)

W (8/10)

R (8/11)

Quiz 3 due by Sun (8/14) 11:55 pm Week 4 M (8/15) Language and public policy: AAE and the education system DeBose (2007) The Ebonics phenomenon, language planning, and the Hegemony of standard English The Original Oakland Resolution Language and public policy Schmid (2001) Chapter 3: Immigrant exclusion and language restriction in the twentieth century The use of language to choose and switch social identities Anzalda (1997) How to tame a wild tongue The future of linguistic diversity Chafe (1997) The importance of Native American languages

T (8/16)

W (8/17)

R (8/18)

Due in class on 8/18: Final essay Due in class on 8/18: Grad papers

Quiz 4 due by Sun (8/21) 11:55pm Materials on Electronic Reserve at the Library 1. Lippi-Green, Rosina. (1997). Chapter 1: The linguistic facts of life. English with an Accent (pp. 7-40). London: Routledge. 2. Finegan, Edward. (1985). Chapter 5: Unconscious attitudes toward linguistic variation. In Sidney Greenbaum (Ed.), The English language today (pp. 92-98). Oxford: Pergamon. 3. Bucholtz, Mary & Hall, Kira. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7 (4-5), pp. 585-614. 4. van Dijk, Teun. (1986). Excerpt from Structures of discourse and structures of power Communication Yearbook 12, pp. 18-53. 5. Lakoff, Robin. (1990). Chapter 15: Language Bosses. Talking power (pp. 283-302). New York: Basic Books (Harper-Collins). 6. Lippi-Green, Rosina. (1997). Chapter 3: The standard language myth. English with an accent (pp. 53-62). London: Routledge. 7. Wolfram, Walt & Schilling-Estes, Natalie (2006) Chapter 5: Regional dialects. American English: Dialects and variation, second edition (pp. 134-166). Malden, MA: Blackwell. 8. Wardhaugh, Ronald. (2002). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, fourth edition (pp. 144-150 & 333-338). Malden, MA: Blackwell. 9. Atherton, J. (2002). Language codes

http://www.doceo.co.uk/background/language_codes.htm
10. Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Introduction. Language and gender (pp. 1-8). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 11. Eckert, Penelope & McConnell-Ginet, Sally. (2003). Chapter 1: Constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing gender. Language and gender (pp. 9-51). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 12. Bucholtz, Mary. (1999). Purchasing Power: The Gender and Class Imaginary on the Shopping Channel. In Mary Bucholtz, A.C. Liang, and Laurel Sutton (Eds.) Reinventing identities: The gendered self in discourse (pp. 348-368). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 13. Molesky, Jean (1988). Understanding the American linguistic mosaic: A historical overview of language maintenance and language shift. In Sandra Lee McKay & Sau-

ling Cynthia Wong (Eds.) Language diversity: Problem or resource? (pp. 29-68). Cambridge: Newbury House. 14. Scollon, Ronald & Wong-Scollon, Suzanne. (1990). Athabaskan-English interethnic communication. In Donal Carbaugh (Ed.) Cultural communication and interethnic contact (pp. 259-286). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 15. Morgan, Marcyliena. (2002). Chapter 2: Forms of speech: Verbal styles, discourse and interaction. Language, discourse and power in African American culture (pp. 35-61). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 16. Morgan, Marcyliena. (2002). Chapter 3: Language norms and practices. Language, discourse and power in African American culture (pp. 62-83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 17. DeBose, Charles E. (2007). The Ebonics phenomenon, language planning, and the hegemony of standard English. In Alim & Baugh (Eds.), Talkin black talk: Language, education, and social change (pp.30-42). 18. The Original Oakland Resolution http://www.linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonicsres1.html 19. Schmid, Carol L. (2001). Chapter 3: Immigrant exclusion and language restriction in the twentieth century. The politics of language: Conflict, identity, and cultural pluralism in comparative perspective (pp. 32-56). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 20. Anzalda, Gloria. (1997). How to tame a wild tongue. In Nancy Buffington, et al. (Eds.) Living languages (pp. 29-39). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 21. Chafe, Wallace. (1997). The importance of Native American languages. The David Skomp Distinguished Lectures in Anthropology, Indiana University.