English has been investigated more than any other language, mainly due to its wide usage in the world. The study of this language variation has revealed how people use, evaluate and perceive language and speech. The first major sociolinguistic investigation into English was by William Labov in the 1960s. He looked at the use of English in New York department stores and found that people adjusted their speech to listeners, for various reasons. Most importantly, he proved that pronunciation variation that seemed random was quite structured, and predictable on the basis of speaker characteristics and social circumstances. Many other investigations into English have been performed since, all of which have had their own focus: evaluation, perception, description, and various others. Sex, social class and age have been the most important variables studied, but other variables have also been investigated. In this MA course, examples of investigations into varieties of English will be presented. As much of sociolinguistic research is based on pronunciation, this aspect of language is the focus in many of the articles discussed.
Timetable
The timetable will be available from June 1st on the Internet.
Method of Instruction
Two-hour seminar per week.
A la carte and contract teaching
Not available as modular course or a la carte.
Course objectives
This course introduces students to handling sociolinguistic literature in which English is used as the topic of investigation, and interpreting this literature. Furthermore, students learn to present empirical research and write critically on this research.
Required reading
*Articles will be handed out during the classes and through Blackboard. *Chambers, J. (2002), Sociolinguistic Theory, Blackwell Publishers.
Examination
Presentations (40%), homework (20%) and essay (40%).
The course can be extended to 15 ECTS through an exam.
Information
English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c, tel. 071 5272144.
English@let.leidenuniv.nl
Blackboard/webpage
No Blackboard is available.
Overview
Active class discussion on the basis of a weekly programme, which will be available from January 2009.