447 Course Description

The University of Bahrain

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2015-2016 (First Semester)

Course Teacher: Dr Lamya Alkooheji

Office: S17-126

Office Hours: MW 9:30-10:30 in Isa Town Library or by appointment

Email: lamya.english@gmail.com

Aims of the Course

The course aims to equip students with the critical understanding of
- various sociolinguistic concepts and variables, including accent, dialect, variety, speech event, communicative competence, speech community, pidgins, creoles, identity, culture, gender, etc.
- a range of theories about the ways in which language variation and language choice are believed to signal the social identity of speakers and their social relationships.
- a range of theories about the ways in which language variation and language choice are believed to reflect and create social context.

The course also aims to train students to apply the learned concepts and demonstrate their understanding of major sociolinguistic theories through carrying out sociolinguistic research and presenting their findings in (1) a written form (project) and (2) an oral form (presentation)

Materials

Selected articles and materials presented in the form of handouts and other interactive/digital formats (video, power point presentations, online reading and research etc.).
Assessment

Midterm (OR 2 short tests)* 20%

Presenting an article 10%

Assignment & Presentation 30% (20 & 10)- PS: Since Article presentations took too much time, I will only grade your written presentation. I will ask each student one or two questions about the projects to check that he or she did it by himself or herself and knows the content well.

Final Exam 40 %

Course Coverage (weeks exclude vacation weeks)

Week 1 Chapter 1: What do sociolinguists study

Weeks 2 & 3: Chapter 2: Language choices in multilingual communities

Week 4: Chapter 3: Language maintanace and shift

Week 6: Midterm(s), articles distributed for student predentations

Week 7: Handout: Language and Culture

Week 8 & 9: Assigning research topics. Guidelines to academic research

Weeks 10 and 11: students' article presentations (every 3 students one presentation)

Week 12: Handout: Language and Identity

Week 13: Handout: Pidginisation and Creolisation

Weeks 14: Handout: Language and Power

The course aims to equip students with the critical understanding of

various sociolinguistic concepts and variables, including accent, dialect, variety, speech event, communicative competence, speech community, pidgins, creoles, identity, culture, gender, etc.

a range of theories about the ways in which language variation and language choice are believed to signal the social identity of speakers and their social relationships.

a range of theories about the ways in which language variation and language choice are believed to reflect and create social context.

The course also aims to train students to apply the learned concepts and demonstrate their understanding of major sociolinguistic theories through carrying out sociolinguistic research and presenting their findings in (1) a written form (project) and (2) an oral form (presentation)

Dr. Lamya Al Kooheji