Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Listening
- Chapter 2 Speaking
- Chapter 3 Reading
- Chapter 4 Writing
- Chapter 5 Grammar
- Chapter 6 Vocabulary
- Chapter 7 Discourse
- Chapter 8 Pronunciation
- Chapter 9 Materials development
- Chapter 10 Second language teacher education
- Chapter 11 Psycholinguistics
- Chapter 12 Second language acquisition
- Chapter 13 Bilingualism
- Chapter 14 Sociolinguistics
- Chapter 15 Computer-assisted language learning
- Chapter 16 Observation
- Chapter 17 Classroom interaction
- Chapter 18 English for academic purposes
- Chapter 19 English for specific purposes
- Chapter 20 Assessment
- Chapter 21 Evaluation
- Chapter 22 Syllabus design
- Chapter 23 Language awareness
- Chapter 24 Language learning strategies
- Chapter 25 Task-based language learning
- Chapter 26 Literature in the language classroom
- Chapter 27 Genre
- Chapter 28 Programme management
- Chapter 29 Intercultural communication
- Chapter 30 On-line communication
- Postscript: The ideology of TESOL
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Chapter 14 - Sociolinguistics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Listening
- Chapter 2 Speaking
- Chapter 3 Reading
- Chapter 4 Writing
- Chapter 5 Grammar
- Chapter 6 Vocabulary
- Chapter 7 Discourse
- Chapter 8 Pronunciation
- Chapter 9 Materials development
- Chapter 10 Second language teacher education
- Chapter 11 Psycholinguistics
- Chapter 12 Second language acquisition
- Chapter 13 Bilingualism
- Chapter 14 Sociolinguistics
- Chapter 15 Computer-assisted language learning
- Chapter 16 Observation
- Chapter 17 Classroom interaction
- Chapter 18 English for academic purposes
- Chapter 19 English for specific purposes
- Chapter 20 Assessment
- Chapter 21 Evaluation
- Chapter 22 Syllabus design
- Chapter 23 Language awareness
- Chapter 24 Language learning strategies
- Chapter 25 Task-based language learning
- Chapter 26 Literature in the language classroom
- Chapter 27 Genre
- Chapter 28 Programme management
- Chapter 29 Intercultural communication
- Chapter 30 On-line communication
- Postscript: The ideology of TESOL
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Sociolinguistics examines the relationship between language use and the social world, particularly how language operates within and creates social structures. Studies in sociolinguistics explore the commonplace observations that everyone does not speak a language in the same way, that we alter our speech to accommodate our audience, and that we recognise members and non-members of our communities via speech. Sociolinguistic studies have looked at speech communities based on social categories such as age, class, ethnicity, gender, geography, profession and sexual identity. To be sure, such categories are fluid: they exist only in context, and rather than standing independent of speech are generally produced through it. In short, these categories exist largely as a matter of social perception.
Background
Sustained interest in sociolinguistics emerged in the 1960s, in part as a reaction to ‘autonomous’ Chomskian linguistics. In place of the latter's idealised speaker/hearer, for whom social influences are idiosyncratic or irrelevant, the ‘hyphenated’ field of sociolinguistics sought to explore and theorise the language use of social beings. Capturing the interdisciplinary nature of the enterprise, a distinction is often made between micro-sociolinguistics and macro-sociolinguistics (Coulmas 1997; Spolsky 1998). Micro-sociolinguistics refers to research with a linguistic slant, often focusing on dialect and stylistic/register variation. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods have been employed to explore such linguistic phenomena as phonological differences between dialects or discourse variation between male and female speakers. Coulmas (1997: v) refers to micro-sociolinguistics as ‘social dimensions of language’.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001
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