This page summarizes key concepts of Sociolinguistics and Conversation Analysis that inform TESL and SLA.

References Terms : Communicative Competence : Gumperz 1972: Whereas linguistic competence covers the speaker's ability to produce grammatically correct sentences, communicative competence describes his ability to select from the totality of grammatically correct expressions available to him, forms which appropriately reflect the social norms governing behavior in specific encounters.

Sociolinguistic Variable : A linguistic variable is a linguistic item that has identifiable variants. A sociolinguistic variable describes how a linguistic item varies across individuals and speech communities. These variables include phonological, lexical, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic classes.

Speech Community : A group of people, socially or geographically organized, that share a number of linguistic variables and practices. Labov 1972: The speech community is note defined by any marked agreement in the use of language elements so much as by participation in a set of shared norms. Implicit in this relationship is a bond between language use and social structure. Also not only use but perceptions of language use. We therefore cannot limit the definition solely to linguistic criteria . Each individual is a member of several speech communities. These communities may or may not overlap. Each community and individual has its own repertoire of linguistic varieties.

Language Acquisition Device : The highly sophisticated innate ability to acquire language. N.B. Chomsky

Caretaker's Speech : Modified speech as a result of communication between a caretaker and the child. How does this aid in language acquisition? Parker and Chaudron 1987 showed that simplifications resulting from discourse elaboration or modification of the conversation structure are more likely to aid comprehension than those simplifications which result from simplification at the linguistic level.. Sociolinguists are interested at how discourse is modified cooperatively and communicatively .

Language vs. Dialect (problems, difficulties, examples ) Dialects are defined as varieties of language which are spoken in different geographical or social, areas that are mutually understandable. Dialects are not inherently better than one another. This contrasts with the notion that a language is a dialect that is accepted as the norm because power or prestige of that dialect group.

All the languages in the repertoire of a multilingual community are not equally distributed in terms of power, prestige, vitality, or attitude. This phenomenon can be referred to as the asymmetric principle of multilingualism. The larger number of desired roles a language enables its speakers to play in a given society, the higher its place on the hierarchy. Sridhar and Kachru 1978

Isoglosses: The statistical line of convergence of linguistic variables

Regional vs. Social Dialect: Social dialects do not necessarily follow geographic boundaries but adhere to age, social class, or social networks.

Matched Guise Technique (Holmes): a technique that demonstrates your perceptions of language. How is the same person judged in language A or B.

Vernacular Dialects and Educational Disadvantage (Holmes :)

Students are attributed negative characteristics if they do not speak the standard. These negative attitudes influence classroom interaction and performance. Vernacular forms express the relaxed attitudes appropriate in casual contexts .

Standard English

Speech Act Theory (Austin and Searle :) A speech act changes in some way the conditions that exist in the world. Illocutionary force express the intent of the speaker. Perlocutionary force gets the listener to do things . Speech act theory was insufficient to define the cohesion of a conversation: is a conversation merely a sequence of speech acts? The theory is defined in terms of the speaker is intentions and beliefs but does not help define interaction between speaker and hearer. Speech Acts are multifunctional. Conversational understanding is achieved by reconstruction of levels of intent beyond and above and integrative of those that lie behind particular utterances. Enter CA .

Prescriptive Grammar : Rules usually taught in school without regard for the way native speakers actually use the language. Perhaps sociolinguistic goals include bringing prescriptive and descriptive closer together . Descriptive Grammar : Describes language and grammar as it is used.

Competence vs. Performance : A Chomskean notion that competence describes the knowledge of a language and performance describes the use of language. Chomskean theory does not account for the communicative aspect of language but rather focuses on its structure.

Whorfian Hypothesis: The structure of language influences how people view the world

Gricean Norms of exchange that adhere to the cooperative principle.

Quantity: contribute as much information as required, not more nor less. Quality: Don't say what is false or inadequate Relation: Be relevant Manner: Say it in a brief, orderly and clear way Adjacency Pairs : The central problem of discovering the connections between utterances and interaction, and the sequencing rules that apply. Adjacency pairs are utterances produced by two successive speakers such that the second utterance is identified as related to the first as an expected follow-up. Provides for turn taking.

Turn Taking Organization and relevance to applied linguistics : TTO is relevant to how the nuts and bolts of language are used in communication. It accommodates the unity of linguistic information from phonology up to pragmatics and its relevance to discourse created between two people.

Notion of Repair : Repair is evidence of the desire to maintain communicative contact between two parties. There are several types of repair initiation: self and other initiation and several types of repair: self and other. Self repair is often the preferred. Studies in repair examine how repair sequencing contributes to language acquisition ie. Its occurrence in discourse modification (caretaker speech/ foreigner talk etc).

The Open Person and Civil Inattention:

Language has a subtle way of denoting the marked person. Chairman but Chairperson. Language reflects power issues and sense of otherness. The other is the open person.

Street remarks have the illocutionary force of telling the marked person they are out of role. By performing a remark, the marked person is by obligation engaged in a turn taking sequence that she/he did not initiate. Failure to comply to the Turn Taking Obligation serves itself as a type of reply back to the initiator. There is pressure to ratify the first turn. OR they are not supposed to ratify a taboo subject .

There is a norm of civil inattention between unacquainted people. Street remarks break this norm . Civil inattention may be breached when the citizen is accompanied by or in an open category: different from the fellow citizen.

Definition of CA : The central problem of discovering the connections between utterances and interaction, and the sequencing rules that apply in authentic speech.

CA and applied linguistics : Studies in repair examine how repair sequencing and turn taking contributes to language acquisition ie. Its occurrence in discourse modification (caretaker speech/ foreigner talk etc).

Role of teacher in teaching language minority children. Discuss how perceptions, attitudes and expectations influence.

Code Switching

Negotiation of Conversation

Evelyn Hatch