Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education Deputy Ministry for Teachers Colleges English Departments UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM COURSE

SYLLABUS Course Title: Language and Culture I Course Code: ENG 253 Number of credit hours: 2 Instructor: Office phone: Office hours: E-mail: I. Course Description: This course is an introduction to sociolinguistics. This field deals with abroad range of topics at the interface between human language and human society. Sociolinguistics is an interdisciplinary area of language study, which looks at language in its social context and studies the complex relationship between communication, society and culture. Thus, in this course sociolinguistics is taught as a branch of linguistics that studies language in relation to society. In this sense, the language used tends to vary. This variation is the result of many different factors such as: religion, age, ethnicity, gender, etc. Thus, language used by men differs from that used by women and the language used by adults differs from that used by youngsters. It shows that the combination of these components bears influence on language acquisition and language use. II. Course Objectives: By the end of this course, English majors are expected to be able to Be familiar with the basic concepts and fields of enquiry in Sociolinguistics. Understand and be able to apply the different terms, theories and systems of analyses used in sociolinguistics Extend and develop students knowledge of issues surrounding language use in society. Develop a critical awareness of the relationship between the linguistic features of language and the social context at both micro and macro level

III. Calendar, Course Contents and Assignment Specifications: Time First week Second week Topic About this course: What is sociolinguistics? Language and Culture Reading Assignment Wardhaugh (2002: 1-21, 378-81) Wardhaugh (2002: 219-37); Pinker (1995: 59-67) Bohannan (1966) 1

Third week Fourth week Fifth week Sixth week Seventh week Eighth Week Ninth week Tenth week Eleventh week Twelfth Week Thirteenth Week Fourteenth Week Fifteenth Week

Ethnography of Communication Politeness, Euphemism, insults. Language and Gender Conversation and its absence. Language variation Dialects and speech communities Mid-Term Exam Regional variation Regional variation: Massachusetts

Wardhaugh (2002: 241-51) Sherzer (1976) Basso (1970) Haas (1978) Labov (1972a) Rules for ritual insults Wardhaugh (2002: 313-31) Tannen (1990: Chapter. 2) Wardhaugh chapter12. Wardhaugh (2002: 25-56, 116-26) ----------------------------------------

Shuy (1998) Wardhaugh (2002: 133-59) Fischer (1958); Laferriere (1977) Boston short a Laferriere (1979) Ethnicity in phonological variation Wardhaugh (2002: 160 - 88) Labov (1972b: 43-69) Social stratification of r No new reading assignment

Social variation Formal approaches to language variation

Variation and change

African-American English Bilingualism and Bilingual education

Wardhaugh (2002: 189-209) Eckert (1988), Eckert (1998) (see bibliography for URL) Wardhaugh (2002: 339-43); Baugh (2000: Chapter 1) Green (2002: Chapter 2) Crawford (1992: Chapter 5)

IV. Evaluation: Attendance, homework & participation Term paper Midterm exam Final Exam Total 10% 10% 20% 60 100%

V. General Course Requirements:

Students should arrive in class on time and prepared Students are expected to attend class regularly. Students have to read the main readings for that weeks topic. All students will conduct some original piece of research culminating in a written research report. This project should be discussed, at various stages, with the instructor during his office hour or during some other mutually agreeable time. No make-ups for quizzes will be allowed.

VI. Required texts: Wardhaugh, Ronald (2002) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Malden, Mass., and Oxford, UK: Blackwell. [Fourth edition.] VII- References Sources for Reading Assignments Basso, Keith (1970) To give up on words: Silence in Western Apache culture. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26, 213-30. Baugh, John (2000) Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Crawford, James (1992) Hold Your Tongue: Bilingualism and the Politics of English Only. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Eckert, Penelope (1988) Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change. Language in Society 17, 183-207. Eckert, Penelope (1998) Vowels and nail polish: The emergence of linguistic style in the preadolescent heterosexual marketplace. In Gender and Belief Systems: Proceedings of The Fourth Berkeley Women and Language Conference, ed. Natasha Warner, Jocelyn Fischer, John L. (1958) Social influences on the choice of a linguistic variant. Word 14, 47-56. Green, Lisa (2002) African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haas, Mary (1978) Interlingual word taboos. In Language, Culture, and History: Essays by Mary R. Haas, ed. Anwar S. Dil, pp. 12-21. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.. The following books cover a wide range of topics in sociolinguistics. Labov, William (1972a) Rules for ritual insults. In Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular, ed. William Labov, pp. 297-353. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Labov, William (1972b) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Laferriere, Martha (1977) Boston short a: Social variation as historical residue. In Studies in Language Variation, ed. Ralph W. Fasold and Roger W. Shuy, pp. 100-07. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 3

Laferriere, Martha (1979) Ethnicity in phonological variation and change. Language 55, 603-17. Pinker, Steven (1995) The Language Instinct. New York: Harper Collins. Sherzer, Joel (1976) Play languages: Implications for (socio)linguistics. In Speech Play, ed. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, pp. 19-36. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Shuy, Roger W. (1998) Dialects: How they differ. In Language: Readings in Language and Culture, ed. Virginia P. Clark, Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa, pp. 292-312. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. Tannen, Deborah (1990) You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Ballantine Books. Coupland, Nikolas & Adam Jaworski (1997) Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook. Macmillan Press Fasold, Peter (1984) The sociolinguistics of society. Oxford: Blackwell -- -- (1990) The Sociolinguistics of Language. Oxford: Blackwell Montgomery, Martin (1986) An Introduction to Language and Society. London: Methuen Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Andres Deumert & William L. Leap (2000) Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Wardhaugh, Ronald ( 1998). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell VIII- Internet sites for Language and Culture I. http://web.syr.edu/~mdtaffet/student_sites.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/ http://www.sil.org/sociolx/ Bohannan, Laura (1966) Shakespeare in the bush. Natural History 75, 28-33. [Available at http://www.fieldworking.com/library/bohannan.html.] Ahlers, Leela Bilmes, Monica Oliver, Suzanne Wertheim, and Melinda Yuen-Ching Chen. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group. [Available at http://www.stanford.edu/eckert/PDF/nailpolish.pdf.]