Dear Valerie,

I have been teaching some form or other of sociolinguistics to speech and
language therapists for over 30 years. Unfortunately, there has rarely
been a designated module or course associated exclusively with
sociolinguistics -- it usually fits in somewhere with 'linguistics',
'clinical linguistics', 'language acquisition', or some other more general
topic.

In all the chopping and changing, there are always two sociolinguistic
issues that I try to keep to the fore. One has to do with normative
pressures -- the view that there is one and only one correct way of saying
something is such a fundamental assumption in standardised testing and the
establishment of developmental norms that SLPs (or SLTs) need to confront
the idea in their formative years. Such a well-known book as

Milroy, James and Lesley Milroy (1999) *Authority in Language* (3rd ed.)
(London: Routledge)

not only has a great deal to contribute on the general topic of
standardisation, but has some specific nuggets (some of which are clearer
in earlier editions of the book) which are aimed at speech and language
therapists. 

The volume edited by Martin J. Ball in 2005 (*Clinical Sociolinguistics*.
Oxford: Blackwell) has a number of excellent papers. One of my favourites
(again on the theme of norms) is one by Dominic Watt and Jennifer Smith on
'Language change', but others cover topics such as regional and social
variation (Margaret Maclagan), African-American English (Walt Wolfram),
'The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages' (Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley and
Arlene Blumenthal Kelly), and 'Assessing language in children who speak a
nonmainstream dialect of English' (Janna B. Oetting). Lucas has also
edited a volume on *The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages* (Cambridge
University Press, 2001. I still like examples provided in Walt Wolfram's
1979 booklet on *Speech Pathology and Dialect Differences* (Arlington, VA:
Center for Applied Linguistics); though it's old (and probably hard to
come by), the very straightforward comparisons between test norms of the
ITPA and their Appalachian and AAVE equivalents give some powerful
insights into the whole problem of assessments, norms, and
standardisation. An even more obscure paper is Walt Wolfram's 'The
sociolinguistic model in speech and language pathology', which he
published in a 1993 volume on *Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Speech
and Language Pathology* (edited by Margaret M. Leahy and Jeffrey L.
Kallen; published by Trinity College Dublin). Again, the material in
Wolfram's paper is a bit old, but it so clearly presents issues in, among
other things, the ways in which people who do not know a 'non-standard'
version of a language will fail to distinguish between dialectal forms and
genuine errors (which may be diagnostic of disabilities) that I find it
useful as a source for students. (I can send you a copy if you like.) If I
were teaching in the US, I would probably also make use of Rosina
Lippi-Green's *English with an Accent* (London: Routledge, 2012), even if
it is more generally on the facts of ideology and discrimination than it
is geared to SLTs. Teaching in Ireland, where many standardised tests are
available that have been standardised on other populations (so that
American tests use 'faucet' for what we call a 'tap', while British tests
assume that children use interdental fricatives which Irish English
speakers usually realise as stops of one kind or another), I sometimes
also use data from student projects which have been done over the years,
comparing Irish populations with the expectations of British or American
norms. One of my favourites concerns the 'Renfrew Action Picture Test'
which expects the use of the present perfect when Irish English is quite
happy to use the past tense: a child will get points on the information
score but lose points on the grammar score, all down to a dialectal
difference (which, in my student's study, hit working class children
harder than middle class children). It was only a small-scale study, but
it was something a student could do and it brings the problems of test
norms home. I'm sure similar things could be done anywhere.

The other issue that is always in the syllabus has to do with
bilingualism. There are so many books on bilingualism that are relevant to
SLTs that I wouldn't know where to start. But my aim is always to start by
looking at bilingualism in its social context -- language policy, language
rights, diglossia, and language and identity -- so as to counteract the
view that bilingualism is a temporary stage which children can be helped
to overcome if the SLT prescribes that the parents stop using the home
language at home and helps in the teaching of English (not the job of the
SLT, of course, but in some countries where access to English is very
limited, I understand that SLTs are often pressured into taking on the
role of English teacher). I try to engage the students with the idea that
bilingualism is not (necessarily) a temporary stage or something which
people engage in to be difficult or exotic, but that it is a fundamental
feature of language use which the SLT has to engage with rather than work
against. Among the many relevant texts, I find Annick De Houwer's
*Bilingual First Language Acquisition* (Bristol: Multilingual Matters,
2009) useful, though I'm also very partial to Colin Baker's *Foundations
of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism*. Though his focus is on teachers,
many of the issues parallel those of relevance to SLTs, and the first few
chapters set up a sociolinguistic framework ('planning and
revitalization', 'languages in society', etc.) from which the
developmental things follow nicely.

I hope this is useful.

Jeffrey Kallen
Associate Professor of Linguistics and Phonetics
Centre for Language and Communication Studies
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland




On 09/11/2016, 00:00, "Teaching Linguistics on behalf of TEACHLING
automatic digest system" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>There are 4 messages totaling 622 lines in this issue.
>
>Topics of the day:
>
>  1. spiral curriculum design
>  2. Sociolinguistics syllabus for SLPs
>  3. Semantics (2)
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date:    Tue, 8 Nov 2016 00:44:34 +0000
>From:    Nick Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: spiral curriculum design
>
>Hi Daniel,
>
>I had a look at the doc you linked to and it looks really good, very
>close indeed to what I had in mind. I especially like the idea of the
>³collaborative lecture² and was thinking of something similar to provide
>a change of focus during the two hour lecture slots and to encourage
>attendance, while also giving an opportunity for informal feedback. One
>of the issues we face here is that all lectures are recorded and
>live-streamed, so you can end up with only 18 students in the room out of
>a class of 160. This might get more of them in.
>
>I agree that there are so many ways of looking at the similarity between
>variationist and interactional sociolx, but because it is easier to teach
>them as separate blocks, students probably come away at the end thinking
>they are contrasting rather than complementary approaches. I¹m expecting
>it to be more tricky to do the spiral approach, but hopefully it¹ll pay
>off with the students emerging with more enthusiasm and research skills
>than they do at present and that might have a knock on effect in their
>final year.
>
>Nick
>
>From: Teaching Linguistics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>Daniel Ginsberg
>Sent: 08 November 2016 01:33
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: spiral curriculum design
>
>I really like this approach. I once tried doing something
>similar<https://www.academia.edu/7778690/Linguistics_283_Language_and_Soci
>ety>, using two topics: LVC and discourse. So:
>
>1a. LVC: Linguistic variety
>1b. Discourse: Interactional sequence
>2a. LVC: Communities of practice
>2b. Discourse: Framing
>3a. LVC: Style
>3b. Discourse: Intertextuality
>
>The concept was that the (1)s were foundational topics, and the (3)s were
>basically two different ways of looking at the same phenomenon. The
>point, then, was that variationist and interactional approaches to slx
>are more similar than they might at first appear. That said, I have no
>idea whether students got that out of it. It was new for me, and I don't
>know how well I executed. Also, I'd probably replace "framing" with
>"politeness" if I were to do it again, since it's a more concrete concept
>to grasp. But I do think this sends a really different message compared
>to three weeks of LVC + 3 weeks of discourse.
>
>Daniel Ginsberg, PhD
>Professional Fellow
>American Anthropological Association
>
>On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 1:05 AM, Nick Wilson
><[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>Hi teach-lingers,
>
>The southern hemisphere semester is now pretty much over, bar the
>marking, and I¹m reflecting upon the way I¹ve taught my Introduction to
>Sociolinguistics unit. This was the first year I have taught it in this
>university, and the first time I have had so much control over the design
>of a unit (or what I would¹ve called a module in a UK context). Having
>been in Sydney nearly a year now, I think Australian universities give a
>lot more creative control to lecturers than UK universities do, but also
>expect more accountability and place a greater admin burden on them in
>terms of their unit management.
>
>Anyway, I am toying with the idea of re-jigging the whole design of the
>unit to cycle round and round the current three broad topics I include in
>the unit: language variation and change, interaction, and sociology of
>language, rather than teaching them in blocks of a few weeks each.
>Effectively this is a spiral curriculum: where each loop builds on the
>complexity and level of the last. In other words do something like this:
>
>Week 1: SofL ­ Language choice in multilingual communities
>Week 2: LVC ­ Social and regional dialects
>Week 3: Interaction ­ Style and situational context
>Week 4: SofL: Language maintenance and shift
>Week 5: LVC ­ Age and gender
>Week 6: Interaction ­ Gender stereotypes and politeness
>Š etc.
>
>I have a 13 week semester and 2 hour lectures, so plenty of time to
>explore a range of topics. I also want to use this format to highlight
>areas of similarity and theories/approaches that cut across more than one
>area.
>
>The other reason for this is that I want to give my students the option
>to do a research project in any of these areas, so rather than teaching
>them sequentially and assessing each in a different way, as I have for
>the past few years, I want to have each form of assessment focused around
>developing a particular skill, with the emphasis on assessment as an
>experiential learning tool rather than purely for performance evaluation.
>They¹ll do a group data collection activity that will form the basis of
>an individual research report, as well as present in class about a
>particular aspect of the group¹s progress/data collection design (I
>haven¹t really worked out the details of this yet!). The research skills
>required will be scaffolded in tutorials and these will also allow
>students to get feedback on research design and analysis methods.
>
>So in order to do this, I effectively need to cycle the weekly lectures
>between the three topics, so that they support the pursuit of a research
>project in any area of sociolinguistics that the students are interested
>in (within reason!).
>
>Has anyone else tried this sort of spiral curriculum design within one
>unit/module before? If so, did it work?
>
>Also what do you think about using group research projects as a learning
>tool, and assessment for learning as a teaching method? Anyone want to
>contribute their experiences?
>
>
>Cheers,
>Nick
>
>
>
>Dr Nick Wilson
>Lecturer
>Department of Linguistics
>Building C5A, Level 5, Room 553
>Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
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>staff profile 
>page<http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_hu
>man_sciences/linguistics/linguistics_staff/dr_nick_wilson/>
>Academia.edu page<https://mq.academia.edu/NickWilson>
>[Macquarie University]<http://mq.edu.au/>
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>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Mon, 7 Nov 2016 20:59:23 -0500
>From:    Valerie Freeman <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Sociolinguistics syllabus for SLPs
>
>Hello, While we're on the subject of sociolinguistics course design, has
>anyone taught a socio course aimed at speech-pathology students (e.g.
>in speech & hearing or CSD departments)?  I could use an example syllabus
>and tips on how to make the topics relevant to speech therapy.
>Thanks,
>Valerie Freeman
>[log in to unmask]
>(or [log in to unmask])
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Tue, 8 Nov 2016 13:23:31 +0000
>From:    mostari hind <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Semantics
>
>Hi all , I am teaching semantics for master 1 linguistics students, so
>far, I have taught them the semantic roles and features , is there anyone
>who can give me  hand as for what to teach for beginners in semantics ?
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Tue, 8 Nov 2016 08:50:52 -0500
>From:    "Angus B. Grieve-Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Semantics
>
>I had a similar problem; it all seemed so unsatisfying.  So I taught
>them about category fights!  Lots of interesting - and engaging -
>material: polysemy, fuzzy categories, radial categories, semantic
>frames, prototype effects...
>
>http://grieve-smith.com/blog/2013/04/how-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-category-
>fights/
>
>http://grieve-smith.com/blog/2014/04/not-a-real-screwdriver-frames-and-amb
>iguity/
>
>http://grieve-smith.com/blog/2015/07/challenges-for-radical-categorization
>/
>
>http://grieve-smith.com/blog/2014/12/tea-and-prototypes/
>
>http://grieve-smith.com/blog/2015/01/sometimes-bugs-are-not-insects/
>
>
>On 11/8/2016 8:23 AM, mostari hind wrote:
>> Hi all ,
>> I am teaching semantics for master 1 linguistics students, so far, I
>> have taught them the semantic roles and features , is there anyone who
>> can give me  hand as for what to teach for beginners in semantics ?
>>
>> Best
>> Dr Mostari
>
>-- 
>				-Angus B. Grieve-Smith
>				[log in to unmask]
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of TEACHLING Digest - 7 Nov 2016 to 8 Nov 2016 (#2016-96)
>*************************************************************