English 4648 Online: Sociolinguistics

General Course Information

Instructor: Dr. Robert S. Carlisle
Section: (60) from January 24, 2020 to May 20, 2022
Email Address: rcarlisle@csub.edu

Required Texts

Crawford, J. (2004). Educating English Learners (5th Ed.). Los Angeles: Bilingual Education Services (ISBN: 978-0890759998).

Salomone, R. (2010). True American. Boston: Harvard University Press (ISBN: 9780674046528).

Wardhaugh, R. (2009). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (7th Ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers ISBN: 13: 978-1118732298).

 

Purchasing Textbooks

Students in the Bakersfield area may purchase textbooks at The Runner Bookstore on the campus of California State University. Students in the Lancaster/Palmdale area may purchase textbooks at the bookstore on the campus of Antelope Valley College. Students who do not live close to any site may call The Runner Bookstore at (661) 654-3490 and order their books over the phone. Students should buy their books as soon as possible given the strict deadlines of the class.

As stated above, the course has three required texts and one recommended text. The first textbook that students will need is the one by Wardaugh; it will be used extensively during the first weeks of the course; students should buy this book as soon as possible in order to complete the questions for each chapter by the deadlines. The other two books are mostly for the term paper, but information from both of them will be included on the final examination.

Prerequisites

Students must have completed all lower division General Education requirements and attained at least junior status.

Catalogue Description

 

Examination of the relationship between language and such social variables as sex, educational level, economic class, race, and ethnicity.  Topics include social and regional dialects, linguistic stereotypes and discrimination, social networks, language variation, code-switching, the relationship between language and intelligence, official English, and the education of language minorities.  Special emphasis on laws, educational policies, and attitudes that may adversely affect the quality of the lives of speakers of minority languages and dialects.

 

Purpose

One purpose of English 4648 is to provide students with an introduction to the basic concepts and principles of sociolinguistics.  Students will learn about the relationships between language and a number of relevant social variables.  In addition, because the course fulfills an upper division general education requirement, the second purpose of the class is to enable students to learn how language and language use influence the quality of people’s lives. 

 

A description of English 4648 as a general education course along with the student learning outcomes for general education appear immediately below.  Students will also find more specific student learning outcomes that have not been assigned by general education in the modules for the course.

 

English 4648 as a General Education Course

 

To satisfy general education requirements, classes must have a theme, and I chose quality of life because issues in language and language use can definitely influence how people live.  At the national and (in the case of the United States) at the state level, laws have either been passed or are being contemplated that would make English the official language and that would also ban the use of any language other than English in K-12 public education.  Such laws have serious consequences on those who speak minority languages as they can exclude large numbers of residents both from active political participation and from an equitable education.  In many countries this situation became so extreme that in 1996 UNESCO passed a Universal Declaration on Linguistic Rights at the World Conference on Linguistic Rights. 

 

Many people also discriminate against others based on the language or even the dialect that they speak.  Research has clearly demonstrated that because language is a social possession, people in any given community categorize others based upon language and even make judgments about their intelligence and moral character.  This was especially brought out in the 1960s when some educational psychologists hypothesized that speakers of minority dialects in the United States and England are less intelligent than those who speak the standard dialect.  Such perverse and refuted claims have serious consequences on the lives of individuals, especially when those who hold them are in positions of power and responsible for making such decisions as who gets hired and promoted.

 

Maintaining social connections is also a factor in the quality of life.  In this class you will learn that speakers use language not only to communicate but to maintain social identity relationships.  For example, people who code-switch (the ability to change language seamlessly in the same sentence), only do so with others of the same ethnic background who are also able to code switch.  In addition, nearly all speakers are members of communicative networks, comprised of those who interlocutors communicate with most frequently.  As it turns out, research has revealed that interlocutors speak more similarly to those in the network than to those who are outside the network.  Speakers also tend to speak more casually to those who are members of the  network than to those who are not.  To demonstrate that networks are real and important in people’s lives, I will be assigning you an experiment in which you will briefly alienate yourselves from someone in your network.

 

The student learning outcomes for general education appear below:

 

Student Learning Outcomes for General Education

 

THEME Q: Quality of Life

 

Goal TQ-1: Student will understand factors that influence quality of life (social connectedness, education, environment, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety, aesthetic experiences, spirituality, and/or work-life balance, among others), and be able to analyze the connectedness between at least two of these factors.

 

·       Outcome TQ-1A: Students will demonstrate an understanding of at least two factors that influence quality of life.

Writing Reinforcement

 

Goal WR-1: Students will demonstrate proficiency in written communication.

·       Outcome WR-1A: Students will create proficient thesis statements.

·       Outcome WR-1B: Students will use discourse-appropriate syntax.

·       Outcome WR-1C: Students will use logical reasoning, at the appropriate level, to develop a text.

Critical Thinking Reinforcement

 

Goal CTR-1: Students will demonstrate critical reasoning and problem solving.

AREA D: Social and Behavioral Sciences

 

Goal D-1: Students will demonstrate an understanding of major principles, theories, and concepts in the social and behavioral sciences.

Goal D-2: Students will demonstrate an understanding of how disciplinary knowledge in the social and behavioral sciences can be used to make sense of the world in which we live.

Goal D-3: Students will demonstrate an understanding of how knowledge progresses in the social and behavioral sciences by understanding the scientific method and an acceptance of diverse perspectives.

Accessibility

California State University, Bakersfield attempts to guarantee access to all classes by all students. Students can find CSUB's accessibility policies and services by going to the website for the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities. In addition, E-Learning Services at CSUB has its own policy for guaranteeing access to students in online classes:

"California State University, Bakersfield is committed to providing equal access to Web-based information for people with disabilities. This is in accordance with Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendment of 1998 and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and Executive Order 926 of California State University."

To achieve the goal of universal accessibility, CSUB uses Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS), which has received the Nonvisual Accessibility Gold Certification by The National Federation of the Blind.

Technical Support

For the most part, students will not need any special programs to view the content of the class or complete assignments. Students will need to view several Youtube videos and one MP4 video, meaning that students will need a media player to view the latter. If students have difficulty with the content of the class, they need to contact the instructor, preferably using the 'Discussion Board' so that other students can see both the question and the answer.

If students have any technical problems with Canvas, they need to contact the Help Desk, either by telephone (661) 654-2315 or by email at lmssupport@csub.edu. Students may also go to the E-Learning Services Building on the east side of the Walter Stiern Library.

The Structure of the Course

This course consists of two major sections The first introduces students to the basic concepts, tenets, and issues of general sociolinguistics. The second one provides students with the opportunity to acquire comprehensive knowledge of two current controversies in the United States--whether English should be made the official language of the nation and whether bilingual education should be abolished.

While working on the material in the two sections, students will fulfill the learning outcomes for the class.

English 4648 Online is an asynchronous course that allows students to study at their convenience and to work at their own pace provided that they complete all the course work by the deadlines.

Students can take the final examination at any site. Students can find more specific information by looking at the Calendar in Canvas.

Pretest

The pretest, which is a requirement for the class, is found in Canvas and will be available to students  a few days before classes begin until midnight of the first Sunday after classes begin.  The score on the pretest does not count as part of the students' final average in the class, so students should not study for it. The pretest is an assessment tool to measure student achievement over time from an initial score (the pretest score). After the students take the final examination, which is also the posttest, the instructor can then compare the two scores to determine how much students learned during the semester. Students can expect to do poorly on the pretest. The average score over the last five years is 40.9. In contrast, the average score on the final exam, which covers the same material as the pretest, is 82.7.

Students must complete the pretest.  I will remove all students from the class who have not completed the pretest by the deadline stated above.

 

Evaluation

Students must complete five requirements for the course. First, they are required to answer 5 of 15 short answer questions that are found in the first four modules.   The first 14 questions are based on the 14 chapters of An Introduction to Sociolinguistics and the fifteenth question is based on a film in Module 4.  Students must answer at least one question in each module, meaning that they must answer two questions in one of the modules.  Students must submit their responses to the questions by the appropriate dates as listed under deadlines.  Details for writing and submitting short answers are found under Instructions for Short Answer Questions (which includes a description of the grading rubric and a sample of a very good student response). Students may also view the complete set of questions to determine which ones they wish to answer. The instructor will assign grades within 48 hours of the due date and time.

The second requirement is student participation in a blog associated with the video "American Tongues" found in Module 1. Students must post at least two original comments to the blog and respond to the comments of at least two other students. The instructor will assign grades within 48 hours of the due date and time.

As a third requirement, students must post the bibliography for their term paper in APA format. Students will receive a grade on their first submission, but they may still need to revise it before submitting it as the list of references on their term paper. The instructor will assign grades within 48 hours of the due date and time.

The fourth requirement is the writing of a term paper. Students may choose from two broad topics that are discussed under Topics for the Term Paper. Instructions for writing the term papers are also available. The instructor will assign grades within one week of the due date and time.

The final requirement is the completion of a comprehensive objective examination. The exam will cover all three textbooks, the few online readings found in Canvas, and the additional readings for the term paper; students who do not complete the readings will do poorly on the examination. Study questions for the test are available in Canvas, and because they are very similar to actual questions on the final, students should complete all of them.

The final exam will be held on the date in the Calendar, and students may take it at any site and use books and notes.  However, the exam is timed so students will not have much opportunity to look up answers.  In addition, students will see only one question at a time, which they must answer before moving on.  Once students answer a question they will not be allowed to go back to change the answer.. Students will be able to see their grades for the final examination once the period of accessibility has expired. To prepare for the final examination, students must complete the five sets of study questions found in Modules 1-5 and score at least 75% correct in each set. Students may do the five set as many times as they wish, and the more they do them the higher they will score on the final exam.

 The final grade will be calculated according to the following schema.  

Evaluation Task

Percentage of Grade

Deadlines

Fifteen questions

30%

see Deadlines

Movie Blog

05%

February 11

Bibliography in APA format

05%

May 04

Term paper

30%

May 11

Final Examination

30%

May 20

 

 

Grading Policy

I will assign final grades according to the following schema:

Final Average

Grade

94.0-100

A

90.0-93.9

A-

87.0-89.9

B+

84.0-86.9

B

80.0-83.9

B-

77.0-79.9

C+

74.0-76.9

C

70.0-73.9

C-

67.0-69.9

D+

64.0-66.9

D

60.0-63.9

D-

0-59.9

F

The final average will be calculated by averaging the grades of the three requirements discussed above.

Policy on Incompletes

 

Because this is an online class, which goes down after the last day of classes, students may not receive an incomplete grade. Students believing that they cannot finish the class should request to drop.

Communicating with Other Students and the Instructor

Students can communicate with one another by using the Discussion Topics in the Discussions  folder in Canvas.  When writing any questions or comments, students are expected to follow the rules of netiquette by avoiding profanity, sarcasm, and ridicule.  All entries under Discussion Topics are public, and students should place all questions about course content in the appropriate folder in Discussions.  If students do not answer a question posted by another student within 24 hours, the instructor will reply.  To communicate with the instructor, students may also use the instructor’s campus email account.  The instructor makes a dedicated effort to respond to all student email inquiries within 24 hours.

 

Course Principles and Student Responsibilities

In this syllabus I have explained quite a few rules for students to follow and their responsibilities in the online/hybrid environment. I suggest that students become quite familiar with these rules and responsibilities.

 

Getting to the Course

The course is located on a CSUB server running Canvas, the web-based teaching software used to design the course. To get into Canvas, students need a userid and a password, which they should already know. Students will be able to enroll into their appropriate section of a week before classes begin. The instructor will send out an email message with the enrollment code on it.

Important University Dates

February 18, 2022: Last date to withdraw without a "W" being recorded.
April 22, 2022: Last date to withdraw for a serious and compelling reason.

English 4648 Online: Course Syllabus.