Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

Style and Styling 201
(i.e. one) resultant style. An awareness of these principles may help to
develop a sensitivity for how classroom interaction engages with and
responds to the world beyond school walls, and may invite (language)
teachers to help their students become critical observers of the rewards and
penalties that are attributed to ways of doing in the different social contexts
and communities they are seen to belong to or hope to become a part of.
Suggestions for further reading
Coupland, N. (2007) Style. Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
In this recent and very readable analysis of style and styling, Coupland draws on
both classic sociolinguistic and newer anthropological approaches of style in language,
not to mention his own decades-long work, to situate regular and exceptional
linguistic variation fi rmly into social practice.
Eckert, P. and Rickford, J.R. (eds) (2001) Style and Sociolinguistic Variation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This collection gives the fl oor to a lively debate between anthropological approaches
to style and all sorts of variationist treatments (Labovian, audience design, functionalism).
Papers are also followed by commentaries from other style experts,
contributing to a stimulating and wide-ranging cross-displicinary exchange of
ideas.
Labov, W. (1972a) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia
Press.
This book remains a landmark for sociolinguistics. It contains Labov’s major fi ndings,
hypotheses, defi nitions and methodology. A must-read and eloquent example
for any student of sociolinguistics.
Rampton, B. (ed.) (1999) Styling the Other. Special issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics,
3 (4).
Authors in this collection discuss linguistic styling based on a variety of empirical
data across the globe, extending the support for Rampton’s work on ‘crossing’,
namely the practice of using voices or varieties that are not usually seen to belong
to you. Readers will fi nd insightful treatments of how speakers aspire to, appropriate
or challenge others’ voices and cross traditional linguistic boundaries.
Rampton, B. (2006) Language in Late Modernity. Interaction in an Urban School.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This book provides a unique combination of empirical depth and theoretical width
in describing adolescent linguistic practices in relation to popular culture, changing
communicative trends, foreign language teaching and the construction of
social class through playful and less playful linguistic styling of Cockney and
‘posh’ English.
References
Bell, A. (1984) Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13, 145–204.
Bell, A. (1999) Styling the other to defi ne the self: A study in New Zealand identity
making. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3 (4), 523–541.
Bezemer, J. and Kroon S. (2008) Teachers’ practical knowledge, standard language
and multicultural classrooms. In M. Martin-Jones, A.M. de Mejia and