Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

216 Part 3: Language and Variation
begin to notice sociolinguistic patterns in the rapper’s speech (e.g. In the
fi rst sentence he said, ‘He run everything’, and then later he said, ‘He
runs everything’). We take this one feature of the rapper’s spoken speech
(third person singular –s variability) and conduct a sociolinguistic analysis
of his speech, which leads to a larger understanding of the structure
and systematicity of spoken speech. Students are not only learning
about the sociolinguistic variation of spoken language, but they are also
being introduced to a curriculum that introduces it as a viable modality
for learning.
Studying what gets ‘checked at the door’: Language learning
through refl exive, ethnographic analyses
After learning about the systematicity of spoken speech, and that sociolinguistic
variation refers to the variable frequencies of certain features
within a linguistic system, we introduce the concept of variation in terms
of language use, or ‘ways of speaking’. The ‘Language in my life’ project
begins by introducing students to Dell Hymes’ (1964, 1972) theory of the
‘Ethnography of Speaking’ and ends with student-conducted, refl exive,
ethnographic analyses of their own speech behavior. The goal is for students
to answer the question: How do I use language in my life? They are
given an ‘Ethnography of Speaking’ reference sheet that they keep in their
binders throughout the unit. The sheet reviews basic concepts in this area,
such as speech situation, speech event and speech act, as levels of analysis in a
communicative encounter. (In this case, the speech situation is a Hip Hop
concert in Oakland, CA; the speech event is an interview with Juvenile;
and speech acts include greetings, jokes, etc.).
Students are presented with another sample of ‘Real Talk’ – this time
with New Orleans rapper Juvenile (in order to use a speaker who is not
from their local community) – and are guided through an ‘ethnography of
speaking’ analysis of an interview, which they learn is a ‘speech event’.
A small sample from the interview is used to create a worksheet (full
interview appears in Spady et al., 2006):
Interview with Juvenile
J = Juvenile
A = Alim
A: Wassup, Juve?
J: Wassup, woadie?
A: What’s goin on?
J: Chillin, you know me. I’m chillin.
A: How would you describe the last year/year and half for you?
J: Spectacular, man! I’ve been blessed, you know.
A: It’s a blessing, ha?