Linguistics xxx / Anthropology xxx

Welcome.

accent reduction

false promises?

About the instructor

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About the course

In this course we start by examining misconceptions about the structure, function and history of English and of language more generally. From that point we'll move on to discuss the ideology behind the concept of ‘standard language’ and the kinds of authority behind the ideology. Our purpose is to understand how language — a basic tool by which we construct our social identities — is used to exclude and draw boundaries between self and other, and to justify both overt and covert discriminatory behaviors.

Marge, it takes two people to lie. One to lie, and one to listen.
Colonel Homer
March 26, 1992

There is a great deal of reading in this course, and sometimes you may find yourself resisting the material presented. That's why we talk about it. As long as disagreement is handled in a measured, thoughtful, respectful way, you are welcome to disagree with the readings, with me or anyone else in the classroom.

[M]astering a complex and difficult craft gives you an inbuilt incentive to defend its practices. If I have invested time and effort learning how to write according to a particular set of prescriptions, it will take some convincing that those prescriptions are not necessary and desirable; to admit that the rules are both arbitrary and pointless is to devalue my own accomplishment in mastering them. Cameron 1995: 14

What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology is the widespread habit of disregarding facts.

Thomas Sowell

Grading

Evaluation will be based on two hourly exams (20% each), a final project (25%), assignments, (20%); the remaining 15% of your grade will be based on attendance and participation.

The final project

After week two I will provide a list of possible readings, none longer than a book chapter; most will be journal articles. You may take a week to sample the articles and then to choose something that interests you. You will read that article and write a one-page summary of the main points for distribution to the rest of the class; you will also prepare a five minute oral presentation that you'll give to the class in which you'll explain how the topic of the article relates to the material we are covering in this class. More detail will be provided in class. You have your ideology, and I have mine.
Kahill Gibran

Readings

There is one text for this class:

Lippi-Green, R. 2011. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. Taylor and Francis.

Additional readings will be taken – in part -- from the list below; other readings will be assigned on a class by class basis.

Library, Online Reserves, External Resources

[tba]

Syllabus

Week Chapter Additional
Readings
Intro Introduction: language ideology or science fiction? Johnson et al 2008; Hill 2008 (Chapter 1)
1 The linguistic facts of life Hartigan 2003, Jones 2006
2 Language in motion Schilling-Estes 2004, Schiffrin 2003
3 The myth of non-accent Anderson 2007
4 The standard language myth tba
5 Language subordination Ng 2007, Price 2007
6 The educational system: fixing the message in stone tba
7 Teaching children how to discriminate: (what we learn from the Big Bad Wolf) Spears Brown et al 2005
8 The information industry tba
9 Real people with a real language: the workplace & judicial system excerpts from Matsuda 1991; workbook
10 The real trouble with Black language Baugh 2006, Cutler 2010, Rickford 2000
11 Defying paradise: Hawai’i Tamura 2002; Ausdale & Fagin 2002 (Ch 2)
12 The other in the mirror tba
13 ¡Ya basta! Dovidio et al 2010, Bratt 2007
14 The unassimilable races: what it means to be Asian case study 3
15 Moral panic in Oakland case study 1
16 linguistic profiling and fair housing case study 2
17 Conclusion: civil (dis)obedience and the shadow of language Skutnabb-Kangas et al 1995

Partial Reading List

Alim, H. S. & J. Baugh (eds.) 2007. Talkin Black Talk : Language, Education, and Social Change Multicultural Education Series. New York: Teachers College Press.
Anderson, K. 2007. Constructing Otherness: Ideologies and Differentiating Speech Style. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17.2: 178-197.
Ausdale, D. V. & J. R. Feagin. 2002. The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism. Rowman & Littlefield.
Baugh, J. 2006. It Ain't About Race: Some Lingering (Linguistic) Consequences of the African Slave Trade and Their Relevance to Your Personal Historical Hardship Index. Du Bois Review 3.1: 145-159.
Bratt, K. R. 2007. Violence in the Curriculum: Compulsory Linguistic Discrimination in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 5.1: 7.
Cutler, C. 2010. Hip-Hop, White Immigrant Youth, and African American Vernacular English: Accommodation as an Identity Choice. Journal of English Linguistics 38.3: 248-269.
Dovidio, J. F., A. Gluszek, M. John, et al. 2010. Understanding Bias toward Latinos: Discrimination, Dimensions of Difference, and Experience of Exclusion. Journal of Social Issues 66.1: 59-78.
Hartigan Jr, J. 2003. Who Are These White People?: "Rednecks," "Hillbillies," and "White Trash" as Marked Racial Subjects. In White Out: The Continuing Relevance of Racism. E. Bonilla-Silva & A. Doane (eds). New York: Routledge 95-112.
Hill, J. H. 2008. The Everyday Language of White Racism. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Johnson, J., M. Rich & A. C. Cargile. 2008. “Why Are You Shoving This Stuff Down Our Throats?”: Preparing Intercultural Educators to Challenge Performances of White Racism. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 1.2: 113-135.
Jones, S. 2006. Language with an Attitude: White Girls Performing Class. Language Arts 84.2: 114. Matsuda, M. J. 1991. Voices of America: Accent, Antidiscrimination Law, and a Jurisprudence for the Last Reconstruction. Yale Law Journal 100. 1329-2767.
Ng, S. H. 2007. Language-Based Discrimination: Blatant and Subtle Forms. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 26.2: 106-122.
Price, J. & J. Wolfers. 2007. Racial Discrimination among NBA Referees. NBER Working Paper No. w13206.
Rickford, J. R. & R. J. Rickford. 2000. Spoken Soul : The Story of Black English. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Schiffrin, D. 2003. Discourse Markers: Language, Meaning And Context. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and H.E. Hamilton (eds) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Schilling-Estes, N. 2004. Constructing Ethnicity in Interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 8.2: 163-195.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T., R. Phillipson & M. Rannut. 1995. Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination. Walter de Gruyter.
Spears Brown, C. & R. S. Bigler. 2005. Children's Perceptions of Discrimination: A Developmental Model. Child Development 76.3: 533-553.
Tamura, E. 2002. African American Vernacular English and Hawai'i Creole English: A Comparison of Two School Board Controversies. Journal of Negro Education 71.1: 17-30.
 

Policies

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Cooperation Statement

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