社会语言学-Chapter-6课件

Chapter 6Linguistic and Social Inequality.Chapter 6Linguistic and Social16.1 IntroductionnQuestion:Are some languages or dialects inherently better than others?nLay people:Some varieties of language are considered to be better than others.nLinguists opinion?.6.1 Introduction.26.1 Linguistic Inequalityn6.1.1 IntroductionpEquality among languagesnAll languages are equal:no language is inherently“better”than others.nEach variety displays characteristics common to all human language:complex and rule-governed.pEquality among speakersnAll normal people are equal with regard to their grammars.nEven if there are differences between the grammars of two people,there is no way of knowing which has higher prestige in society simply by studying the grammars.6.1 Linguistic Inequality6.1.136.1 Linguistic InequalitypTherefore,linguistics should be descriptive,not prescriptive.pProblem onenIt is harder than many linguists realize to avoid prescriptivism,since the historical development of linguistic theory has been so closely linked to the description of prestigious varieties such as standard languages.nLinguists have studied standard varieties far more than non-standard varieties.6.1 Linguistic InequalityThere46.1 Linguistic InequalitypProblem twonThe doctrine of linguistic equality deflects attention from language as a possible source of social inequality.nThere are identifiable differences between people of the same age in aspects of language such as vocabulary,certain areas of syntax,skill at using speech for certain tasks and the arts of reading and writing,which can only be described as examples of inequality.6.1 Linguistic InequalityProbl56.1 Linguistic InequalitypLinguists and lay people differ.nWhen linguists make claims about linguistic equality,they are referring to the basic core of language structure,which is the area linguistic theory has been most concerned.nLay people take the basic core completely for granted,and are more concerned with more peripheral aspects such as vocabulary and register-specific constructions.6.1 Linguistic InequalityLingu66.1 Linguistic Inequalityn6.1.2 Three types of linguistic inequalitypSubjective inequalitynIt concerns what people think about each others speech:some people are credited with more intelligence,friendliness and other such virtues according to the way they speak.nLanguage,in the form of variety differences,contributes to social inequality by being used as a yard-stick for evaluating people,and by being a highly unreliable yard-stick.6.1 Linguistic Inequality6.1.276.1 Linguistic InequalitypStrictly linguistic inequalitynIt relates to the linguistic items that a person knows.nPeople of different experiences know different ranges of items.nSome people are more confident in using an item than other people,and those who do know it fare better in those social situations where it is needed.nSocial inequality arises on each such occasion.nSome occasions are more important than others in their effects on overall life-chances.(education vs.fishing).6.1 Linguistic InequalityStric86.1 Linguistic InequalitypCommunicative inequalitynIt is concerned with knowledge of how to use linguistic items to communicate successfully,rather than simply with knowledge of the linguistic items themselves.nIt refers to the kind of knowledge or skill that is needed when using speech to interact with other people.nIt also includes inequalities in the ways in which speakers select variants of linguistic variables in order to present a favorable image,which means that communicative inequality subsumes subjective inequality.6.1 Linguistic InequalityCommu96.2 Subjective inequalityn6.2.1 Language-based prejudicepIt involves prejudices about particular ways of speaking.pThis is socially problematic in that the conclusions may be wrong.pWe do it because we need the information,and we have no better source.pA language prejudice is a characteristic which we expect people to have because of the way they speak.6.2 Subjective inequality6.2.1106.2 Subjective inequalityn6.2.2 Evaluation of languagepWhen we evaluate speech as rough,posh,effeminate,affected and so on,this evaluation is based on the evaluation of the speakers,and not on the speech forms themselves.pThe most important questions is how people evaluate the dialect or language that they speak themselves,because this is closely related to their self-evaluation.6.2 Subjective inequality6.2.2116.2 Subjective inequalitypLinguistic insecurity:a feeling of insecurity experienced by speakers or writers about some aspect of their language use or about the variety of language they speak.This may result,for instance,in MODIFIED SPEECH,when speakers attempt to alter their way of speaking.nModified speech:a term used by linguists to describe speech which is deliberately changed in an attempt to make it sound more educated or refined.The change is usually temporary and the speaker lapses back to his or her normal speech pattern.6.2 Subjective inequalityLingu126.2 Subjective inequalitypOvert prestige:the prestige of the high-status group representing,symbolically,the whole community.pCovert prestige:that of the local,non-prestige group.6.2 Subjective inequalityOvert136.2 Subjective inequalityn6.2.3 Stereotypes and how to study thempPeople use the speech of others as a clue to non-linguistic information about them,such as their social background and even personality traits.6.2 Subjective inequality6.2.3146.2 Subjective inequalitypSubjective reaction test nThe method of recording people talking with tape-recorders.nThe tape might typically contain a dozen voices,each speaking for a minute or so.nThe subjects(the people whose stereotypes are being investigated)are asked to listen to these voices,one at a time,and answer a questionnaire about each.nThe results typically show clear differences both between voices and between subjects-different voices evoke different stereotypes in the mind of the same person,whilst the same voice may suggest different stereotypes to different people.6.2 Subjective inequalitySubje156.2 Subjective inequalitypMatched guise techniquen(in studies of language attitudes)the use of recorded voices of people speaking first in one dialect or language and then in another;that is,in two guises.nThe recordings are played to listeners who do not know that the two samples of speech are from the same person.n The reactions of the listeners to the speakers in one guise are compared to reactions to the other guise to reveal attitudes towards different language or dialect groups,whose members may be considered more or less intelligent,friendly,co-operative,reliable,etc.6.2 Subjective inequalityMatch166.2 Subjective inequalityn6.2.4 Prejudice of teacherspThere is some evidence that teachers base their first impression of pupils on speech-forms in preference to other sources of information which might appear to be more relevant.pTeachers are of at least two kinds:those who evaluate on the basis of standardness,and those who pay more attention to fluency.6.2 Subjective inequality6.2.4176.2 Subjective inequalitypIf a teacher expects children to perform poorly,her behavior towards them may be such as to encourage them to do just that.pNegative expectations by the teacher will similarly lead to negative performance by the pupils.6.2 Subjective inequalityIf a 186.2 Subjective inequalityn6.2.5 Prejudice of pupilspSome children already have quite well-developed linguistic prejudices by the time they go to primary school.pThe teachers accent may affect the childrens willingness to be influenced by what she says,and even their ability to remember it.pChildren will pay more attention to things said in an accent which arouses their group loyalty than in one which does not,and will consequently remember more of the former.6.2 Subjective inequality6.2.5196.2 Subjective inequalitypIt thus seems that the linguistic prejudices of both teachers and pupils are potential sources of serious problems in the education process.6.2 Subjective inequalityIt th206.3 Linguistic incompetence:strictly linguistic inequalityndeficit theory(deficit hypothesis)pthe theory that the language of some children may be lacking in vocabulary,grammar,or the means of expressing complex ideas,and may therefore be inadequate as a basis for success in school.pLinguists have criticized this hypothesis and contrasted it with the difference hypothesis,which states that although the language of some children(e.g.children from certain social and ethnic groups)may be different from that of middle-class children,all dialects are equally complex and children can use them to express complex ideas and to form a basis for school learning.6.3 Linguistic incompetence:s216.3 Linguistic incompetence:strictly linguistic inequalitypThe deficit hypothesis is dangerous nonsense:nonsense because it is simply not true that any normal children are so short of language,and dangerous because it can distract attention from the real shortcomings of many school systems by putting the blame for educational failure on inadequacies of the child.6.3 Linguistic incompetence:s226.3 Linguistic incompetence:strictly linguistic inequalitypIt should be remembered that no two speakers know precisely the same range of vocabulary and syntactic constructions,so we can not rule out the possibility that some such differences are relevant to success at school.pWells(1981)confirmed that children are unequal from a strictly linguistic point of view,and that at least some of the inequality is due to their experiences.6.3 Linguistic incompetence:s236.3 Linguistic incompetence:strictly linguistic inequalitypIt seems likely that,although some children learn academic words(the vocabulary that teacher use when teaching)at home,others may not,which leaves them at a disadvantage when they first meet the words at school,and the fact that some children do understand the words may blind the teacher to the need to explain them.6.3 Linguistic incompetence:s246.3 Linguistic incompetence:strictly linguistic inequalitypAt one extreme are children who are fully competent in a language,but not in the language of instruction.pAt the other extreme are children who speak a non-standard dialect of the schools language of instruction,but who are expected to learn the standard dialect for purposes of reading and writing,and possibly also for speaking.6.3 Linguistic incompetence:s256.4 Communicative incompetence:inequality in communicationnIt is easy to see how inequality can arise in communicative competence to the extent that this is learned through experience.nA particular obvious kind of inequality in communicative competence distinguishes native speakers of a language from non-native learners.6.4 Communicative incompetence26Term papernTopic:Sociolinguistics and Language TeachingnTypednA4 papernFont:Times New Roman nFont size:Main body(12)nTitle,abstract,key words,main body,referencesnCover:Students name,Student number,Course name,teachers name.Term paperTopic:Sociolinguist27Suggested TopicsnIntroducing culture into language teachingnWhat is communicative competencenInequality in the language classroomnEnglish teaching policy in ChinanWhat to teach our students in the classroom.Suggested TopicsIntroducing cu28