Course Description and objectives:
This course aims to offer an overview of the main topics of
sociolinguistic studies and familiarize students with the basic methodology
for sociolinguistic research and analysis through lectures by the instructor
and students’ participation in class activities and individual or group
research project. Topics to be covered in the semester include code-
switching, language and social class, style, context, register, gender, age,
languages in contact (pidgin and creole languages), etc. Besides, students
will also learn how to conduct research on sociolinguistics, including data
collection and data analysis.

Textbook:
Holmes, Janet and Wilson, Nick. 2017. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 5th
ed. Longman.


Assessment:
1. Class attendance and participation 15%
2. In-class oral presentation 15%
3. In-class reading activity 10%
4. Final exam 30%
5. Research project 30%


Tentative Schedule:
Week 01 Introduction and Orientation
Week 02 What do sociolinguists study?
Week 03 Chap. 6: Regional and social dialects
Week 04 Chap. 6: Regional and social dialects
Week 05 Chap. 7: Gender and age (In-class oral presentation)
Week 06 Chap. 9: Language change (In-class oral presentation)
Week 07 Chap. 9: Language change (In-class oral presentation)
Week 08 In-class reading activity
Week 09 Chap. 10: style, context and register (In-class oral presentation)
Week 10 Chap. 10: style, context and register (In-class oral presentation)
Week 11 Chap. 11: Speech functions, politeness and cross-cultural
communication (In-class oral presentation)
Week 12 Chap. 2: Language choice in multilingual communities
Week 13 Chap. 2: Language choice in multilingual communities
Week 14 Chap. 4: Linguistic varieties and multilingual nations
Week 15 Final Exam
Week 16 Project Oral Presentation