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Test Audio and Video: Before the meeting, check your microphone and camera to ensure they are working correctly. If you are a speaker, you can click on "Start Practice Session" button test to ensure audio and video devices are functioning.
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Allow Necessary Permissions: Make sure the Dryfta meeting platform has the required permissions to access your microphone, camera, and other necessary features.
Disable VPN or Firewall: Sometimes, VPNs or firewalls can interfere with the connection to the meeting platform. Temporarily disable them and see if the issue persists.
Switch Devices: If possible, try joining the meeting from a different device to see if the problem is specific to one device.
Reduce Bandwidth Usage: In cases of slow or unstable internet connections, ask participants to disable video or share video selectively to reduce bandwidth consumption.
Update Drivers and Software: Ensure your operating system, audio drivers, and video drivers are up to date. Outdated drivers can cause compatibility issues with the Dryfta meeting platform.
Contact Support: If none of the above steps resolve the issue, reach out to the platform's support team. They can provide personalized assistance and troubleshoot specific problems.
By following these troubleshooting tips, you can tackle many common problems encountered on Dryfta meeting platform and have a more productive and seamless meeting experience.
20230718T083020230718T1615Europe/Amsterdam[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language TeachingHybrid Session (onsite/online)AILA 2023 - 20th Anniversary Congress Lyon Editioncellule.congres@ens-lyon.fr
Multilingual Subjectivities, Monolingual Institutions, and Language Equity
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
In our multicultural, pan-ethnic states, issues of subjectivity, positionality, and equity in relation to language are central to our pedagogical practices and institutional settings. These issues are particularly salient in higher education, where knowledge of and experience with language shape the academic and life trajectories of an increasingly diverse student body. In this presentation, I rely on theoretical developments from multilingual studies, linguistic anthropology, post-structural and postcolonial theory, combined with my own experience teaching multilingual students, to perform a critical exploration of current efforts to embrace linguistic diversity and promote language learning, against a backdrop of monolingual and monolingualizing practices that remain ubiquitous in our cultures of scholarship and epistemological apparatuses (Gramling 2016). I share the results of a multiyear study focusing on the personal narratives of multilingual first-year students at Princeton University. The overall purpose of the research is to understand how their subjectivities are negotiated in and through language, and the impact that language education has had on their personhood. The paths by which these speakers come to feel at home in a language are complex, subtle, and intimately connected to the experience of mobility. I pay special attention to the emergent dynamics between tongues and bodies in the semiotic practices of racialized subjects, who may not "look the way they sound" or "sound the way they look" (Rosa 2019), and I argue that monolingualizing forces undermine even the most progressive universities, which purport to promote and protect linguistic diversity while remaining a key cog in a system that constructs language as something which is a natural possession and towards which certain individuals can claim proprietary rights. Multilingual students do not (and should not) fit into an idealized, institutionally palatable version of multilingualism. An analysis of their modes of identification and linguistic encounters with others shows that, while a multilingual repertoire can afford opportunities for radical reinvention, the essentialist linkage of linguistic nativism with authenticity, authority, and ownership functions as an othering device, devaluing and pushing to the margins the language practices of those who find themselves outside of the matrix of the monolingual establishment (Yildiz 2012; Chow 2014).
References: Chow, Rey (2014). Not like a native speaker. On languaging as a postcolonial experience. New York: Columbia University Press. Gramling, David (2016). The invention of monolingualism. New York: Bloomsbury. Rosa, Jonathan (2019). Looking like a language, sounding like a race: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the learning of Latinidad. New York: Oxford University Press. Shuck, Gail (2006). Racializing the nonnative English speaker. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 5(4),259–276. Yildiz, Yasemin (2012). Beyond the mother tongue: The postmonolingual condition. New York: Fordham University.
Presenters Mariana Bono Senior Lecturer, Princeton University
EMI in the neoliberal private higher education of Bangladesh: Fragmented learning opportunities
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
The establishment of private universities is a comparatively new phenomenon in higher education in Bangladesh. This phenomenal growth has been possible because of the recent neo-liberalization and commodification of education, supported by internal and external funding, investment by companies, and a wealthy elite business class. The same trend is found in Pakistan, India, and Nepal where English seems to play a vital role in personal and professional development.
These universities, significantly influenced by the ethos of neoliberalism, tend to promote 'global education' and they do it in English - the only official language within university premises. They follow the curriculum and syllabuses developed by North American universities. Contrary to the nationalistic discourses prevalent in Bangladesh and the strong promotion of Bangla in the public sector, private universities manage to promote English as an official language and the medium of instruction, taking advantage of the fact that the University Grant Commission Bangladesh did not put any specific clause regarding the medium of instruction in Private University Act 1992.
With reference to the recent 'neoliberal turn' in higher education, the paper will present a critical qualitative study that explores the effect of EMI in private universities in Bangladesh. The paper reveals that English is considered a crucial index of human capital development in private higher education in Bangladesh. However, students fail to understand lectures and textbooks, interact with teachers and other students, and express their opinions in English. They struggle to cognitively engage in learning processes and develop a sound knowledge of their disciplines. Consequently, they start depending on rote memorization from their desperate compulsion of performing adequately in classroom presentations and securing pass grades in exams. EMI, in other words, robs students of their rights to construct knowledge and severely impedes their possibilities of becoming critically aware. The paper, hence, concludes that the neoliberal turn in education with an emphasis on English is a double-edged sword that seems to disempower students, on the one hand, by forcing them to adapt limited learning strategies and on the other, by crippling their prospects of better life chances in future.
To disrupt the spell of English and the ideology, governance, and policies inspired by neoliberalism, the paper suggests pedagogic interventions. The university authorities, with vested interests, may not always bring about changes to policies and practices. The teachers may take a proactive role and create pockets of resistance within their classrooms, expecting that there would be a ripple effect in society. They may allow Bangla in the classroom for critical engagement with knowledge. They may also foster 'translingual dispositions' amongst students that may make them respectful towards linguistic diversity, differences, and plurality and critically aware of linguistic ideology, linguistic inequalities, and unequal Englishes. Teachers may not change the education system overnight, but they can make students understand how neoliberal education encourages systematic discrimination and social and educational marginalization. Only by learning to question, students may resist the inequality existing in the education system and gain control over their learning and life in the future.
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
English Language Teaching in France largely centres on 'standard' British and American English, what Lippi-Green (2012: 56) calls a 'mythical beast'. Little to no room is given to other inner-circle varieties (e.g. Australian English), outer-circle varieties/World Englishes (e.g. Indian English), or non-standard varieties (e.g. Liverpool English, known as Scouse, or African American English).
This lack of sociolinguistic diversity in the English L2 classroom reinforces the ideology of the standard language (Milroy 2001) and establishes an implicit hierarchy of varieties of English. It contributes to the stigmatization of some as 'illegitimate'. It fails to prepare our students to interact with speakers of diverse backgrounds.
Several pedagogical activities I use in my teaching draw on sociolinguistic theoretical concepts to remedy this situation. For example, students reflect on the question 'Who counts as a native speaker?' to challenge the native speaker construct (Muni Toke 2013). They explore the structural characteristics (lexical, phonological, morphosyntactic and pragmatic features) of diverse English varieties, as well as their socio-historical context, and the language attitudes towards them (Preston 2013). Students are also explicitly introduced to the prescriptive approach to language, leading to discussions of norm(s), prestige and legitimacy, linguistic insecurity and linguistic discrimination which all relate to the standard language myth. This aims at promoting social justice. In class, language change is presented as an inevitable phenomenon which should not be thought of as decay (Aitchison 2001). Stylistic variation, that is variation according to language use, including a comparison of spoken vs. written data, is analysed to show the 'appropriateness' of different linguistic forms in different contexts. It is pointed out that standard language use is associated with writing where standardization is most prevalent (Gadet 1995: 20).
The emphasis on regional, social (ethnicity, social class, age) and stylistic variation is hoped to demonstrate the diversity of English language use, to foster the acceptance of different accents in L2 classroom and promote different grammars. It seeks to dismantle the view of English as a homogeneous entity stemming from the focus on the 'standard' as an 'idealized language' (Crowley 2003).
References: Aitchison, Jean (2001) (3rd ed.) Language Change: Progress or Decay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crowley, Tony (2003) Standard English and the Politics of Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Gadet, Françoise (1995) Norme, variation, évaluation. In Mazière (ed.) La genèse de la norme. Colloque de la SHESL, janvier 1994. Archives et documents de la Société d'histoire et d'épistémologie des sciences du langage, second series, 11: 18–22. Lippi-Green, Rosina (2012) (2nd ed.) English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge. Milroy, James (2007) The ideology of the standard language. In Llamas, Mullany & Stockwell (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. London: Routledge. 133–139. Muni Toke, Valelia (2013) Le locuteur natif et son idéalisation : un demi-siècle de critiques. Histoire Épistémologie Langage 35(2): 5–15. Preston, Dennis (2002) Language with an Attitude. In Chambers, Trudgill & Schilling-Estes (eds.) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Malden/Oxford: Blackwell. 40–66.
Presenters Sophie Richard Lecturer In English Linguistics, Université De Tours
Pedagogical translanguaging in heteroglossic L2 classrooms – not always socially just
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching08:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 06:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 09:30:00 UTC
Despite the current world fame and popularity of the concept of translanguaging (TRLNG) in the scholarly literature and among teachers "on the ground," it is not without problems, which will be examined basing on an extensive overview of current pedagogical and research literature (k = 110; Paradowski, 2021; under review). We discuss the limits to the applicability of the concept in the narrow sense of a multilingual resource-based set of pedagogical practices in second/foreign/world language classrooms with diverse student populations. Among the many qualifications, we shall see how TRLNG may be less transformative and critical than has been suggested. We will also notice that TRLNG practices may unintentionally reproduce disadvantages and reinforce inequalities and the hegemony of majority languages, where language singletons in particular face steeper challenges. Moreover, not all students appreciate the opportunity to use their home language(s), pupils may not find the practice liberating at all, and it may actually cause a decrease in well-being. Finally, foreign language classrooms in particular require the reconciliation of many conflicting goals, necessitating a trade-off between the need to on the one hand 'cover' the curriculum within the allocated time, in a manner comprehensible to the students, and on the other the need to balance the acknowledgment of students' linguistic diversity, freedom of expression, and respect for the equality of languages with making them learn the concepts, register or language that is the target of instruction. Naturally, many aspects and practices of TRLNG are worthwhile and salvageable. The final minutes of the talk will focus on these, concluding with a recommendation of more critically aware and reflective plurilingual pedagogies that always take into account the circumstances and ecologies of the classroom and the subjectivities of the students (see e.g., Byrnes, 2020).
Reference: Byrnes, H. (2020). Navigating pedagogical translanguaging: Commentary on the special issue. System, 92, 102278. DOI: 10.1016/j.system.2020.102278 Paradowski, M.B. (2021). Transitions, translanguaging, trans-semiotising in heteroglossic school environments: Lessons from (not only) South African classrooms. In: C. van der Walt & V. Pfeiffer (Eds.), Multilingual Classroom Contexts: Transitions and Transactions (pp. 213–284). Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS. Paradowski, M.B. (under revision). The limits and challenges to equitable pedagogical translanguaging in plurilingual foreign/second language classrooms: Towards more critically reflective and contextually informed instructional choices.
Dismantling Elite Multilingualism when Teaching Elite Multilinguals: Critical Sociolinguistics and Applied Foreign Languages
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 14:15:00 UTC
"Langues étrangères appliquées" (LEA) – often translated as "Applied Foreign Languages" – is a popular Bachelor and Master's degree programme in the French university system which involves studying multiple languages as well as courses in business-related disciplines such as economics, marketing and accounting. After graduation, many students go on to work in positions of responsibility in international and multilingual businesses and institutions, or at least this is the promise upon which these courses are promoted. In this respect, LEA might be considered as a vector of "elite multilingualism" (Barakos & Selleck 2019: 5) in that it "imbues social and/or material capital, prestige, excellence, privilege, and access to linguistic resources in certain groups of speakers". While some may indeed benefit from this state of affairs, elite multilingualism is also a "terrain for exclusion" (Barakos & Selleck 2019: 5) in that it legitimises only a select collection of language practices.
In this presentation, I draw upon my own experience as a researcher in critical sociolinguistics who has, over the past six years, also taught on a wide variety of L2 English LEA courses at both BA and MA levels. I aim to explore how theoretical and methodological tools from my main research discipline(s) might be integrated into LEA teaching in a bid to counter the exclusive nature of the elite multilingualism that these courses otherwise propagate. More specifically, I report on how I adapt, present and practically integrate certain key concepts – such as "language ideology" (Woolard 2020), "linguistic marketplace" (Bourdieu 1982), "commodification" (Heller 2010) – into L2 English teaching/learning in an attempt to raise awareness of ideologies of elite multilingualism and their potential repercussions.
Following this, I highlight some of the challenges involved in creating this applied critical sociolinguistic approach to LEA before exploring how, if successful, such an approach could not only help empower students themselves but also encourage them to reflect on their own role in the spread and (re)production of potentially harmful language ideologies.
As an invitation for further discussion, I conclude my presentation with some suggestions for other ways in which critical sociolinguistics might dovetail with L2 teaching in disciplines such as LEA, thus promoting social justice in the L2 language courses of those who might one day be at the helm of language management in a wide range of contexts.
References
Barakos, E. & Selleck, C. (2019). Elite multilingualism: discourses, practices, and debates, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(5), 361-374.
Bourdieu, P. (1982). Ce que parler veut dire : l'économie des échanges. Fayard.
Heller, M. (2010). The Commodification of Language, Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101-114.
Woolard, K. (2020). Language ideology. In Stanlaw, J. (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell.
Reimagining FL education boundaries through Critical Pedagogy: Bringing Sign Language into the L2 classroom
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 14:15:00 UTC
Globalisation benefits dominant languages while simultaneously repressing languages lacking Lingua Franca status (Salomone, 2022), including regional and exogeneous languages but also Sign Languages (Millet & Estève, 2012). This presentation proposes a Critical Pedagogy-informed model for integrating Sign Language (SL) in the L2 college classroom to promote students' understanding of how concepts of norm, standard, and linguistic capital leading to discriminatory processes extend beyond traditionally conceived speech communities. In a typical course on French sociolinguistics, topics often cover regional languages, linguistic innovation, and issues of language and identity such as non-sexist language. A topic not usually considered is LSF, a variety of sign language used by about 100,000 hearing-impaired people in France. In this empirical study situated at the intersection of Critical Language Awareness, Social Justice and Inclusivity (Glynn et al., 2020), and Transformative Learning (Mezirow, 2000), I argue that (French) SL has its place in the L2 curriculum to enhance the representation of marginalized "voices" and to support the development of learners as engaged citizens. I illustrate such integration in an undergraduate introduction to French sociolinguistics (enrollment: 10) through the inclusion of a unit on LSF to challenge student perspectives on the linguistic landscape in France and address common misconceptions surrounding SL. The presentation opens with a brief discussion on the state of SL in undergraduate L2 curricula and situates the inclusion of SL education within a CLA and Social Justice framework. Next I describe the unit design, organized around a lecture on SL as a linguistic system, the discussion of an assigned reading on a mixed (deaf and hearing students) classroom environment (Feuilladieu et al., 2021), and movie excerpts (La famille Bélier, 2014; CODA, 2022), before analyzing the impact on student learning growth. Learning outcomes were measured through written answers to questions on the assigned reading, a reflective essay, and test questions. Student answers demonstrated raised awareness that 1) signed languages constitute fully-fledged linguistic systems, 2) like other natural languages, SL exhibits variation, and 3) the Deaf community often has to adapt to the dominant norm, resulting in social and scolarization challenges. Student comments highlight the transformative effect of learning about LSF, leading to new world views on SL both in the French and American cultural settings.
References Feuilladieu, S., Assude, T., Tambone, J., & Millon-Fauré, K. (2021). Être scolarisé dans un parcours bilingue langue des signes française-français écrit : ce qu'en disent les élèves sourds et entendants. Alter, 15(3), 203-215. Glynn, C., Wesely, P., & Wassell, B. (2020). Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice. ACTFL. Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. Bass.
Millet, A., & Estève, I. (2012). La querelle séculaire entre l'oralisme et le bilinguisme met-elle la place de la langue des signes française (lsf) en danger dans l'éducation des sourds ? Cahiers de l'Observatoire des pratiques linguistiques, 3, 161-175. PU d'Orléans. Salomone, R. (2022). The Rise of English: Global politics and the power of language. Oxford UP.
More than an English course: Exploring what counts as academic skills in a pre-sessional programme in the UK
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 14:15:00 UTC
Higher education, in the UK, is sold as a transformative experience, one that has the potential to turn anyone into more successful versions of themselves. UK universities list among their priorities to provide the opportunity to "anyone with the will and potential to succeed, regardless of their background, to transform their lives through accessing an outstanding learning experience at a UK university" (Universities UK). They seek to have "a positive impact on students' lives" and contribute to their own economic advancement through consuming the world-class knowledge and skills they produce (UK Universities). Such discourses have made UK higher education attractive to students who seek to develop and make career progress nationally, and globally. Gaining UK stamped educational credentials and the linguistic capitals associated to them (i.e. a premium English) has become an important part of the future-making projects of many overseas students who migrate temporarily to "invest" in prestigious educational capitals abroad aimed at securing future educational and job 'success' (Bae & Park, 2019; Copland & Garton, 2011). To be admitted to MA programmes students need to meet linguistic requirements (Pearson, 2020) – and many universities organise pre-sessional EAP courses to help candidates be ready to undertake their studies. This paper will present the reflections emerging from a collaborative workshop activity addressed at dismantling circulating language ideologies and reflecting on ways to promote social justice in spaces of academic language teaching in Higher Education inspired by this symposium. We are or have been L2 teachers in higher education and do research in the broad field of critical sociolinguistics. The workshop has been designed as a research activity to engage students, teachers and researchers to discuss key discourses emerging from our ethnographic exploration of the pre-sessional academic skills course at the elite university in the UK all participants take part in. The study aims to better understand the meanings, practices and resources associated to becoming an "International student" in contemporary HE markets, and the forms of inequality that emerge in such processes. We will discuss the ways in which unpacking together the (unequal) distribution of linguistic and non-linguistic resources in this educational space, and the limits and boundaries in the processes of 'becoming', can inform (our) teaching practices.
References Bae, S., & Park, J. S.-Y. (2019). Investing in the future: Korean early English education as neoliberal management of youth. Multilingua. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2019-0009 Copland, F., & Garton, S. (2011). 'I felt that I do live in the UK now': international students' self-reports of their English language speaking experiences on a pre-sessional programme. Language and Education, 25(3), 241–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2011.566617 Pearson, W. S. (2020). Mapping English language proficiency cut-off scores and pre-sessional EAP programmes in UK higher education. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 100866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100866
The pragmatic use of variationist sociolinguistics in higher education: pedagogical contributions to advanced language courses as a means to undo standard language ideology
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 14:15:00 UTC
In French public universities, English LLCER courses (English Major Programs) are distinct from applied foreign language studies. Such courses seek to expose students to advanced uses of the English language, and in doing so, aim to teach socially legitimate linguistic practices. Additionally, at the end of these studies, most career choices are those of public education, so that many of these courses are designed to lead an important proportion of students to the French public teaching exams (O'Connell, A. & Chaplier, 2021). In such cases, it can be argued that these tests represent a condensed version of the interactions that take place within tense linguistic markets (Bourdieu, 2001), insofar as Standard English represents a valuable linguistic capital, and because candidates are tested on their mastery of a socially situated linguistic habitus. However, these studies tend to focus exclusively on standard varieties of English, namely the British RP and General American standards, at the expense of other varieties. Beyond a lack of awareness of the breadth of the diversity of English, this can lead students to experience forms of linguistic insecurity, due to an incomplete knowledge of legitimate linguistic norms (Wharton & Wolstenholme, 2019). Moreover, this approach creates a hierarchical vision of language, leading to the tacit assumption that non-standard varieties (from a social, geographical or racial perspective) are fundamentally flawed. Additionally, as university represents a legitimizing institution for these courses, students of English may be incited to perpetuate a hierarchical view of the different varieties of English (Forlot, 2014; Vanegas Rojas et al., 2016). Through sociolinguistic tools and theoretical contributions – in particular corpus linguistics, the study of linguistic variation, the observation of socio-phonetic phenomena, or the analysis of the social conditions of the production of discourse – we hope not only to provide analytical tools that are transferable to other subjects, but also to respond to the aforementioned problems. The critical contributions of sociolinguistics should be used in order to dispel linguistic misconceptions, namely that standard languages are intrinsically refined and complex (Lippi-Green, 1997), or that speakers of non-standard varieties have simplistic and erroneous linguistic patterns (Blanchet et al., 2014). This is particularly important as LLCER courses lead, for students who eventually pass the national teaching exams, to the production – or reproduction – of teachers, who will pass on certain misconceptions regarding English, as well as their L1. Bourdieu, P. (2001). Langage et pouvoir symbolique. Edition du seuil. Forlot, G. (2014). De l'anglais dominant dans l'éducation: contributions sociolinguistiques. Tréma, (42), 6-19. Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. Routlege. O'Connell, A. & Chaplier, C. (2021). Les langues de spécialité dans l'enseignement supérieur en France. Éducation & didactique, 15, 85-102. Vanegas Rojas et al. (2016). Linguistic discrimination in an English language teaching program: voices of the invisible others. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura, 21(2), 133-151. Wharton, S., & Wolstenholme, R. (2019). Accents et insécurité linguistique en cours d'anglais. Lidil. Revue de linguistique et de didactique des langues.
Breaking down prescriptivism through early introduction to linguistic variation
Oral Presentation[SYMP29] Dismantling Language Ideologies and Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education Second Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/18 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/18 14:15:00 UTC
Second-language learners at the university level are very often not exposed to language variation-in terms of register/formality, regionalisms, marginalized language varieties, etc.-until they are in upper-level courses. Instructors often report waiting to talk about these concepts in order to avoid confusing their students with too many competing forms. However, there are two main problems with this approach. First, most students never make it to those upper-level courses, many of which may not afford time to delve into linguistic variation anyway. Second, the lack of exposure to variation reinforces prescriptivist language ideologies that say that there is one "correct" way to say something in a language, and that other variants are not as good. We know from copious research on language attitudes that judgments about someone's speech often lead to judgments about their character, socioeconomic standing, and more (e.g., Labov 1972). One of the most basic concepts of linguistics, however, is that no aspect of language is inherently good or bad. With this in mind, it is essential to expose L2 learners to variation early in their acquisitional process, so as to combat prescriptivism and the judgments and prejudice it can lead to. Following the research that has already been done on how stylistic variation is taught and acquired (e.g., Etienne & Sax 2009), I argue that in contrast to waiting until upper-level courses to discuss variation, it is much more accurate, inclusive, and helpful to show students the wide range of possible styles, forms, and structures they may encounter in the real world, in the proportion that they exist in the real world. Starting in my first-semester French language classes, I teach variation in both the grammar and lexicon of French. In this presentation, I will discuss the benefits of exposing language learners to this type of variation as early as the first or second semester in a language sequence. I will explain how I teach grammatical variation in particular, and how I incorporate findings from linguistic research into my teaching. I will use examples of grammatical phenomena from French, such as interrogative structures (e.g., Dewaele 1999), using on vs. nous to mean 'we' (Dewaele 2002; Sax 2003), and the deletion of the negative particle ne (Martineau & Mougeon 2003:146).
Bibliography:
Dewaele, Jean-Marc. 1999. "Word order variation in French interrogative structures." International Journal of Applied Linguistics 125, no. 1: 161–180.
Dewaele, Jean-Marc. 2002. "Using sociostylistic variants in advanced French interlanguage: The case of nous/on." EUROSLA Yearbook 2: 205–226.
Etienne, Corinne and Kelly Sax. 2009. "Stylistic Variation in French: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Textbooks." The Modern Language Journal 93, no. 4: 584–606.
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns, No. 4. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Martineau, France, and Raymond Mougeon. 2003. "A Sociolinguistic Study of the Origins of ne Deletion in European and Quebec French." Language. 118.
Sax, Kelly. 2003. "Acquisition of stylistic variation in American learners of French." PhD dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Dissertation Abstracts International 65: 491.
Presenters Laura Demsey Teaching Associate Professor, University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
Mariana Bono
Sophie Richard
Michał B. Paradowski
Laura Demsey
