Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Convenor and Lecturer
John Knox
Contact via +61 (0)2 9850 8729
C5A501
Margaret Wood
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Credit points |
Credit points
4
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MAppLing or PGDipAppLing or MAppLingTESOL or MTransInterMAppLingTESOL
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit is concerned with the study of language and language learning from a social perspective. It provides a historical perspective on the development of social understandings of language, and on the social/cognitivist divide in linguistics in the mid-twentieth century. Language and language learning are studied as collective, interpersonal processes, and the role of the brain in these social processes is also considered. The nature of 'community' is examined from anthropological and sociological perspectives, and the relations between language, learning, and community are explored.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
---|---|---|
Assignment One | 5% | Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 |
Assignment Two | 15% | Friday, March 20, 5pm |
Assignment Three | 35% | Friday, May 1, 5pm |
Assignment Four | 45% | Friday, June 12, 5pm |
Due: Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12
Weighting: 5%
Participate in the online discussions on the iLearn site. I will check these discussions every Tuesday.
The goal of these discussions is to provide a structured forum for you to exchange ideas and opinions on the unit content and relevant issues with your fellow students.
The 5% grade is for participation. The content of your contributions is not graded.
Due: Friday, March 20, 5pm
Weighting: 15%
Due 5pm Sydney Time. Task to be posted on APPL912 iLearn site.
Due: Friday, May 1, 5pm
Weighting: 35%
Due 5pm Sydney Time. Task to be posted on APPL912 iLearn site.
Due: Friday, June 12, 5pm
Weighting: 45%
Due 5pm Sydney Time. Task to be posted on APPL912 iLearn site.
The learning and teaching strategies used in this Unit are face-to-face sessions (for on-campus students); interaction with materials on iLearn; online discussions; and self-study of course readings. On-campus sessions are recorded and made available to distance students. The course lecturer will be contactable through email to answer any queries that might arise.
It is expected that students in this unit will read all set readings, participate in group discussions and go beyond the required readings to follow the academic literature in specific areas of interest to them.
The reading material for this unit spans a variety of disciplines, including Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Biology. Some of the material will be in areas unfamiliar to many students, and may be challenging.
Week |
Topic |
Readings
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Part I: Community
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1 |
Introduction: Language, context and identity |
Holliday, A., Kullman, J., & Hyde, M. (2004). Intercultural communication: An advanced resource book. London and New York: Routledge. Table 1 and Section A Theme 1: Identity - pp. 4-20 Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1985). Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 1: Context of Situation - pp. 3-14; Coda: Text, context and learning - pp. 44-49. |
2 |
Discourse communities |
Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 2: The concept of discourse community - pp. 21-32. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1: Meaning - pp. 51-71. |
3 |
Speech communities |
Malinowski, B. (1965). Coral gardens and their magic (Vol. II: The language of magic and gardening). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Part IV, An ethnographic theory of language and some practical corollaries, Division V & VI, pp. 52-65 Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In R. A. Shweder & R. A. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 276-320). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
4 |
Disciplinary communities |
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique (revised ed.). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Chapter 1: Pedagogic Codes and their modalities of practice - pp. 3-24. Maton, K. (2007). Knowledge-knower structures in intellectual and educational fields. In F. Christie & J. R. Martin (Eds.), Language, knowledge and pedagogy: Functional linguistic and sociological perspectives (pp. 87-108). London and New York: Continuum. |
Part II: Language
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5 |
Language as a social sign system |
Harris, R., & Taylor, T. J. (1997). Landmarks in linguistic thought I (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. Introduction - pp. xiii-xxi. Culler, J. (1976). Saussure. Sussex: The Harvester Press. Chapter 2: Saussure’s theory of language - pp. 18-52. de Saussure, F. (1983). Course in general linguistics (R. Harris, Trans.). London: Duckworth. Part II, Chapter IV: Linguistic value; Part II Chapter V: Syntagmatic relations and associative relations - pp. 110-125. |
6 |
Language functioning in context |
Whorf, B. L. (1964). Science and linguistics. In Language, thought and reality (pp. 207-219). Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press. (Reprinted from Technology Review, 42, April 1940.) Download the pdf document at: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/OldFiles/www/whorf.scienceandlinguistics.pdf |
7 |
Nature or nurture, 20th century style |
Chomsky, N. (2006). Language and mind (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 4: Form and meaning in natural languages - pp. 88-101. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Baltimore: University Park Press. Chapter 1: Language and social man (Part 1) - pp. 8-35. |
8 |
Language as a Complex Adaptive System |
Lee, N., Mikesell, L., Joaquin, A. D. L., Mates, A. W., & Schumann, J. H. (2009). The interactional instinct: The evolution and acquisition of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 2: Evidence for language emergence - pp. 29-54. |
9 |
Language and the brain |
Deacon, T. W. (1997). The symbolic species: The co-evolution of language and the brain. New York: Norton. Chapter 3: Symbols aren’t simple (Section: ‘The symbolic threshold’), Chapter 11: And the word became flesh (Sections: ‘The brain that didn’t evolve; Language adaptations) and Chapter 12: Symbolic origins (Sections: ‘A symbolic solution’; ‘Ritual beginnings’) - pp. 79-92; 321-340; 393-410. Edelman, G. M. (1992). Bright air, brilliant fire: On the matter of the mind. New York: Basic Books. Chapter 12: Language and higher-order consciousness - pp. 124-136. (optional reading) |
Part III: Learning
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10 |
Learning in context |
Vygotsky, L. (1978 [1930]). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapter 1: Tool and symbol in child development - pp. 19-30. Vygotsky, L. S. (1997 [1978/1930]). Interaction between learning and development. In M. Gauvain & M. Cole (Eds.), Readings on the development of children (pp. 29-36). New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. |
11 |
Learning to mean |
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004 [1978]). Meaning and the construction of reality in early childhood. In J. J. Webster (Ed.), The language of early childhood: Volume 4 in the collected works of M. A. K. Halliday (Vol. 4, pp. 113-133). London: Continuum. Painter, C. (2009). Language development. In M. A. K. Halliday & J. J. Webster (Eds.), Continuum companion to systemic functional linguistics (pp. 87-103). London: Continuum. |
12 |
Complexity, ecology and language learning |
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Cameron, L. (2008). Complex systems and Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 5: Complex systems in first and second language development – pp. 114-160. Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Hodder Education. Chapter 10: Social dimensions of L2 learning - pp. 216-254. |
13 |
Timescales |
Lemke, J. L. (2002). Language development and identity: Multiple timescales in the social ecology of learning. In C. Kramsch (Ed.), Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives (pp. 68-87). London: Continuum. |
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