Studying at York
Language & Power - EDU00094M
Module summary
This module is for students interested in socio-political and socio-educational issues around language use in society, including language activism, gender linguistics, online interaction, and education policy. You will focus on sociolinguistics, language and power in society and in educational discourses, and fairness in language use. At the end of this module, you should be able to critically analyse texts from the point of view of power negotiation, and have an awareness of different theoretical stances to, and different methods of researching, power in language.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
Module aims:
- to develop your understanding of different sociolinguistic frameworks and approaches tackling the interrelation between language and power
- to discover how injustices in education are replicated -and sometimes challenged- via language
- to consider different methods for analysing language use and its relation to power
- to develop understanding of specific linguistic campaigns and their relation to current issues in language in the education sector
- to apply criticality skills to a chosen educational discourse context.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of this module, students should have a clear understanding of the compelling, ubiquitous and pervasive interrelation between of language and power.
By the end of this module, students will be able to:
Subject content
- understand how language can be used to assert, challenge and cement power in educational contexts, and beyond.
- understand how colonial heritage forms part of our global language system today.
- understand of how language is manipulated for specific goals.
- appreciate different sociolinguistic theories and sociolinguistic approaches.
- understand how language endangerment, death, decline and revitalisation relates to language status and language activism.
Academic and Graduate skills
- critically evaluate power negotiation in texts and discourses.
- appreciate advantages and disadvantages of different methods for the analysis of language, in educational contexts and beyond.
- appreciate the pervasiveness of power in all language use, and different ways adopting communicative styles with more or less power distance.
Module content
Weeks 1 and 2 give a module overview, discuss assignment requirements, and offer a theoretical introduction. In this introduction we will discuss different models describing how language and power intersect, and how people might influence language use and language change. After this, we look at three different blocks:
- Block 1: Power and Language in Education: weeks 3,4,5. This block includes the following topics: language of schooling and class educational language rights code mixing, translanguaging, plurilingualism bilingual education programmes decolonising foreign language learning.
- Block 2: Controversies within language: weeks 6,7. This block includes the following topics: Gender and language The trends of informalization and marketization of language Critical Discourse Analysis as a method to unmask power in language use.
- Block 3: Conflicts between different languages. weeks 8,9,10. This block includes the following topics: Global English dominance today prestige and covert prestige varieties Language revitalisation and language activism Language death and decline Heritage Languages.
- Each Block also covers different forms of linguistic activism and examples of groups and initiatives wanting to change language use.
Week 11 will be an assignment and revision workshop, where you will have a chance to discuss an assignment outline, and assignment options in small groups.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Individual written feedback reports with follow-up tutor discussion if necessary. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.
Indicative reading
Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power. London: Longman.
Holmes J. & Wilson, N. (2017). Introducing sociolinguistics. London: Routledge.
Macedo, D. & DrGraff, M. (eds) 2019. Decolonizing World Language Education. Routledge.
Mooney, A. & Evans, B. (2019). Language, society and power. London: Routledge.
Simpson, P., Mayr, A. & Strathman, S. (2019). Language and power. London: Routledge.