VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
------------------------
Language Culture and Society
1. INSTRUCTORS:
Name and title
Dr.
Hoàng
Hạnh
Research interests
Thị Intracultural communication,
Phone
Email
0905598994
hanhhtulis@gmail.com
language, culture and society,
English teaching methodology
Dr. Nguyễn Thanh Visual studies, cultural studies,
Hà
educational media
2. Course information
Program: MA- Applied Linguistics
Course title: Language Culture and Society
Course credit value: 3
Course code:
Course status:
Course prerequisites:
Class hour:
●
Lecture: 30 hours
●
Group work and presentation: 15 hours
●
Individual/group work project: 90 hours
Faculty: Post graduate Faculty – ULIS - VNU
3. COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
-
apply basic concepts and processes of language, culture and society in exploring, understanding and
analysing language in use.
1
-
use their informed understanding to empower themselves and others in the process of language use
in their study and practice.
-
demonstrate their respect and sensitivity in language practice of themselves and people around them
to enhance understanding, appreciation and empowerment among people and their varied language use.
4. COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course examines how language functions; how it shapes and is shaped by thought; how age, ethnicity,
class and gender and other social factors are constructed by language and influence language variation. It
explores how people’s identity is constructed and performed through language, and how language in the
media, politics and everyday talk potentially and creatively represent people and their cultures.
The course will offer various opportunities for learners to acquire an informed understanding and hence an
appreciation of the complex and dynamic relationship between language, culture and society through
critical analysis of language in use in media, politics and everyday talk and how such language use gives
rise to power. This understanding will empower learners in the process of working with language in their
further study and practice.
5. Course content:
See section 8
6. TEACHING MATERIALS
Core texts:
Mooney, A., & Evans, B. (2019). Language, society and power: An introduction. London and New York:
Routledge.
Recommended texts:
Ahearn, L. M. (2012). Living language: An introduction to linguistic anthropology. West Sussex: WileyBlackwell.
Evans, D. (Ed.). (2016). Language and identity: Discourse in the world. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London and New York:
Routledge.
Flowerdew, J., & Richardson, J. E. (Eds.). (2017). The Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies.
Taylor & Francis.
Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2010). Intercultural communication: An advanced resource book for
students. Routledge.
Jourdan, C., & Tuite, K. (2006). Language, culture and society: Key topics in linguistic anthropology.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salzmann, Z., Stanlaw, J., & Adachi, N. (2014). Language, culture, and society: An introduction to linguistic
anthropology. Westview Press.
2
Journals:
Communication and Medicine
Critical Discourse Studies
Discourse and Society
International Journal of Speech Language and the Law
Journal of Language and Politics
Journal of Sociolinguistics
Language in Society
Language Variation and Change
Text & Talk
Databases
Sage
Taylor & Francis
Science Direct
Cambridge
Proquest
Eric
Degruyter
Elsevier
Wiley
Springer
7. COURSE STRUCTURE AND LEARNING AND TEACHING METHODS
The course will include both lectures and in-class tutorials. To facilitate learning, the course employs
discussion of readings, students’ discussion and textual analysis. Flipped learning is applied. Students are
expected to read the assigned materials in advance. In the class, the lecturer will do just-in-time teaching,
answering the students’ questions from the reading. The rest of the time will be used for discussion and
language analysis. Students are the centre of the learning activities and are expected to read the materials in
advance to choose topics for discussion in class, to proactively make their own choice of the extra materials
for analysis, to collaboratively work with their peers, to autonomously work on their own and to actively
apply what they have learnt.
The schedule includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
8. Weekly timetable:
Sessions
TOPICS TO BE COVERED
READINGS
3
1
Introduction
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch1
Language functions
Socially charged life of language
2
Language thought and representation Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch1,2
3
Language and politics
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch3
4
Language and the media
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch4
5
Linguistic landscapes
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch5
6
Language and gender
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch6
7
Language and ethnicity
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch7
8
Language and age
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch8
9
Language class and symbolic capital
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch9
10
Presentation
11
Projects and consultation
Mooney & Evans (2019). Ch11
9. ASSESSMENT
Form
Weighting Task
Purpose
Due date
Active and
10%
- Students participate in
-To assess students’
Sessions 1-
regular
class discussions and/or
understanding of the required
11
participation +
presentation topics
texts and their ability to
attendance
assigned by their lecturer
critically reflect on what they
have read and listened to.
- To assess students’ proactive
individual and group study
skills
4
Mid-term
30%
Option 1a: Presentation
- To assess students’
Sessions 9-
Students collects language
understanding of the topics
11
data, analyse in groups
covered throughout the course
and present their findings
and their ability to apply this
Option 1b: Presentation:
understanding to analyse
Students read literature of
linguistic data to see the
a topic and present a
relationship between language,
critical literature review of
culture and society
the topic.
- To assess students’ ability to
work in groups.
Option 2: Individual
Students choose at least 5
annotated bibliography
articles published during the
Session 11
last 5 years on a related topic of
research and write an annotated
bibliography + a summary
essay synthesising the articles.
End-of-term
60%
assignment
Option 1: Students write
To assess students’
3 weeks
an essay analysing
understanding of the topics
after the
linguistic data collected
covered in the course and their
last session
from various sources to
ability to apply this
– 1500-
shed light on the
understanding to analyse
2000 words
relationship between
linguistic data to see the
language, culture and
relationship between language,
society
culture and society
Option 2: Students write
To assess students’ ability to
3 weeks
detailed research proposals apply their understanding to
after the
which include: Rationale;
higher levels to find/create new
last session
literature review, design,
knowledge of the field.
- 2000
preliminary data and
words
analysis, expected
outcomes.
Other assessment information
Consult your lecturer if you have requests for further information about the assessments
5
9.1
Group presentation
Students collect language data, analyse in groups in class and present their findings. Discussion questions
in the textbook can guide students’ topic choice.
9.2
Essay
The essay should be an academic argument demonstrating your ability to use concepts and
●
principles from the course to critically look at issues observed in real life.
You can use questions from the textbook as the starting point or you can write about topics of your
●
own interests. In the essay, you need to start from language or multimodal data and analyse the data to
reach a certain tentative understanding/conclusion about the interaction between language, culture, society
and power. If you start from your own opinion and try to find “evidence” to “prove” your point, you may
risk reinforcing your pre-judgment or prejudice rather than developing a critical look at the issues.
The data you collected for the essay writing must be raw data, which have not yet been analysed by
●
other writers/scholars. Data already analysed from research papers or already been cited for analysis and
instruction from textbook are not accepted.
●
course.
You must not use the assignments or parts of assignments from other courses to submit to this
●
The topic of your essay must not be the same with the topic of your presentation.
The referencing should follow APA style. Self-study how to summarise, paraphrase and quote + do
●
referencing to make sure you know how to cite sources appropriately.
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited
●
Format: Font: Times New Roman; size 14; 1.5 spacing; 1 inch margins, print on both sides of the paper,
just stapled, no binding or cover.
10. COURSE POLICY:
Students are expected to:
●
Attend at least 80% of the total class hours if she/he wants to do the end-of-term assignment.
Actively prepare for the class by reading and reflecting on what they have read for each class
●
meeting
●
Actively participate in the class activities
●
Work cooperatively and collaboratively with peers.
Gather information from different sources, and become better informed about language culture and
●
society through collecting and analysing language in use
●
Complete all the assignments by the due dates
Plagiarism in oral, written or visual presentations is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of
●
another person, without appropriate referencing, as though it is one’s own.
6
Failure to acknowledge the use of another person’s work or ideas may result in charges of academic
●
misconduct which carry a range of penalties including cancellation of results and exclusion from your
program
●
Works detected plagiarism will be marked down to 0 and reported to the Faculty.
Marking criteria for essay
Concepts 20%
Materials and
relevance 20%
Analysis and
discussion 40%
Academic writing
20%
9 - 10
Excellent and
thorough
description of well
chosen concepts
Rich and
perceptive links to
examples of
concepts
presented in the
materials chosen
Critical analysis of
the materials
chosen.
Rich and
perceptive links
between readings,
with the content of
the course and
more widely, rich
discussion about
the relationship
between what is
seen in the
language with the
relationship
culture, society
and power.
References to
other material
and/or perceptive
development of the
implications of the
ideas.
Excellently
presented with
attention to detail
of the conventions
of the title page,
bibliography, page
numbers & overall
layout. Appropriate
length with
excellent language
accuracy and
fluency
8
Very good
description of well
chosen concepts
7
Good description
of chosen
concepts
5-6
Satisfactory
description of
concepts
0-4
Limited description
of concepts
Very good
examples of
concepts
presented in the
materials chosen.
Good examples of
concepts
Satisfactory
examples of
concepts
Limited examples
of concepts
There is evidence
of improved critical
awareness and
ability to link
concepts in a
constructive and
perceptive way.
Analysis is sound, Some critical
showing some
interpretation and
ability to assemble links with other
and compare ideas readings and
and to evaluate
components of the
their relevance.
course
Only restricted
attempts at
description or
analysis
Generally well
presented with
attention to detail
of the conventions
of the title page,
bibliography, page
numbers & overall
layout, with
possible minor
slips. Appropriate
length with some
language mistakes
Acceptable overall
but some possible
problems in certain
sections of the
presentation.
Possible small
problems with
appropriate length
Limited attention
paid to the detail of
presentation with
many conventions
not followed. More
persistent spelling
and punctuation
problems. More
serious problems
with length.
7
Just acceptable
overall, but with
some quite serious
problems in certain
sections of the
presentation.
Possible problems
with appropriate
length.
demonstrated
throughout.
that do not affect
communication of
ideas.
8