English 518 Final Exam Study Guide (Spring 2006)
Date of Final: Monday, May 8; Time:10:00AM-12:00PM; Place: 216 LA
You may bring two pages of notes (printed front and back) to the exam.
This is a cumulative final so you can expect to address material that we covered up to the
mid-term exam as well as what we have covered after the mid-term.
A. You should be able to define, recognize and/or provide examples of studies
illustrating the following:
Sociolinguistics; speech acts; Grice’s maxims; linguistic variable; crosstalk;
communicative competence; involvement strategies; register; the Bulge theory; social
distance
Examples of studies using different types of methodologies (naturally occurring
language, interviews, case studies, questionnaires, ethnography, corpus linguistics,
participant observation, rapid anonymous surveys, matched-guise)
Class presentations:
Code-switching: What it is; explanations for it (speech accommodation;
convergence/divergence)
Social dialectology: What it is; structured heterogeneity; free variation; hypercorrection;
overt/covert prestige; ethnolect
Stylistic variation: What it is; explanations for it (name representative studies); attention
to speech; speaker design approach; audience design approach
Gender and language: Explanations for differences (difference vs. dominance); problems
defining gender in language (the fluidity of gender)
Sociolinguistics and education: Classroom language; cultural issues and
advantaged/disadvantaged groups; Bernstein’s restricted and elaborated codes; Shirley
Brice-Heath’s work on literacy practices; the “logic” of non-standard dialects and its
relevance in classrooms and policy decisions; the role of attitudes, standards, and
motivation in the classroom
Language planning/policy: Language maintenance; language shift; language death; types
of language planning (corpus planning, status planning, language acquisition planning);
the processes of language planning (selection, codification, implementation, elaboration)
Critical Sociolinguistics: How language is used as hegemony or resistance; language as
cultural capital; critical discourse analysis vs. variation theory
B. You should be able to define, recognize, and discuss the significance of a
conversation by referencing the following: turn-taking behavior (hesitations, pauses,
hedges, back channel signals, latching, topic nomination, overlap, etc.), politeness
(negative and positive), address terms, repetition, etc.
C. Essay Topics
1. You should be able to discuss the relevance of sociolinguistic rules in either ESL/EFL
or bilingual instruction.
2. You should be able to discuss several areas where miscommunication can arise.
3. You should be able to analyze a conversation by referencing the role of discourse
functions (cultural norms, involvement strategies, aspects of cooperation).
4. You should be able to explain how an individual’s language may vary according to
style.
5. You should be able to explain the different approaches sociolinguists take in
investigating and explaining group differences (gender, socio-economic status).
6. You should be able to discuss basic differences in registers (including spoken vs.
written language and academic vs. non-academic language).
7. You should be able to discuss the linguistic characteristics and political implications
of varieties with respect to:
 geographical regions, class/race
 Standard English, and World Englishes.
Be prepared to discuss how each of these “varieties” is defined (both
linguistically and socially). Then, relate each of these issues to a “real world”
problem and discuss how an understanding of these issues can lead to a deeper
understanding of the problem and possible solutions to the problem.
8. You should be able to discuss a number of important topics that relate to language and
society
 Literacy
 Language Planning and Policy
 Language Maintenance (and Death)
 Language and Power
 Language and Gender
Be prepared to discuss the political significance of each of these issues. Then,
discuss how a sociolinguistic perspective may help to clarify some of the issues
related to each of these issues
9. You should be able to discuss the relationship between code (elaborated and
restricted) and literacy. What positions have different researchers taken on this issue?
10. Quite often, language policy is affected not only by factors that necessitate the need
for a particular policy, but also by the view of language that one adopts. Language can
be viewed as: a code, a social practice, a means of communication, a means of social
control, a problem, a right, or a resource. Choose a specific language policy and discuss
what view of language seems to inform this policy.