ENGL2123 KC 2018

ENGL2123 Language and Identity in Hong Kong

Instructor: Dr. Katherine Chen

Office: 843 Run Run Shaw Tower
Email: khychen@hku.hk
6 credits
Tue 1:30-4:20 Run Run Shaw Tower 7.58

INTRODUCTION

The language we use and perceive, among other meaningful signs, contribute to our ideas about
ourselves and other social beings, and in turn, affect how we act and act upon others.

This advanced level course examines identity studies and related language ideology research in
sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. We will read a number of major theoretical work closely
each week. As this is an advanced level class, students are expected to vigorously follow the weekly
reading, actively engage with class discussion, as well as keenly exploring how these theories can be
applied in their own fieldwork research.

A major component of the course is a student fieldwork project with a strong emphasis in theory
application and critical data analysis. The instructor will guide students to identify, design, and
execute this small group research. Various methodologies, such as recording of natural speech (audio
and video), participant observation, sociolinguistic interviews, etc. will be included, as well as
techniques for analysing data. Specifically, this course will explore the following Topics:

- How the notion of ‘identity’ has been used in sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics and social
psychology of language (including concepts of identity, speech community, community of practice,
stereotypes, linguistic ideology, indexicality, etc.);
- How these approaches differ from each other;
- To what extent the notion of ‘identity’ is useful in accounting for language use and social
relationships.

OBJECTIVES

Students will be introduced to the notion of identity as used in sociolinguistics and linguistic
anthropology. They will be trained to analyze current identity research in the fields and think critically
about the process of scholarly inquiry. This course encourages students to connect between the
existing interdisciplinary research and the local Hong Kong context. The fieldwork process engages
students in active learning in and outside the classroom.

ASSESSMENT

100% coursework (20% classwork/class performance, 80% group research project)

Former students’ group project websites can be found here (scroll down to the bottom of the page):
https://sites.google.com/view/katherine-chen/teaching

POLICIES

1. No plagiarism

University of Hong Kong Regulations Governing Conduct at Examinations 1999: “Plagiarism is

defined as the unacknowledged use, as one's own, of work of another person, whether or not such
work has been published.” A basic rule of thumb: always make sure your reader can clearly tell
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what is yours and what is the idea/work of someone else. Plagiarized assignments will be given a
score of zero and the student will be brought to the attention of the School.

The instructor uses Turnitin to check for plagiarism. Visit http://www.turnitin.com/ to learn more.

2. Citation

Please cite from reputable and traceable sources such as peer-reviewed academic journals, books from
reputable academic publishers. Non-academic press material is generally NOT recommended except
used as data or anecdotes.

3. Late assignments

To be fair to students who turn in assignments on time, late assignments will be deducted 1 mark each
day (full marks of each assignment is 77, eqv. to A+). Exceptions will only be given if you can
provide documented proof of medical or emergency circumstances.

4. Turning in assignments

Except for in-class assignments which you can choose to upload an image of a hand-written doc, all
other assignments must be typed and in electronic form. You are responsible for making sure that
moodle or turnitin accurately recorded your submission.

5. Missing class

You are responsible for gathering lecture and discussion notes from your fellow classmates and
moodle if you miss a class. If you miss a class because of a medical or other emergency and do not
want it to affect your grade (e.g. you’ve missed an in-class discussion), you will need to send me
documented proof for reference.

6. Email policy

I will contact you via your HKU email account (class announcements, assignment distribution, etc.),
please check it regularly. Please email me with “ENGL2123” on the subject line so that I can
immediately recognize the email and give it a high priority. I welcome any
questions/comments/suggestions you have about the class or your readings. You will get an
acknowledgement reply usually within 48 hours, but please expect longer turn-around time on
weekends and public holidays. Usually I will collect your questions and address them at the beginning
of each class and you’ll always get an acknowledgement reply so that you know I got your email.

7. Classroom rules

Please switch off your mobile phones during class and avoid making noise/speech that distracts your
classmates from listening to the lectures. Please be on time. To foster a safe and comfortable learning
environment, please respect everyone in the classroom. When you have questions during lectures,
raise your hand and get the instructor’s permission before you speak. During group discussions, listen
carefully to one another, ask for clarification, avoid interruption and side conversations, make room
for everyone to express their opinions even if you do not agree with them. We will all feel free to
disagree with and challenge each other’s opinions, but we will do so in a respectful way that focuses
on the issues, not the individuals. Please use only English except when you are quoting examples in
your discussion.

8. Student-led discussion arrangement

There are a number of student-led discussion sessions starting from February. Each discussion will be
led by a few students (discussion leaders) on a theoretical framework (or some aspects of it)
introduced in class that the students intend to use in their own research. Discussion leaders, as a group,
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must meet with the instructor one week before their assigned discussion day, and turn in a proposal
(laying out the organization and format of the discussion, and the discussion questions) for approval.
Each student is also required to turn in a one-page reflection (by filling out a reflection form) within
one week after the discussion day.

9. Expected workload

6 credits = about 180 hours

Class Time: 3 hours/week x 12 weeks = 36 hours

Course reading: 34 hours
Discussion leading preparation: 10 hours
Research Project: 100 hours (inclusive of time to meet with the instructors)

ORGANIZATION

There are two main components of the class. (1) Weekly discussion of main theoretical readings of
the course, and (2) research project development.

(1) Weekly reading/discussion (instructor-led and student-led)

This class will start with a few close readings of major theories of identity in linguistic anthropology
by (1) Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, (2) Judith Irvine and Susan Gal, (3) Asif Agha. Each main
reading will take two or more weeks, especially if we start diving into the follow-up readings.
Students are encouraged to identify aspects of the theories they would like to explore further in
“student-led discussion” as well as in their own research projects. Additional optional readings can be
assigned according to further development of students’ research interest in the course, the second
table below include other possible readings that may be assigned after the main ones are covered in
class.

Main readings (start up Theories Key Concepts Methods

readings)
Compulsory readings: Tactics of Identity, agency, DA, CA, ethnography
Intersubjectivity sufficient
Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira sameness/difference,
Hall. "Language and power, practice,
identity." A companion to indexicality,
linguistic anthropology 1 ideology,
(2004): 369-394. 
 performance

Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira

Hall. "Identity and
interaction: A
sociocultural linguistic
approach." Discourse
studies 7.4-5 (2005): 585-
614.
Possible follow-up Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. "Locating identity in
readings: language." Language and identities (2010): 18-28.

Bucholtz, Mary. “Why be normal?”: Language and identity practices in a

community of nerd girls." Language in society28.2 (1999): 203-223.

Bucholtz, Mary. White kids: Language, race, and styles of youth identity.
Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Reyes, Angela. Language, identity, and stereotype among Southeast

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Compulsory readings:
Irvine, Judith T., and
Susan Gal. "Language
ideology and linguistic
differentiation." Linguistic
anthropology: A reader
(2009): 402-434.
Irvine, Judith T. " Style"
as distinctiveness: the
culture and ideology of
linguistic differentiation.
2001.
Possible follow-up
readings:
Compulsory readings:
Agha, Asif. Language and
social relations.
Cambridge University
Press, (2007). Selective
chapters.
Possible follow-up
readings:
ENGL2123 KC 2018
Asian American youth: The other Asian. Routledge, 2017.
Chen, Katherine. "Positioning and repositioning: Linguistic practices and
identity negotiation of overseas returning bilinguals in Hong Kong."
Multilingua (2008): 57-75.
Linguistic Iconization, erasure, DA, ethnography
differentiation and recursivity,
semiotic processes differentiation, style
Gal, Susan, and Gail Kligman. The politics of gender after socialism: A
comparative-historical essay. Princeton University Press, 2012.
Eckert, Penelope. "Variation and the indexical field." Journal of
sociolinguistics 12.4 (2008): 453-476.
Heller, Monica. "Bilingualism as ideology and practice." Bilingualism: A
social approach. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2007. 1-22.
Gal, Susan. "A semiotics of the public/private distinction." Differences:
a journal of feminist cultural studies 13.1 (2002): 77-95.
Bucholtz, Mary. "From stance to style: Gender, interaction, and
indexicality in Mexican immigrant youth slang." (2009).
Language and social Identity, emblems, DA, ethnography
relations enregisterment, the
relational self,
demeanor indexicals
Johnstone, Barbara. Discourse analysis. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
Johnstone, Barbara. "Pittsburghese shirts: Commodification and the
enregisterment of an urban dialect." American Speech84.2 (2009): 157-
175.
Hill, Jane H. The everyday language of white racism. John Wiley &
Sons, 2009.
Wortham, Stanton Emerson Fisher, and Betsy Rymes, eds. Linguistic
anthropology of education. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
Squires, Lauren. "Enregistering internet language." Language in
Society 39.4 (2010): 457-492.
Chen, Katherine, and M. Agnes Kang. "Demeanor indexicals,
interpretive discourses and the “Kong Girl” stereotype: Constructing
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gender ideologies in social media." Journal of Language and
Sexuality 4.2 (2015): 193-222.

Depending on the development of students’ research interest in class, additional theories and readings
can be considered from the list below and elsewhere.

Possible additional readings (Optional) Theories Methods

Eckert, Penelope. Language variation as social Community of Variationist
practice: The linguistic construction of identity in Practice sociophonetics, CA,
Belten High. Wiley-Blackwell, 2000. ethnography
Eckert, Penelope. "Communities of
practice." Encyclopedia of language and
linguistics 2.2006 (2006): 683-685.
Tajfel, Henri, and John C. Turner. "The Social Identity Social Identity Psychological
Theory of Intergroup Behavior." (1986, 2004). Theory experiments

Ochs, Elinor. "Constructing social identity: A Language CA, ethnography

language socialization perspective." Research on socialization
language and social interaction 26.3 (1993): 287-306.
Woolard, Kathryn A. Singular and plural: Ideologies Language DA, ethnography
of linguistic authority in 21st century Catalonia. ideologies
Oxford University Press, 2016. Selective chapters.
Milroy, James, and Lesley Milroy. Authority in Prescriptive Variationist
language: Investigating language prescription and ideologies and sociophonetics, CA,
standardisation. Routledge, 1985. identity social network
analysis

(2) Research project development

Each class will also include time for developing the research project. We will go over the process of
research and writing in steps and explore the following: the purposes of doing research, research topic
brainstorm, the basic structure of a research, conducting and writing a literature review, designing
methodology, theoretical application, data collection, data analysis, arguments, and conclusion.
Students will be required to submit different segments of the research in stages including research
proposal (at least 2 drafts), literature review, research methodology/fieldwork plan, analysis of the
data in different stages, argument construction, and conclusion. Each group will orally present their
research in class, and present their written research work in the form of a public website for
knowledge sharing (google sites) by the end of the course.