Sociolingiiistica de la Lengua Inglesa. Grado en Estudios Ingleses NO ESTA PERMITIDO EL USO DE NINGUN MATERIAL. Choose two of the following issues, explain them in your own words and provide examples. Write around 100 words for each of the two questions. a) Explain the factors affecting language planning b) Explain the sociolinguistic situation in New Zealand c) Describe the EFL classroom language. Define the following six terms taken from the glossary. Provide brief definitions of no more than 60 words each including some examples a) Acquisition b) Observers’ paradox c) Semilingualis d) Minority language e) Lexifier f) Acculturation Comment, from a sociolinguistic point of view, on the following excerpt. You are expected to relate this extract to the contents of the subject in no more than 300 words. A major controversy, usually referred to as the Ebonics debate, erupted in the US in December 1996 conceming the nature and use of AAE (African-American English) or AAVE (African-American Vernacular English). In light of the continuing difficulties of African-American children in the school system, the Oakland School Board in California put forward a proposal to use AAE as an integral part of these children's language education. The basic idea was to value the children’s home variety in a positive way and to use it as a bridge, leading them to better acquisition of standard English. However, there was a huge outcry in the media, with many voices (journalists, politicians, general members of the public) complaining that the use of what some of them referred to as ‘slang’ would mean condemning these children to educational failure Actually, the Oakland Board of Education was attempting to do just the opposite namely, to give the children better chances of educational success by building in a positive way upon their home linguistic resources. But because of the political and media outery, they were eventually forced to withdraw their proposal One of the most hotly debated issues was whether AAE is a language or a dialect or merely ‘slang’, The Oakland School Board had initially suggested that it was a language Many contributors to the debate rejected this indignantly and vilified AAE by referring to it as ‘wholly unintelligible’, ‘slang’ or even ‘gibberish’, What they revealed in the process was not only their prejudiced minds but also a blatant lack of linguistic understanding Indeed, a linguistic variety cannot possibly be reduced to ‘slang’, which is largely a matter of vocabulary. Moreover, slang terms such as booze (for drink) or dough (for money) can of course be used in any variety of English, including standard English Slang expressions change rapidly, and yesterday's slang terms have either disappeared or = like the two above — entered the (informal) standard vocabulary. But, even moreinterestingly, the whole debate illustrated what we discussed in Chapter 3: namely, how sets of linguistic resources are constructed as a language or a dialect. What the Oakland ‘School Board had tried to do was to construct the children’s home linguistic variety as a language, as a way of valuing it more positively and thus implementing a form of mother tongue education. But this construction was rejected as illegitimate for political reasons and the traditional construction of AAE as a ‘dialect’ of English was upheld. ‘Schmid (2001) compares the situation of African-American schoolchildren moving from AAE to standard English with that of Swiss German children moving from their Swiss German ‘dialect’ to standard German (see discussion of Switzerland in Chapter 6). She finds both similarities and differences between the two situations: for instance, both Swiss German and AAE are key markers of group identity but, unlike AAE, Swiss German is positively valued in society as a whole and is used by speakers of all social classes. Perhaps for this very reason, the Swiss education system is much more successful than the US one in helping children to transfer from the ‘dialect’ to the standard. The Swiss situation proves that the underlying idea of the Oakland School Board's proposal was a sound one: Mastering the standard language is easier if the differences in the vernacular and standard language are made explicit rather than ignored. This lesson was at the heart of the Oakland schoo! board's proposal, Their educational reform that attempted to use AAVE to teach standard English is supported by the Swiss case, (Schmid 2001: 150) Horner, Kristine, and Jean Jacques Weber. introducing Muttilingualism. (2nd Edition). Taylor & Francis, 2017.