WLC 300 - WORLD

LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

MAJOR PROSEMINAR
Rebecca Pozzi
California State University, Monterey Bay

Today in class:
Introduction to Linguistics
Quiz in Breakout Rooms : Activity 1
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qFOKP4fcWao6vP2i6FAS5GI7dzH3hrp-/view?u
sp=sharing

1. Linguists speak many languages.

2. Some languages sound more beautiful than
others.
3. Some languages are easier to learn than
others.
4. Everyone has an accent.
5. People who are bilingual have equal abilities in
both languages
 Quiz
F 1. Linguists speak many languages.
F 2. Some languages sound more beautiful than
F others.
C 3. Some languages are easier to learn than
others.
F
4. Everyone has an accent.
5. People who are bilingual have equal abilities in
both languages
Quiz
1. Linguists speak many languages.
False: Linguists as scholars work to analyze language and
figure out how it works and why we can speak it.
People who speak multiple languages are polyglots.
Many linguists work principally with one language.
Speaking multiple languages might be helpful to linguists
to make comparisons across languages, read papers
written in them, and see how broadly applicable theories
are.
You wouldn’t ask a geologist how many pet rocks he/she
has but rather what area of geology interests him/her.
This is a good strategy for linguists as well. ☺
Quiz
2. Some languages sound more beautiful than others.
FALSE: Je t'aime, ti amo, te quiero mucho! Sounds nice doesn't it?
If you swoon over sweet nothings whispered in French, Italian or Spanish,
you're not alone.
But while learning to speak a language famed for its romance may
increase your sex appeal, the reason for your preference of one
vernacular over another may have little to do with how the sounds roll
off the tip of your tongue.
Sociolinguists believe the attractiveness of a language is determined by
how positively we view a particular group of people who share a cultural
outlook.
If we have a positive perception of a particular community then we tend
to have equally positive views of the language they speak.
Language value and attractiveness are linked to the prestige of the
speaker, or the socioeconomic and mobility advantages the language
affords.
Some sounds are more common across the world but that doesn't link to
the specific perceptions we have about French and Italian. The idea that
a language is more melodic, romantic, poetic and musical are derived
from those communities and regions.
There are, however, specific sounds in many foreign languages that a native English
speaker may find alien and therefore harder on the ear. Languages that have different
linguistic structures, such as using tones or sounds that are not found in a listener's
native tongue, are probably going to sound less enticing.
Quiz
3. Some languages are easier to learn than
others.
False: Languages are not easier or harder to learn. They
are, however, more similar or different to your native
language.
The tonal aspects of Mandarin and Cantonese, which don’t
exist in English, make it very difficult for native English
speakers to master, and vice versa.
There are several different ways a language can be similar
(or different) from another.
Tones
Writing system
Vocabulary (cognates)
Gender
Etc.
 Quiz
4. Everyone has an accent.
True: Our accent tells other people who we are because it reflects
the places we have been and the things we have done.
But the construct of accent, like so many other things, is relative.
We may only realize that others think we have an accent when
we leave the place we came from and find ourselves among
people who share a different background from our own.
Some countries have one accent which is accepted as 'standard'
and which enjoys higher social prestige than any other. This is
true of RP (Received Pronunciation) in the UK, of standard French
in France and of many countries that have evolved a broadcast
standard for radio and television.
We may feel that this national standard is accentless and that
non-standard speakers, by contrast, have accents.
To use one particular group's accent in broadcasting is to give
that accent a wider reach than perhaps it had before, but the
accent itself is no 'less' of an accent than any other, although it
may represent groups and institutions with more political and
economic power than groups whose members use another
accent.
Quiz
5. People who are bilingual have equal abilities in both
languages
False: The idealized, perfectly balanced bilingual is for the most part a
mythical figure that rarely exists in real life.

In Figure 1, same-size letters indicate that this bilingual is equally

proficient in languages A and B.
This would mean that whatever the individual could do in one language
(recite childhood poems, pray, write academic papers, tell jokes, argue
with a sibling) that person could do equally well in the other language.
While absolutely equivalent abilities in two languages are theoretically
possible, individuals seldom have access to two languages in exactly the
same contexts in every domain of interaction.
Bilingualism is a condition that essentially involves more than one
competence, however small it might be.
Who am I?
Becky Pozzi,
Assistant Professor of
Spanish Language and
Linguistics, School of World
Languages & Cultures
Email: [email protected]
BA: Miami University
(Ohio); MA: Purdue
University, UC Davis; PhD:
UC Davis
Hobbies: viajar y pasar
tiempo con mis hijos
I studied) in Spain, Mexico and Brazil and I taught English in Ecuador and
Argentina. I like(d) to travel.

My husband Juan is from Argentina. We have two kids, Giuliana (6) and
Luca (2).
Language
Language – so what? Why should we care?

What is it that makes us human?

Walking on two legs? Living in society? Ability to love and
hate?
To some degree, all of those.
But none is unique to the human species.
Birds walk on two legs.
Ants live in society.
My dog loved me but hated cats.

Language distinguishes us from all other

creatures.

Every human, rich or poor, is capable of language.

Language
Each child learns his/her native tongue just by being
exposed to the talk around them.
Most children are fluent before they’re 10, often in
more than one language. They also grow up to master
different styles of speech – from formal job interview
talk to street slang.
Language is so easy for children and so difficult for
adults to learn.
Certain areas of the brain specialize in language and
children are born with the capacity to learn language.
Children isolated from language growing up may never
learn to speak well as an adult (e.g., Genie: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZolHCrC8E)
Based on this evidence, many scientists believe that
the capacity for learning language involves nature and
nurture.
Language and Linguistics
Linguistics is both the most human of the
sciences and the most scientific of the humanities

Linguistics = the scientific study of language

Language = Complex system of communication

Communication = exchange of information between two

or more living creatures

Human language differs from other forms of

communication by its complexity
Some Approaches to the Scientific
Study of Language
Formal linguistics – focuses on language as an abstract system.
Noam Chomsky is the most famous scholar in this area.
Psycholinguistics – focus on the internal processes of language,
with a great deal of focus on how languages are acquired,
especially by children.
Sociolinguistics – examines language as a social phenomenon,
with particular attention to how people deploy their linguistic
resources to establish identities. Also concerned with how
language varies and language change.
Applied Linguistics – interdisciplinary field of linguistics that
identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related
real-life problems
Some related academic fields are education, psychology, communication
research, anthropology, and sociology.
Second Language Acquisition – examines the process by which people
learn a second language; the field of study is a sub-discipline of Applied
Linguistics
Formal Linguistics
Generative Grammar

Universal grammar (UG) - Rules which apply to all language are

innate rather than learned

More recent research and theories recognize the importance of both

nature and nurture in the development of language.

Grammar - Set of rules that govern the composition of words,

phrases, and clauses in one natural language

Rules do not govern individual language production but define what is

allowed and disallowed in a given language

Though most speakers of a given language share the same grammar,

there are usually differences between speakers and groups
Formal Linguistics
Descriptive rules
Describe a tendency of a language based on empirical
evidence
Describes what a speaker of a language actually does

Prescriptive rules
Instructs speakers of a language based on subjective
preferences
Seek to define what a speaker of a language should do

Examples: Spanglish, Portuñol, Chinglish, etc.

Linguists are normally interested in descriptive

rules.
Psycholinguistics
Combines the disciplines of psychology and
linguistics

Examines processes that occur in the brain while

producing and perceiving written and spoken
discourse

Three primary processes investigated in this area

Language comprehension
Language production
Language acquisition
Sociolinguistics
Approaches to sociolinguistics:
view language as a social/cultural
phenomenon that cannot be separated
from the context in which it is used.
are interested not only in language as an
abstract system, but also in the people
who actually speak the language.
require understanding of linguistic
concepts. For example, we can’t say
anything useful about phonological or
grammatical variation unless we
understand how phonological and
grammatical systems work.
What is Applied Linguistics?
Applied Linguistics entails using what we
know about language, about how it is used,
and about how it is learned in order to solve
some problem in the real world.
Applied Linguistics uses language-related
research in a wide variety of fields (e.g.
language acquisition, language teaching,
literacy, gender studies, language policy,
speech therapy, discourse analysis,
censorship, workplace communication,
media studies, translation, lexicography,
forensic linguistics).
What problems are related to language?

Problems related to: language

language learning, assessment,
language teaching, language use,
literacy, language and
language contact technology,
(language & translation and
culture), interpretation,
language policy language
and planning, pathology.
Breakout Rooms: Articles
https://
drive.google.com/file/d/1rcvil5LzqWvJq7XY9oS0e7Fg_C9rtuyb/view?usp=shari
ng

In Breakout Rooms, read the article/watch the video

indicated for your group.
In the Google Doc, with your group, write your
answers to the following questions about your
article/video:
What area of Linguistics do you think it pertains to?
Summarize in 2 or 3 bullet points what the article/video is
about.
Be prepared to share this information with the class.
Patten (2007) Types of research in
linguistics
Quantitative
uses numbers as data and analyzes them using statistical techniques (so
there need to be enough participants and data to determine statistical
significance and potentially generalizability of the results).
describes how variables are distributed across a population or
phenomenon or to seek the cause of events and seek to predict similar
events in the future.
Qualitative
uses words as data and collects and analyzes them in all sorts of ways.
helps us understand how people interpret their experiences and
construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their
experiences.
asks how/why questions, attempts to understand and represent social
phenomena and/or the experiences of people or groups within specific
contexts.
avoids simple causal relationships and overgeneralizing findings.
tend to examine data from a small participant pool and focus on the full
picture
Mixed methods
Complement quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis
E.g. Study abroad oral proficiency gains (quantitiative – compare pre and post
test scores) complemented with case studies that explore the person with the
most and least gains to examine how their experiences abroad may have been
related to their gains or lackthereof (qualitative – explores why gains or
Breakout Rooms: Ethical Considerations
Activity 3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qFOKP4fcWao6vP2i6FAS5GI7dzH3hrp-/
view?usp=sharing
When we carry out studies (whether quantitative or
qualitative), we need to make sure the participants
are protected.
What might we want to protect participants from?
How might we ensure participants are protected?
Recent movie on Netflix called Experimenter about
psychologist Stanley Milgram’s study: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1VOZhwRvWo
Recent movie on Netflix called Experimenter about
psychologist Stanley Milgram’s study
Quiz
Take this quiz based on today’s class:
https://ilearn.csumb.edu/mod/quiz/view.php?id=1307034
Patten (2007)Ethical Considerations
Do no harm
Anonymous vs. Confidential
Informed Consent
Explanation of purpose, benefits, and debriefing
Subject/Participant Withdrawal
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
How to write a research paper in linguistics
Sections of paper in linguistics (according to FL Annals Author Guidelines)
Title
as concise as possible and should not exceed 15 words. Capitalize the first letter of all words in the title,
including prepositions that contain more than four letters.
Abstract
may not exceed 150 words and should describe the context for the work, state the research questions,
and briefly summarize the findings.
Introduction
briefly describes the context for the work, states the issue under consideration, explains its importance,
mentions the study format, and summarizes the research questions.
Literature Review
Should include only information about, summaries of, and references to closely related, highly relevant,
and recent previous research that allows the reader to understand the current knowledge base.
Methods
should provide sufficiently detailed information about how the study was conducted such that another
researcher could replicate the work. Required subsections include, but are not limited to, Participants,
Procedures, and Analyses. Neither results nor commentary on the results are appropriate in this section.
Results
presents the findings, generally using tables and/or figures and often including statistical tests and
examples.
Discussion
open-ended and focuses on the meaning and significance of the findings. In this section, the author
comments on the findings, compares the results with those of previous studies, draws overall
conclusions, and offers specific and significant implications for teaching and learning across the broadest
possible range of settings. Limitations of the study and possibilities for future research are also
customarily mentioned at the conclusion of this section.
Conclusions
should be relatively brief, usually no more than one or two paragraphs. In the conclusion, the author
notes the way in which the study has advanced the understanding of the teaching and learning of
languages and brings the manuscript to a close.
How to Write a research paper in
linguistics
Lit review – not a grocery list but a synthesis:
“Not effective: Benedict (1979) tested the comprehension skills of
36 children and concluded that infants begin to comprehend
words some time between the 8th and 10th month. Huttenlocher
(1974) also concluded that around 9 months of age, children
begin to show signs of word recognition. However, Oviatt (1980),
who conducted a similarstudy, obtained different results […]” (p.
4).
“Better: There are reports in the language acquisition literature
that infants show some limited comprehension of words beginning
at approximately 9 months of age (Benedict, 1979; Huttenlocher,
1974). Yet, other studies suggest that comprehension skills are
quite limited even at 11 months, and that it is not until around 15
months that infants show signs of comprehending and recognizing
novel words (Oviatt, 1980, Thomas, Campos, Shucard, Ramsay, &
Shucard, 1981). (Jusczyk & Aslin 1995: 2-3)” (p. 4).
How to Write a research paper in
linguistics
Advice on writing sections of research papers effectively:
Methods
“…avoid narrating your (thought) process, i.e., ‘First I tested X, which
gave me Y result, which then inspired me to test Z, but then...’ etc.
Instead, summarize it concisely, something like ‘I tested both X and Z’”
(p. 5).
Results
“Be very careful with some of the words you use to report your results.
These words include but are not limited to: X proves Y, X caused Y, X
shows Y to be true, and X is significantly impacting Y. Statistics only give
you more or less confidence that your hypothesis is true; results never
prove any hypothesis (the only proper use of the term ‘proof’ is in the
mathematical sense). The discussion of truth is similar; statistics cannot
determine ‘truths’. Similarly, significantly should only be used (in the
writing of empirical methodological studies) to refer to statistically
significant results. The tests we run look for correlations between
variables, not causations. You might hypothesize that X causes Y, but
definitive evidence for causation is not likely to be obtained in a
university course write-up” (p. 6).
How to Write a research paper in
linguistics

Advice on writing research papers effectively:

“Writing Tips: Avoid words like obviously or absurd. In other
words, avoid making strong affective judgments about your
theory/results or another researcher’s theory/results” (p. 8)
off-putting, lacks academic sophistication and accuracy.” (p. 8).
Sociolinguistics example: Linguistic
Profiling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ778_tsqjs

Research can make a difference in people’s lives!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84k2iM30vbY

What messages have you internalized about these

accents throughout your life?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hCTI6JYtuo

Disney's audience is primarily children, and when

Americans are taught from a young age to associate
certain dialects with negativity, this can result in
discrimination and can be linked to racism.
Intersection of Sociolinguistics and Second Language
Acquisition (within Applied Ling): My Dissertation

Speech community of interest: Students studying abroad in

Argentina
Sociolinguistic variables - two ways of saying the same thing:
the pronoun for you singular informal in Spanish: tú vs vos
Corpus of language data from a representative sample of the
community: interviews in Spanish with students studying abroad
at Time 1, 2, 3
Coding to account for influences on a speaker’s choice of one or
the other variant.
Perform multivariate statistical analysis to determine which
possible influences significantly affect the use of the variable.
Interpret the quantitative results in terms of linguistic and/or
social theory: greater social networks and higher proficiency
level led to more use of vos. Used more in the present indicative
than the imperative, more in questionnaires than in role plays.
Implications: role of study abroad (SA) in language learning (LL),
imp of SA pgms creating opps for social networks in SA, role of