Exploring Sociolinguistics: Language, Society, and Communication Assignment Sample

Sociolinguistics Assignment

Question 1

Native Assignment Help provides assignment help to assist students in research, writing and proofreading process.

Sociolinguistics: As a relevant subject 

Sociolinguistics is highly relevant aspect to consider when it comes to the assessment of the evolution and adaption of the community prevailing in a particular society. Also, it aids as a determinant of the adaptive nature of various communities to harmoniously coexist in a society and have societal interaction among each other. According to Schmitt and Celce-Murcia, (2019), linguistics is associated with the study of language that has developed over a long period of time. The language prevalent in a particular region has gone through multiple adaptations and alterations over time. The subject of sociolinguistics dwells on a basic feature of people and their ability to adapt over time. The influence of social features upon the cultural factors of people residing in society and the nature of people and their associated ability to progress and intercultural adaptability is considered in the study of sociolinguistics.

The primary goal of sociolinguistics, which Coulmas defines as the study of choice, is to "find, explain, and understand the socially motivated" choices that a person makes (Turdaliyevich, 2022). Sociolinguists are curious about how language adapts to a given social context and the process how specific functions of linguistic might be utilised to convey social-meaning or aspects of individual's identity. Sociolinguists are interested in how language changes depending on the social setting and how certain linguistic functions can be used to express social meaning or parts of an individual's identity. We can learn about actual attitudes and social circumstances from sociolinguistics. 

Primarily this subject is relevant in the assessment of the overall impact including the external factors that are the cultural factors, abrupt changes in society and the context under which a specific language has been used or altered. The sociolinguistic approach helps in understanding the factors of geo and socio-political conditions that influence the course of language among people coming to the international territories (Sancho paschual, 2019). This subject is highly helpful in evaluating the overall historical impact as well as the modern factors of cultural values prevalent in the society that impacts the action and the course of work process involved that is noted in the linguistics attributes of a certain section of society. Hence sociolinguistics plays a pivotal role in determining the overall influence of people over generation and their adopted changes in cultural practices, values in the community, the influence of  modernization and other additional aspects that influences the course of communication and language used by people.

The most pervasive symbol of the behaviour that affects social elements is language. Language facilitates communication and the delivery of our opinions on a variety of topics, including politics, the economy of a nation, and proposals for improving the educational system. It is a startling fact that people frequently judge a person by their or her language, as well as by their history, culture, and cast (Titone and Tiv, 2022). It is related to what we need to do on a regular basis and how we conduct or connect with people. It is not always about sharing or having an opinion about any issue or substance.

Sociolinguistics has been discovered that language and society are mutually constitutive from a range of theoretical perspectives, meaning that the influences of the two cannot be distinguished and understood separately. An interdisciplinary field known as sociolinguistics combines sociology and linguistics. It focuses on linguistic variety brought about by various social circumstances and aims to understand how social factors affect language and its outcomes. The way a language is spoken in a nation or city depends on a variety of circumstances (Schmitt and Celce-Murcia, 2019). These elements can be social (age, gender, education, class, and economic class), ethnic (national or racial), or regional (geographical). The elements are related to one another, which mean they influence one another somewhat. The essay's main goal is to examine the value of sociolinguistics, raise awareness of the fact that it can inform us about many languages and encourage greater respect for all other languages, people, and dialects. 

Language Variations

Language variation is a necessary concept in both language and sociolinguistics. Although there are regional variations in the English language, there are neither regional nor national variations. It is gradually becoming recognised as a crucial resource and a means of international communication. English is a language that is used all over the world, including in business, science, sports, and education (Sathe, 2018). The Internet has made innumerable advancements and efforts to help people learn English and make it better so they can effectively communicate their thoughts. The prestige and popularity of English should not be used to denigrate other languages, and everyone should respect them.

In addition to all of these variations, some languages have specific dialects. There are specific ways of speaking and expressing our ideas that show who we are. It is a reality that as social networking grows and it is needed to engage with more people, the language changes over time. It differs due to various exposures and life experiences (Sancho Pascual, 2019).

Multilingual pedagogy is specially designed for every people to resolve their problem of speaking. The method helps to speak people in multiple languages with very easy approaches. The development of this method is very important because it is the most efficient method to learn various languages (Schmitt and Celce-Murcia, 2019). Few didactic approaches are applied by the government to recover its lack. Every person can speak multiple languages after they applied this method. Culturally responsive pedagogy, as well as critical pedagogy, are the two parts of pedagogy. Socratic and social pedagogy is part of this subject. 

Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language that significantly differs from other varieties of the same language. When people are unable to comprehend one another, a dialect turns into a language. The single language's dialects can be spoken by everyone. Additionally, when dialects are taken into account as a language, regional demographics are assessed. Despite the fact that Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are all considered separate languages because to their unrelenting differences in syntax, Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes are able to recognise, comprehend, and learn one another's languages (Salmerón et al. 2021). While Hindi and Urdu both have a distinctive speaking style, their writing styles differ.  

Any variation of a language and its accent are referred to as dialects, and according to sociolinguistics, all dialects are suitable, correct, meaningful, rational, and systematic. The distinction between non-standard and standard dialects of a language is a misunderstanding that speakers of all languages make frequently. The latter is referred to as dialect, though the speakers are viewed as being of a lower class or having no standards because they are unable to speak English fluently (Prada and Turnbull, 2018). In order to put it simply, persons who study sociolinguistics respect and understand dialect. The notion that the "proper" variety is the standard one is true and accurate. Every language has its own dialects, which help people to identify it. 

Sociolinguistics Competence

Sociolinguistics Speakers that are competent are able to distinguish amongst the possibilities in a clear and acceptable manner. Examples include linguistic changes like "sir," "excuse me," or "hey." employing "hello" to address an elderly person or "sir" to address an 11-year-old boy is both considered inappropriate.

According to sociolinguistics theory, the simultaneous use of various dialects of two or more languages in a language community is referred to as "diglossia." The official languages of the nation are used in a range of fields, including as diplomacy, literature, and education and the more sophisticated variants are suitable for formal situations (Prada and Nikula, 2018). The everyday terms are used in conversation that is low-level versions. The "lower variant" of the standard language is referred to as the "advanced version."  There are both "High-Variety" and "Low-Variety" phrases in this linguistic phenomenon.

Examples displaying how sociolinguistics can benefit people, practices and knowledge in linguistics

The aspects of socio-linguistics have been highly helpful in determining the changes that have been noticed in the case of people of significant regions or communities. As opined Grey and Baioud, (2021), the differences in the linguistic approaches can be noted in the Chinese region where a modernised form of the mandarin language has been adopted due to social changes and its influences on the traditional language. In India, over a period significant changes have been observed in the linguistic approach among people.  As opined by Sathe, (2018), the language of Sanskrit has been further adapted to Devanagari and associated regional languages which continue to go through multiple changes over time. Recently the influence of colonization and its associated impact on the culture and lifestyle of people has been noted in the linguistic changes in society. According to Gramley, (2018), in UK notable changes have also been observed through the era of invasion and cultural amalgam. These changes have been noted throughout Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-French, and the influence Latin language. Notable changes were also noticed in the early modern English of the Elizabethan era of romanticism to the modern English language.

India's language policy is based on the "three-language formula" and multiple languages are offered for study in this country. The majority of states followed regional languages and English medium is also a part of the study. Studying in English medium is the highest demand of every parent and the government mostly keeps its focus on this. A monolingual mind dominated in the multilingual country and it is the most unfortunate case in this country (Sathe, 2018). Pedagogical reforms in this country help to reform the thought process of every human and it is very effective on children. India maintains its flexibility in its multilingual approach and this country equally gives importance to every language. 

All these notable aforementioned impacts help people understand and assess the notable changes in society that had an impact on people their lifestyle and their course of communication. Sociolinguistics is beneficial in understanding the richness of the history of a particular region. It also helps in assessing the notable anthropological changes and their associated behavioural impacts. The changes help derive conclusive evidence and the record of linguistic changes in a particular region thereby enriching the knowledge base associated with the language, history and culture of people. 

Importance of Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is essential for the average language student since many seemingly unimportant activities might make them feel ashamed. For instance, in Italy, pointing at something or someone is considered rude behaviour. As long as no one is pointing at anyone else, it is acceptable in America. These kinds of actions or mistakes could convey the impression that someone is unkind, disrespectful, and dishonest (Nichols et al. 2020).  

Learning scope in education using a sociolinguistic perspective

Over the past few decades, language acquisition and teaching have drawn the attention of many linguists, psychologists, and educators; nevertheless, this paper will approach it from a sociolinguistic perspective. It is obvious that a wide range of sociolinguistics subfields have had a considerable impact on second language instruction. Since the late 1960s, sociolinguistics has mostly concentrated on how language is used effectively in a range of situations. This essay will investigate a communicative strategy based on communicative competency as a result (Mazzaferro, 2018). This study argues that teaching students the appropriate rules for speaking and writing while also raising their sociolinguistic awareness is the most important role of sociolinguistics in language training. 

Sociolinguistic perspectives are highly helpful in addressing the basic aspect of communication that can help address the basic factors. This sociolinguistics approach helps implement the educational policies of institutions. It helps in addressing the factors of diversity present in modern educational indiscretions. Sociopolitical factors influence the translanguaging aspect of communication between people with different backgrounds in the language. It helps in coming up with a strategy to formulate an effective bond of conversation between two individuals. As opined by Mohr and Steigertahl, (2020), this approach is noted in the university education in South Africa where it has been highly helpful in communication with people from different cultural backgrounds and also helped the internal students in understanding the course of the education process and communicating with other people in the country.

The sociolinguistics aspect prevalent in the community ponders on the identical values that differ from one individual to another who has been under the influence of different societal and associated cultural values. The identical values and perceptions are also reflected in the linguistic approach of a person which can differ from other people of a particular community (Marian and Hayakawa, 2021). Therefore it can be noted that the sociolinguistics approach also takes note of the diverse nature of communication among people.

Foreign language study is now a widely acknowledged phenomenon. People learn a foreign language to satisfy their own or their employer's requirements, whether it's to prepare for travel, connect with co-workers abroad, or pursue an education abroad (Leung and Valdés, 2019). Understanding the phenomena requires a special focus on the process of learning a language, teaching a second language or a foreign language, sociolinguistics, linguistics, psycholinguistics, and specialised knowledge of foreign language teaching methodologies and methods of measurement and evaluation. This article will examine the function and significance of sociolinguistics in the teaching of foreign languages. 

Sociolinguists have been studying spontaneously occurring language use since the late 1960s. This led experts in second languages to turn to sociolinguistic research to strengthen their teaching strategies and broaden the scope of language education's goals.

Learning to use language as a tool for learning and being able to use language correctly in a variety of circumstances are both important components of language education. It displays language in its functional and communicative contexts (Leivada et al. 2021). The author makes the case in this essay that the communicative method, which is based on communicative competence, is not a cure-all and that sociolinguistics' function in language instruction is to raise the students' sociolinguistic awareness. 

Language is the main thing that helps to interact with every person in society. Social interaction and language have a reciprocal relationship with each other. Social interaction helps to give shape to languages and languages also do the same during the time of interaction. Sociolinguistics is help to understand the connection between social situations and languages. According to sociolinguistics language is one type of variable and it can change its form at any time (Marian and Hayakawa, 2021). The inconsistency of this method happens in groups as well as individuals. Social interaction helps to teach people to make adjustments during the time of speaking. Written records are part of the sociolinguistic study and printed copy also available of this study.

An Exploration of Communicative Competence

American sociolinguist Hymes first used the phrase "communicative competency" in 1972. He proposed this phrase in part to contrast Chomskey's language proficiency. According to Chomskey, the ability to construct the infinitely huge collection of sentences that make up a person's language can be thought of as an innate biological function of the mind. However, an increasing number of experts believe it to be inadequate because it is an idealistic view. Hymes later advanced the idea of communicative competence in 1972 (Gullifer and Titone, 2020). According to him, a speaker needs to understand how to be communicatively competent in a speech community and that the definition of competence should encompass both language usage and sentence creation.

While communicative competence emphasises utility, linguistic competence is rather abstract. They are therefore at various levels. Hymes' concept of communicative competence has a considerable impact on the field of language training and poses challenges for traditional teaching strategies. The communicative approach was created in China around 1960.

This essay argues that sociolinguistics has had a significant and immediate influence on language instruction. This essay also makes the case that Chinese learning methods should be combined with a communicative strategy built on communicative competency (Grey and Baioud, 2021). Furthermore, the definition of communicative competence provided by Canale and Swain appears to be absolutely ideal; nonetheless, language instruction should promote the growth of these four aspects of communicative competence as well as increase students' understanding of sociolinguistics. 

Learn about linguistics using a sociolinguistic perspective

There are notable influences to be noted among people coming from different linguistic backgrounds. These courses of influence are noted among people coming from different regions of a particular country. According to Ellis, 2019, most notably the theory of language development can be considered in this section to understand assess the overall approach to progress notable in a language. These changes are facilitated by immediate societal presence where a person adopts changes to communicate with different people differentiated by their age and sex. As opined by Sancho-paschual, (2019), the course of linguistic values is influenced by social factors in different sections grammar, politeness and associates usage of lexicon as well. Multiple factors are considered that influence the course of the linguistics approach being adopted by people. 

English has become a world language and is used for a variety of things, from academic issues to trade and technology, thanks to the recent globalisation of the world and the worldwide authority the United Kingdom and later the United States exerted around the world. Different dialects of English have arisen as a result of this enormous distribution and the considerable disparities among users in terms of various factors, including social status, political power, race, ethnicity, and culture. The notion of various varieties of English ran counter to the viewpoint that promotes native speaker standards and views the English of the inner circle as the standard (Grey and Baioud, 2021). However, investigations conducted in recent decades indicate that the status of many Englishes has been somewhat accepted and recognised. Numerous studies were conducted to learn more about the social components of language learning in comparison to cognitive viewpoints after the social shift in the field of Applied Linguistics. Studies on language learning's position, power, culture, and variance recognised the concept of English's diversity of users and learners. 

Figure 1: Linguistic accommodation

These adaptations in linguistic developments assist in the course of surveillance of the notable changes being adopted in society. Influences of different media in today's time social media and its impact can be noted in the linguistic approach of people. This notes the influences of sociolinguistic factors and perspectives noted in the course of language-oriented verbal and written communication among people. Multiple bodies of linguistic traditions and their alternative changes can be assessed by the sociolinguistic factors in society (Ellis, 2019).

The fundamental tenet of sociolinguistics is that language is flexible and constantly evolving. Language is neither consistent nor uniform as a result. Instead, it varies and differs for each user as well as among and among groups of speakers of the same language. Depending on the social setting, people alter their speech. One would speak differently to their college professor than they would to a little child, for instance (Goodman and Tastanbek, 2021). The location, ethnicity, social status, age, gender, as well as the event and the participants' relationships with one another, all have an impact on this socio-situational variety, also known as register. 

The core tenet of sociolinguistics is the adaptability and evolution of language. Language is neither consistent nor uniform as a result. Instead, it varies and shifts depending on the user, the community of language speakers they belong to, and other factors. Depending on the social context, people change their speaking patterns (Duarte, 2020). For instance, one might communicate differently with a college professor than they would with a little child. 

Sociolinguists can examine language in various eras by using dated written records. They examine both handwritten and printed records to see how language and society have interacted in the past. Historical sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship over time between societal changes and linguistic developments (Balam, 2021). For instance, historical sociolinguists have examined the frequency and use of the pronoun you in old texts and discovered a correlation between it and changes in class structure in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Dialect, which is a language's geographical, social, or ethnic variety, is a topic sociolinguists frequently research (Antoniou, 2019). For instance, English is widely spoken in the United States. Despite the fact that everyone speaks the same language, Southerners frequently speak differently and use different terminology than individuals in the Northwest. Depending on what part of the country you are in, there are various English dialects.

References 

Book

Gramley, S., 2018. The history of English: An introduction. UK: Routledge.

Journals

Antoniou, M., 2019. The advantages of bilingualism debate. Annual Review of Linguistics, 5, pp.395-415. 

Balam, O., 2021. Beyond differences and similarities in codeswitching and translanguaging research. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 35(1), pp.76-103. Brysbaert, M., 2021. Power considerations in bilingualism research: Time to step up our game. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 24(5), pp.813-818. 

Duarte, J., 2020. Translanguaging in the context of mainstream multilingual education. International Journal of Multilingualism, 17(2), pp.232-247. 

Ellis, N.C., 2019. Essentials of a theory of language cognition. The Modern Language Journal, 103, pp.39-60.

Goodman, B. and Tastanbek, S., 2021. Making the shift from a codeswitching to a translanguaging lens in English language teacher education. Tesol Quarterly, 55(1), pp.29-53. 

Grey, A. and Baioud, G., 2021. English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2021(271), pp.35-64.

Gullifer, J.W. and Titone, D., 2020. Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(2), pp.283-294. 

Leivada, E., Westergaard, M., Duñabeitia, J.A. and Rothman, J., 2021. On the phantom-like appearance of bilingualism effects on neurocognition:(How) should we proceed?. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 24(1), pp.197-210. 

Leung, C. and Valdés, G., 2019. Translanguaging and the transdisciplinary framework for language teaching and learning in a multilingual world. The Modern Language Journal, 103(2), pp.348-370. 

Marian, V. and Hayakawa, S., 2021. Measuring bilingualism: The quest for a “bilingualism quotient”. Applied Psycholinguistics, 42(2), pp.527-548.

Mazzaferro, G., 2018. Translanguaging as everyday practice. An introduction. In Translanguaging as everyday practice (pp. 1-12). Springer, Cham. 

Mohr, S. and Steigertahl, H., 2020. African sociolinguistics between urbanity and rurality. Sociolinguistic Studies, 14(3), pp.247-256.

Nichols, E.S., Wild, C.J., Stojanoski, B., Battista, M.E. and Owen, A.M., 2020. Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: A population study of executive function in 11,000 people. Psychological Science, 31(5), pp.548-567. 

Prada, J. and Nikula, T., 2018. Introduction to the special issue: On the transgressive nature of translanguaging pedagogies. 

Prada, J. and Turnbull, B., 2018. The role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn: Driving philosophical and conceptual renewal in language education. 

Salmerón, C., Batista-Morales, N. and Valenzuela, A., 2021. Translanguaging Pedagogy as an Enactment of Authentic Cariño and an Antidote to Subtractive Schooling. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 15(3), pp.30-46. 

Sancho Pascual, M., 2019. The sociolinguistic integration of immigrant populations: Reflections on its study. Languages, 4(2), p.35.

Sathe, A., 2018. A rule-based system for the transcription of Sanskrit from the Devanagari orthography to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Sustaining Knowledge Diversity in the Digital Age, p.23.

Schmitt, N. and Celce-Murcia, M., 2019. An overview of applied linguistics. An introduction to applied linguistics, pp.1-16.

Titone, D.A. and Tiv, M., 2022. Rethinking multilingual experience through a Systems Framework of Bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, pp.1-16. 

Turdaliyevich, Z.M., 2022. Actual Problems of Bilingualism in a Multi-Ethnic Environment. International Journal of Culture and Modernity, 13, pp.17-23.