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TRAN903 Language and Culture
Year and Semester : |
2006/2 |
Convenor(s) |
Dr Verna Rieschild |
Prerequisites |
LING212 or LING216 |
Quicklinks |
Students in this unit should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.
About this unit
Unit Description
Relevance:
Increasing globalization, internationalization and migration provide an imperative to develop awareness and understanding of issues associated with linguistic diversity. Language and culture investigates Language and languages and Culture and cultures - seeing language as a social tool rather than simply a mirror, and “language as a cultural resource and speaking as cultural practice” (Duranti 1997).
This unit is designed to develop your understanding and awareness of the links between language and culture. There are three strands to this unit:
The readings provide theoretical and practical insights into the links between language and culture and will be interesting and relevant in a number of ways to your professional and personal lives.
Credit Points: 4
Teaching Staff
| Convened by: |
Dr Verna Robertson Rieschild |
| Room : | C5A 422 |
| Telephone: | 9850 9922 |
| Email: | vrieschi@ling.mq.edu.au |
| Lecturers | Dr V Rieschild, Dr Jennifer Peck (weeks 7 and 11) and Dr Jemina Napier (week 3) |
| Tutors | Dr V Rieschild, Renad Abbadi |
| Email Dr Rieschild with any questions you may have, or you may want to email her for an appointment | |
Classes
First week will be a two hour seminar.
The timetable for classes can be found on the University Timetable web page.
Required and Recommended texts and/or materials
** = on Reserve. * = 3 day loan (e) = available electronically on e-reserve
Texts
Prescribed
Course readings are available for you to buy through the Co-Op bookshop and are on loan at the Reserve Desk of the University Library. (You will find the names of these readings in the Class schedule).
You are also strongly encouraged to source works independently and contribute what you have found to the weekly seminar discussions.
General Interest BibliographyBibliography of Fieldwork, Research Methods and Ethnography in Sociocultural Anthropology.
* Available at http://coombs.anu.edu.au/Biblio/biblio_fieldwork1.html
Basso, Keith H.,1990 Western Apache language and culture : essays in linguistic anthropology / Tucson : University of Arizona Press .
Basso, K. H. (1984). Stalking with stories: Names, place, and moral narratives among the Western Apache. In E. M. Bruner & S. Plattner (Eds.), Text, play, and story: The construction and reconstruction of self and society (pp. 19-55). Washington , DC : American Ethnological Society.
Bauman, R. (1986). Story, performance and event. New York : Cambridge University Press.
* Bauman, Richard and Joel Sherzer (eds) 1989 Explorations in the ethnography of speaking Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Boutin, Michael E. and Alanna Y. Boutin. 1987. "Classification of disease among the Banggi of Sabah." Anthropological Linguistics 29: 157-69.
* Darnell, Regna. 1998.And along came Boas : continuity and revolution in Americanist Amsterdam ; Philadelphia , Penn : J. Benjamins,
* Duranti A (ed) 2001 Linguistic anthropology : a reader Oxford , UK : Blackwell Publishers
Field, Margaret 1998 Triadic Directives in Navajo Language Use: a Second Type of Linguistic Relativity AAA 1998 Philadelphia (conference paper). Available at http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac/aaa1998/field.htm
Foley W.A. 1997 Anthropological linguistics : an introduction Cambridge , MA : Blackwell Publishers
Jane H. and Judith T. Irvine (eds) 1993 Responsibility and evidence in oral discourse: Cambridge [ England ] ; New York : Cambridge University Press.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York : Basic Books.
Hymes, D. (1962). The ethnography of communication. In T. Gladwin & W. Sturtevant (Eds.), Anthropology and human behavior (pp. 15-53). Washington , D.C. : Anthropological Society of Washington .
* Hymes, Dell. 1996 Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality : toward an understanding of voice London ; Washington , DC : Taylor & Francis.
Leenhouts, Ingeborg C. 1984. "Towards a taxonomy of living things in Téén." Anthropological Linguistics 26: 313-25
Linguistic Anthropology bibliography: Emory University
Available at http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/ANTHROPOLOGY/Linganth/library.html
Shamanism and healing
Available at ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/coombspapers/subj-bibl-clearinghouse/shamanism-biblio-world.txt
The learning outcomes of this unit are to
In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students’ generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:
Teaching and Learning StrategySelf-awareness and interpersonal skills and Communication skills by engaging in small group tasks in the tutorials.
Resourcefulness in sourcing own literature base, critical analysis skills and problem-solving skills in project and essay.
Students will gain most from the seminar by preparing themselves with reading suggested works before the class.
The lecture notes will be linked to the Lecture titles below in the week following the lecture. The tutorial notes will also be posted on the website. Students require a login to access these notes.
Lecture 1- Dr Verna Rieschild Introduction
Lecture 2 Dr Verna Rieschild Overview of the issues
Lado, R. 1986. How to compare two cultures In Valdes (ed) Culture
bound: Bridging the culture gap in language teaching. Cambridge : CUP:52-63.
Lecture 3 Dr Jemina Napier Language and Culture: Deaf culture
Moore, J.D. 1997. Clifford Geertz. In Moore . Visions of culture: 238-247.
Ochs, E. 1988 Culture and language development. CUP: pp 1-29 and Chapter 8.
Preparation for Lecture 3 - Language and world view: Deaf Culture
READINGSCokely, D. (2001). Interpreting culturally rich realities: Research implications for successful interpretation. Journal of Interpretation, 1-46.
Dolnick, E. (1993). Deafness as culture. Atlantic, 273 (3), 37-53.
Locker McKee, R., & McKee, D. (2000). Name signs and identity in New Zealand Sign Language. In M. Metzger 9Ed.), Bilingualism and identity in Deaf communities (pp.3-40). Washington , DC : Gallaudet University Press.
Mindess, A. (1999). Reading between the signs: A practical approach to cultural adjustments. In C. Nettles (1999). Honoring our past, creating our future together: Proceedings of the 16 th National Convention of the registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, August 2-7, 1999 (pp.141-168). Silver Spring , MD : RID Publications.
Further interest – recommended reading:Lane, H., Hoffmeister, R., & Bahan, B. (1996). A journey into the DEAF-WORLD. USA : DawnSign Press.
Mindess, A. (1990). What name signs can tell us about deaf culture. Sign Language Studies, 66, 1-24.
Mindess, A. (1999). Reading between the signs: Intercultural communication for sign language interpreters . Yarmouth , Maine : Intercultural Press.
Turner, G. (1994). How is Deaf culture? Sign Language Studies, 83, 103-125.
Lecture 4 Dr Verna Rieschild Language and Society 1
Regional and class variation
Wardhaugh, R 1992. Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford & Cambridge : Blackwell. Ch. 6.
Lecture 5 Dr Verna Rieschild Language and Society 2
Age, Gender and ethnicity
Lecture 6 Dr Verna Rieschild Ceremonies/rituals across cultures
Steinfatt, T.M. 1987. Linguistic Relativity: towards a broader view. In Ting-Toomey, S. & F. Korzenny (eds) Language, communication and culture: current directions. Newbury Park , London , New Delhi : Sage Publications: 35-75. 179.
Lecture 7 Dr Jennifer Peck Intercultural professional communication: in health and legal sectors
Read one ( or more, if you like! )
Health: O’Byrne, C. 1994. Intercultural communication for health care professionals. In Brislin, R & T Yoshida (eds) Improving international interactions: Sessions for cross cultural training programs. London : Sage Publications:171-196.
Pauwels, A. 1990. Health professionals’ perceptions of communication difficulties in cross-cultural contexts ARAL Series S, No. 7: 93-111.
Law: Cooke, Michael. 1995. Aboriginal evidence in the cross cultural courtroom. In Eades D. (Ed.) Language in evidence. UNSW Press: 55-96.
SEMESTER BREAK
Lecture 8 Dr V Rieschild Theoretical Underpinnings: Stereotype, politeness and foreigner talk
Hewstone, M & H. Giles 1988. Social groups and social stereotypes in intergroup communication. In Gunykunst, (Ed) Intergroup communication. London : Edward Arnold:10-20. (reprinted in Coupland & Jaworski 1998: 270-283).
Sarangi, S. 1996 Conflation of institutional and cultural stereotyping in Asian migrants’ discourse. Discourse & Society. 7(3): 359-387.
Lecture 9 Dr Verna Rieschild a. Semantics
Wierzbicka, A. 1991. Cross-cultural pragmatics. Chapter 5:183-195.
Goddard, C. 1997. Semantic analysis. New York : OUP: 96-106
Lecture 10. Dr Verna Rieschild b. Culture-specific labels c. Culture and Translation.
Ferre, R. 1995. On destiny, Language, and translation; or, Ophelia adrift in the C. & O. Canal . In Dingwaney, A. & C. Maier (Eds.) Between languages and cultures: translation and cross-cultural texts. Pittsburgh & London : University of Pittsburgh
Wroblewski, J. 1990. False friends revisited. In Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. & M. Thelen (Eds.). Translation and meaning, Part 4. UPM: 213-221.
Lecture 11 Dr Jennifer Peck Intercultural classroom communication
Brick, J. 1991. China A handbook in intercultural communication. NCELTR. 153-160.
Jin, Lixian & M Cortazzi. 1998. The culture the learner brings: a bridge or barrier. In Bryam & Fleming (Eds.) Language learning in intercultural perspective. Cambridge : CUP:98-118.
Damen, L. 1987 Crosscultural considerations in the classroom In Damen, L. Culture learning: the fifth dimension in the classroom. Addison Wesley:Chapter 15.
Lecture 12 Dr Verna Rieschild a. Culture and Rhetoric Preferences
Ho, J.W.Y. 1998. Cultural transmission in literacy acquisition: a case study in Chinese. ARAL Series S, 14:102-117.
Clyne, M. 1998. Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts: English and German. In Cheshire , J. & P. Trudgill (Eds) The sociolinguistic reader: Volume 2 London: Arnold : 315-347.
Kaplan, R. 1966 Cultural thought patterns in intercultural communication. Language Learning, 16:1-20.
Kirkpatrick, A. 1997. Using contrastive rhetoric to teach writing: 7 principles. ARAL 89-101.
Hinds, J. 1983 Contrastive rhetoric: Japanese and English. Text 3 (2) 183-195.
Lecture 13 Dr Verna Rieschild b. Culture and language teaching/learning materials
Crozet, C & A. Liddicoat 1997. Teaching Culture as an integrated part of language teaching: an introduction. ARAL 1-22.
Damen, L. 1987 Textbook selection and evaluation in Damen ln Culture learning: the fifth dimension in the classroom. Addison Wesley:Chapter 13.
Achren, L 1991 Do we assume too much? Measuring the cross cultural appropriacy of teaching aids. Prospect Vol 6 No 2
Lecture Notes
The lecture notes will be linked on the Lecture Notes page in the week following the lecture. Students will need to login to this page.
Tutorials
Notes for the tutorials are posted on the Tutorial Notes page. Students will need to login to this page.
Relationship between Assessment and Learning Outcomes
Rationale for the modes of assessment
Assignment 1 gives students an opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of the processes involved in critically reading scholarly work and writing with academic integrity.
Assignment 2 gives students an opportunity to display a critical awareness of a number of issues relevant to the links between language and culture, and understand and evaluate theoretical debates. Creative thinking, problem solving and analytical skills will also be developed. Dealing with the literature develops the student’s skills in critical reading and writing and citation and referencing systems.
Assignment 1 due 27 th April 2005
Assignment 2 due 5th June 2005
Important Notes:
All assignments must include the official Linguistics Department assignment coversheet, available at the Department of Linguistics website. Assignments submitted without the appropriate coversheet will not be accepted. You must read the plagiarism information
Assignments are time stamped upon submission and assignments submitted after the due date will attract a penalty unless arrangements have been made with the convener.
Assignment 1 45% 4,500-5,000 words
Project: on intra-cultural (within a culture) linguistic variation according to social dimensions like age, class, education, gender, ethnicity; or regional factors; or contextual factors (like setting; relative status of addressee). So, for example, one Korean student may choose to analyse regional variation in speech in Korea ; another may look at age and class, and so on.
In this project, the data you will use will be a film or soap opera in a language/culture you know well, in terms of SOCIOLINGUISTIC FEATURES. So you will analyze how the character expresses a certain identity according to race, age, gender, or status through the linguistic choices made.
This will involve you comparing features of a character’s speech with those of others in the film/soap opera and with your general understanding of variation in that language and culture.
This is how you write extracts of data (from my Arabic research):
(1a) wa-za:di bi-hi wa-Hasrat-o wa-ghulb-o wa-a:la:m-o
and-increased in-him and-sadness-his and-woe-his and-grief-his
“And his sadness, his woe and his grief increased.”
Change 2: Assignment Two
Worth: 55% Form: Essay Length 5,000 -6,000 words
You may draw on the literature available to you (books and articles on the subject of language and culture), as well as making well-reasoned observations and interpretations of a language/culture with which you are familiar.
Select ONE of the following essay topics:
Presentation requirements:
Essays must be word processed, 12 point, 4 cm margins, double spaced; pages numbered; references included; sources acknowledged. Severe consequences for plagiarism . Special requirement for this unit : All sources must be cited in the text with name, date of publication : page number. E.g (Child,1988:65)Submit written works (plus floppy copy) into the assignment box near the lift on the 5 th Floor of C5A by 5pm on the due date, or electronically (details given later).
Requests for extensions will be considered if medical certificates are provided. If an extension has not been negotiated, 5% of the marks for that assessment piece will be deducted per day late.
There is no exam for this unit.
How to prepare and write your essay
Expectations
Word limit
The word limits are a rough guide - if you can say all you need to say in less words, don’t pad it with waffle. If your work is longer but full of relevant information, this will be accepted.
Relevance
Define your topic clearly.
Don’t write everything you know about topic X: be selective.
Read the topic carefully to make sure you understand, and make sure your essay is about that topic.
Reading
Please source a number of relevant articles or book chapters (classics, plus more modern books and journal articles). Read these works in an evaluative and selective way.
Structure and argument
CLAIM+ EXAMPLE+DISCUSSION
Presentation : word processed, double space 4 cm margins
Plagiarism
The University defines plagiarism in its rules:
"Plagiarism involves using the work of another person and presenting it as one's own." Plagiarism is a serious breach of the University's rules and carries significant penalties. You must read the University's practices and procedures on plagiarism. These can be found in the Handbook of Undergraduate Studieson the web.
The policies and procedures explain what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, the procedures that will be taken in cases of suspected plagiarism, and the penalties if you are found guilty.
IN THIS UNIT YOU MUST CITE AUTHOR YEAR AND PAGE NUMBER FOR EVERY CITATION IN THE TEXT .
Penalties may include a deduction of marks, failure in the unit, and wiil include referral to the University Discipline Committee.
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
You must have the signed plagiarism disclaimer as your coversheet for every assignment (download from ling home page).
Plagiarism is using the written words or ideas of other people without giving them credit.
Presenting someone else’s work as your own includes:
Avoid plagiarism by making sure that you
Incorporating work from the literature into your text.
Only use a direct quotation if:
In general, it is best to paraphrase and cite the reference.
e.gs.
This theory was first proposed by Larson (1970)
Larson (1970:123) was the first to propose...
or
Larson (1970:123; 1987:62) demonstrated that....
Do not include page number if the whole chapter/book/article had the mentioned subject as the topic.
e.g. Gleason (1978) found that fathers and mothers contrasted strongly in this feature. Fathers produced bald imperatives twice as much as mothers, fully thirty percent of the time.
Include the page number when you are mentioning a specific idea:
e.g. Children were impressed upon to pay attention to the speech of others, never allowed to fail to respond (Clancy 1986:220)
Larsen, Green and Withers (1990:167) provide an opposing view
Reference page
Book
SURNAME, INITIALS or GIVEN NAME. YEAR of publication. TITLE of publication. PLACE of publication: PUBLISHER.
Article
SURNAME, INITIALS or GIVEN NAME. YEAR of publication. TITLE of article. JOURNAL NAME, VOLUMEnumber, ISSUE number: page numbers.
Chapter in an edited book:
SURNAME, INITIALS or GIVEN NAME. YEAR of publication. TITLE of article. In INITIALS, SURNAME (ed) BOOK TITLE. PLACE of publication: PUBLISHER: page numbers.
Newspaper article
SURNAME, INITIALS or GIVEN NAME. YEAR of publication. TITLE of article. NEWSPAPER NAME, DATE: page numbers.
Electronic sources
AUTHOR DATE, TITLE. [MEDIUM OR TYPE OF DOCUMENT] URL (for WWW doc) or SUPPLIER OR PUBLISHER of database or CD-ROM. ACCESS DATE (when you viewed or downloaded it) e.g.
Beckleheimer, J. 1994. How do you cite URLs in a bibliography [WWW document] http:/www.scribesa.com/apastyle.htm ( 4 Sept 1997 ).
Petersen, Deet. Virtual reality. [Email]. Personal e-mail ( 23Jan 1997 ).
University Policy on Grading
Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).
On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive . Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.
It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.
The process of scaling does not change the order of marks among students. A student who receives a higher raw mark than another will also receive a higher final scaled mark.
There are documents that explanation of the policy or see the detailed guidelines.
Student Support Services
Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services.