Professor:  Dr. Battenburg
Office:  47-25D
Phone:  756-2945   E-mail:jbattenb@calpoly.edu
Office Hours:  M, W 1-2; T 9-11; or by appointment

Texts:

Battenburg, John D. and William Martinez.  1999. Communicative Activities in the Second Language Classroom.  Dubuque, IA:  Kendall Hunt. 

Chaika, Elaine.  1994.  Language:  The Social Mirror.  3rd ed.  New York:  Newbury.

McKay, Sandra Lee and Sau-ling Cynthia Wong.  1988. Language Diversity: Problem or Resource.  Boston:  Heinle and Heinle.  (To be purchased at Second Edition.)

Course Description:

ENGLISH 391 deals with a variety of issues in applied linguistics.  Topics such as literacy, discourse and style analysis, dialectology, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, first and second language acquisition, language change, language planning, and lexicography will be examined.  Students will be asked to consider real-world challenges concerning language teaching and language policy.

In-class activities and reading assignments will be supplemented by accessing world-wide web sites in linguistics.  Student will be required to use the computer to participate in these online activities. The URL (or address) for my Cal Poly Linguistics Site is as follows: http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jbattenb/ling/

Course Requirements:

1. Attendance is required.  More than three absences will significantly lower your final grade. 
2. No late assignments will be accepted. Incompletes will not be given except in the case of death or severe illness. 
3. Class participation:  20% 
4. Assignments and quizzes:  15% 
5. Exam:  30% 
6. Research project or paper:  35% 

PowerPoint Slides

Tentative Schedule:

September 24, 26 

Introduction to Applied Linguistics
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 1

The Field of Linguistics

October 1, 3 

Phonetics and Phonology

International Phonetic Association

Bilingualism
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 2

Language Policy Website 

October 8, 10 

Online Linguistics Assignment:  Due Wednesday, October 10

Styles of Speech
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 3

Japanese Honorifics

Kinesics
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 4

Characteristics of Communication 

Pragmatics
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 5

Speech Acts Theory

October 15, 17

Oral and Written Language
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 6

Phonetics, Spelling, and Whole Language

Field Methods
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 7

Linguistics Funland TESL Page 

Dialectology
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 8

Dictionary of American Regional English

October 22, 24 

Speech Communities
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 9

African American Vernacular English

Gender and Language
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 10

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics and the Professions
Language:  The Social Mirror  Chap. 11

CCCOD Assignment:  Due Wednesday, October 24

October 29, 31 

Communicative Activities for the Second Language Classroom (Battenburg and Martinez) 

November 5, 7 

"Orientations in Language Planning" (Ruiz) 
"Understanding the American Linguistic Mosaic" (Molesky) 
"Language Minorities in the U.S. in the 1980s (Waggoner)

EXAM:  Wednesday, November 7 

November 12, 14

Holiday

"The Language Situation of Mexican Americans" (Valdes) 
"The Language Situation of Puerto Ricans" (Zentella) 
"The Language Situation of Cuban Americans" (Garcia and Otheguy) 

November 19, 21

"The Language Situation of Chinese Americans" (Wong) 
"The Language Situation of Filipino Americans" (Galang) 

Holiday

November 26, 28 

"The Language Situation of Korean Americans" (Kim) 
"The Language Situation of Vietnamese Americans" (Chung) 

Lexicography (Material on Reserve in the Library)

Presentations

December 3, 5 

Presentations

RESEARCH PROJECT OR PAPER DUE:  Wednesday, December 5 

Presentations continued during Final Exam period.
 

Guidelines for Research Project/Paper 

Your assignment is to conduct research concerning an issue or problem in language teaching, learning, or acquisition.  Your findings and observations should then be incorporated into a five to seven page paper or website. 

Remember to select a topic which can be adequately handled.  The better projects usually deal with a restricted issue.  You should attempt to solve a particular problem rather than simply to provide information.  Along with dealing with relevant research, you are expected to reveal individual analysis and creativity. 

The paper should be typed, double-spaced, with one inch margins.  You may use the MLA, APA, or LSA style.  It is important, however, that you cite with parenthetical references.  Be consistent with the format and style you adopt.  Recommended resources to begin your research include the following located in the Cal Poly Library reference room: International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 4 vols. (1992) and The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 10 vols. (1994). 

You have considerable freedom in selecting a topic.  Try to examine an issue or problem that you are interested in.  Various example topics are listed below.  Please feel free, however, to explore other areas. 

*Teaching "Dialect Different" Students in School 
*ESL versus Bilingual Education 
*"Whole Language" in the Classroom 
*Code-Switching 
*Bidialectalism or Bilingualism 
*English Based Pidgins or Creoles 
*English Language Planning and Policy in Education 
*Teaching Literacy Skills 
*Acquiring Communicative Competence in a Second Language 

At the end of the quarter, you will be expected to present your research findings to the class.  Please do not simply read your paper.  You will have an opportunity to discuss significant aspects of your research project, and then there will be time for questions and answers.  Students often have found it useful to distribute hand-outs or use multimedia to illustrate various ideas.  Basically, you should plan on your presentation to last 8-10 minutes.