Language Variation and the
Foreign Language Curriculum
The University of Texas at Austin
South Central Modern Language Association, 2010
2
Introduction
  Our research/teaching/outreach agenda
  Language variation
  Language contact
  Romance languages in rural settings
3
Outline
  Competing views of grammar
  What we mean by language variation
  Relevance of variation in the language classroom
  Advocate a sociolinguistic turn in language teaching
  Why this is desirable
  How we can achieve it
4
Prescriptive grammar
  Prescriptive grammar
  Language as it ought to be
  Doesn’t admit variation and change
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An accessible example
  Ain’t
  Used as a contraction of ‘am not’
  Very old in origin; used even in cultivated speech
  Symmetry
  You/we/they are not
He/she/it is not
→ aren’t
→ isn’t
  I am not
→ I’m not
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Linguistic variants
  Forms are in competition, often for long periods
  Who/what determines the ‘correct’ form?
  Ain’t commonly attested in popular speech
  Proscribed in academic English
  Ain’t continues a strong competitor in usage but is now
perceived as non-standard
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Standard language
ideology
• 
“a bias towards an abstracted, idealized, non-varying spoken
language that is imposed and maintained by social institutions
and which has as its model the written language, but which is
drawn primarily from the spoken language of the upper middle
class”
R. Lippi-Green (1997:64)
• 
The ‘natural’ standard is that of the dominant group or most
prestigious class
• 
Assumption: assimilation to the ‘standard’ is necessary and
positive
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Language ideology
  Language ideologies
  “Ingrained, unquestioned beliefs about the way the world is, the
way it should be, and the way it has to be with respect to
language” (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 2006:9)
  Ubiquitous
  Harmful
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Foreign language educators
  We are prescriptivist by necessity
  Correct gross deviations from a norm
  Which norm?
  Typically hyper-literate norms
  Academic register
  Advanced lexicon
  ‘Standard’ pronunciation and grammar
  Learned discourse practices
  Often sanctioned and promoted by academies
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Which norm?
Assume a normal population
of native speakers of any
language
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English who/whom
  Nominative
  Who called?
Only who
Dative whom
  Accusative/dative
  Whom do you know?
  To whom are you speaking?
DO whom
  Usage among educated
native speakers
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Spanish /s/ worldwide
[h]
[--]
[s]
  Syllable-final variants
  Retention: [s]
  las casas
  Aspiration: [h]
  lah casah
  Deletion: [--]
  la casa
  ‘Spanish’ is taught with /s/
retention
  Usage among educated
native speakers
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Domincan Spanish /s/
  Syllable-final variants
  Deletion: [--]
  la casa
  Retention: [s]
  las casas
  Aspiration: [h]
  lah casah
[--]
[s]
[h]
  ‘Spanish’ is taught with /s/
retention
  Usage among educated
native speakers
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French relative pronouns
où dont
qui/que
[duquel]
  Several variants
  Relativized subject
  la femme qui parle
  Relativized direct object
  le chat que j’ai vu
  Relative locative
  la ville où j’habite
  Relativized indirect object
  dont, duquel, à qui, à
laquelle…
  All are taught
  Usage among educated native
speakers
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Consequences
  Native speakers demonstrate a tremendous amount of
variation
  Variation is omitted from most foreign language curricula
  Students are taught ‘standard’ forms, but these may be low
frequency in spoken language so students are likely to hear
something else from native speakers
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Descriptive grammar
  Descriptive grammar
  Language as it is
  Attends to language variation and change
  Focus on competing linguistic variants
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Ideology vs. evidence
  Prescriptive grammars are based on judgments about
‘good’ and ‘bad’ usage
  Reflect and perpetuate language ideologies
  Descriptive grammars are based on empirical evidence
  Native speakers’ usages
  Frequency analyses from corpora of spoken and written
language
  Likely to reflect what students will actually hear
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Our research
  Fieldwork with native speakers
  Rural and urban communities in the U.S. and abroad
  Across ages, educational levels, and social classes
  Forms that are most regularly attested among native
speakers differ from what is prescribed
  Reflect normal language usage
  Often parallel the same structures produced by our students
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Example 1
  Subject personal pronouns in Spanish
  Variants: expression vs. omission of personal subject pronouns
  María dice que Ø no se siente bien.
‘Maria said that she doesn’t feel well.
  Students taught to suppress subject pronouns but are likely to
encounter overt pronouns at high rates
  María dice que ella no se siente bien.
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Dominican Spanish
  Incidence of subject pronouns
  Hay unas muchachitas que están juntas conmigo que ellas
viven pa’fuera, entonces ellas vinieron a estudiar en la escuela
del Pino, entonces ellas saben mucho inglés. Yo no me acuerdo
en el país que ellas viven.
  ‘There are some girls that are in school with me that come from
abroad, and they came to study in the school in El Pino, and
they know lots of English. I don’t remember what country they
live in.’
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Example 2
  1 p. pl. subject pronoun in French
  Variants include ‘nous’ and ‘on’
  On l’a vendu.
‘We sold it.’
  Nous l’avons vendu.
‘We sold it.’
  Classroom French learners are taught both but are likely to
encounter only the first in most, if not all, spoken varieties
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Frenchville (PA) French
  An immigrant isolate variety, spoken in US for generations
  Nearly exclusive use of ‘on’ as 1 p. pl. subject
  On l’a vendu.
‘We soled it.’
  ‘Nous’ occurs only as object
  Il nous disait /Venez chez nous.
‘They tell us./ Come to our house’
  The use of ‘on’ in spoken French has been widespread
since at least the mid 19thc.
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Example 3
  Spanish direct object marker
  Students are taught that direct objects that are human and
specific are preceded by the marker ‘a’
  Vi la película.
‘I saw the movie.’
  Vi a la actriz.
‘I saw the actress.’
  Learners are taught this strict distribution, but are likely to
encounter significant variability; this variability is witnessed
throughout the history of the language
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Dominican Spanish
  In natural speech and careful speech
  Luba quería mucho Ø esa hija.
‘Luba loved that daughter.’
  Yo quiero ser doctora para ayudar Ø la gente.
‘I want to be a doctor to help people.’
  El creole se aprende oyendo Ø los haitianos.
‘Creole can be learned listening to Haitians.’
  Después de trabajar los lunes encontro mi Ø esposo en el
centro.
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Example 4
  French vowel contrasts
  Students are not taught certain vowel contrasts that are said to
be neutralized for native speakers
  patte vs. pâte
  But, only true for parts of France. In Canada, the U.S.,
Switzerland, Belgium, and eastern France, the vowel is
maintained.
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Result of a reliance on a
standard
  Over-teaching of hyper-literate variants
  Not likely to be encountered in natural speech
  French relative pronouns
  Spanish /s/ retention
  Under-teaching of colloquial variants
  Likely to be encountered in natural speech
  French vowel contrasts
  Spanish aspiration and deletion
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Relevance of variation
  Ubiquity of variation holds not just for traditionally taught
languages of European origin
  Ex. ‘Standard’ German vs. Swiss German;
Ex.,, Brazilian vs. European Portuguese;
  But also looms large in Less Commonly Taught Languages
  Ex., Modern Standard Arabic vs. Colloquial Tunisian
Ex., Afrikaans vs. Tsotsitaal
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Consequences
  When we teach according to hyper-literate norms
  We fail to prepare students for what they should expect to
encounter in the real world
  We miss opportunities
  To examine demographic, cultural and historical change
  To understand the consequences of social stratification
  To challenge language ideologies
  To develop meta-linguistic awareness
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Diversity in the curriculum
  Renewed emphasis on diversity and other cultures in
university curricula
  “The seeming prioritization of international/global education
should naturally and automatically extend to foreign languages,
should it not?”
C. Gascoigne (2004:68)
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Links with other disciplines
  Intense focus on global/international issues across
disciplines
  effects of globalization
  (im)migration
  asylum
  human rights
  minorities
  ethnicity
  ….
  These issues that are relevant for every language department
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Clarion call
  How can we contribute to this focus on global/international
diversity?
  What we already do
  Present authentic samples from Literature, Film, and Cultural
Studies
  What we don’t do often enough
  Prepare students to understand how social and cultural
diversity is reflected in the foreign language
  Prepare students for the language they will encounter in
authentic texts foreign language texts
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Symbolic role of language
  “It’s never really about language; it’s always about cultural
behaviors that are symbolically represented by language.”
Walt Wolfram (Associated Press May 21, 2006)
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We study this in English
  Nettie here with us. . .She be sitting there with me shelling
peas or helping the children with they spelling. Helping me
with spelling and everything else she think I need to know.
No matter what happen, Nettie steady try to teach me
what go on in the world. And she a good teacher too.
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
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A sociolinguistic turn
  Advocate new ways of conceiving of language and
culture in the foreign language curriculum
  Focus on language diversity
  Why might this be desirable?
  How might it be achieved?
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A sociolinguistic turn: desirable
  Why might this be desirable?
  Links language curriculum to curricula in other disciplines
  Prepare students to encounter language diversity in literature
and film, and in real life
  Improve linguistic skills
  Develop meta-linguistic awareness
  Diversify language input to improve comprehension
  Bootstrap from student interest in dialects and registers
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Linguistic skills
  Develop meta-linguistic awareness
  Ability to reflect on language structure:
  Variation allows such reflection on the history of the language
  And reflection on contemporary innovation and language
change
  Diversify language input to improve comprehension
  Allows listeners to ‘normalize’ across varieties
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Variation and language
history
  Even the most marked structures of some varieties or registers
were historically correct.
  E.g. the use of conditional after hypothetical ‘si’ (if) in French
  …si je couperait herbe pour sa mère [Frenchville]
  E.g., the direct object marker with human definite objects in
Spanish
  En braços tenedes mis fijas tan blancas commo el sol. [Cid 2333]
  These structures often mirror ‘errors’ made by our students.
Errors that we attribute (perhaps unnecessarily) to English
influence.
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Variation and language
history
  “… [historical] explanations serve a greater purpose than
merely imparting interesting facts about language, they
also provide students with a first-hand understanding that
languages are organic and constantly evolving.”
Arteaga & Herschensohn (1995:219)
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Contemporary language
variation and change
  Modern languages constantly innovate
  Contact forms:
  Me voy a registrar para la clase (U.S. Spanish)
  On va avoir du fun (Quebec French)
  Technological innovation
  Je lole (LOL) (monolingual French speakers)
  El celular está full (monolingual Dominican Spanish speaker)
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Contemporary language
variation and change
  Such innovation invites a focus on form
  un suéter (m.), a polo shirt/a sweater
  una suera (f.), a cardigan sweater
  And speculation on culture
  un suéter (pan-Hispanic borrowing)
  una suera (introduced by NY Dominicans)
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Diverse input
  Learners need to be exposed to a wide range of rich
language input
  Even in a first language, we need to learn to ‘normalize’ or filter
variation due to individual speakers
  Students need to be able to understand real speakers outside
the classroom.
  This is best achieved when the input is sufficiently rich (e.g.,
study abroad)
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A sociolinguistic turn:
achievable
  How might this be achieved?
  Diversify the input
  Let all kinds of speakers speak for themselves
  Envision a language on a continuum, and not as an
abstraction
  Teach students to analyze linguistic variation as a text.
  Frequently encountered forms in the input will translate to
frequently produced forms in their own language use.
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illiterate
guest workers
ethnic speakers
FL learners
immigrants
refugees
urban speakers
rural speakers
heritage speakers
hyper literate
Which speakers?
Assume a normal population of speakers of any
language
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A sociolinguistic turn:
achievable
  (Re)train language teachers (Arteaga & Llorente 2009)
  Teach the linguistics of a language with a view toward
sociolinguistic variation
  Reinstate ‘History of the Language’ courses for all majors and
graduate students
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Diversifying the input
  Exploit existing resources
  E.g. YouTube videos
  For dictation
  For comprehension exercises
  For grammatical focus
  Differences in register
  Differences in pronunciation
  For focus on cultural diversity of speakers
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Variation in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2QtyHultEA
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Pedagogical materials
  A model sourcebook for educators
  Arteaga & Llorente (2009) Spanish as an International Language:
Implications for Teachers an Learners. Multilingual Matters.
  Textbooks with diversity focus and samples
  Spanish: Impresiones (Salaberry, Barrette, Elliott, FernándezGarcía)
  French: Français interactif (Kelton, Guilloteau, Blyth: http://
www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/home)
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OERs
  Open Educational Resources
  “Educational material offered freely for anyone to use, typically
involving some permission to re-mix, improve, and redistribute”   Center for Open Educational Resources and Language
Learning (University of Texas at Austin, 2010)
  “…COERLL aims to reframe foreign language education in terms
of bilingualism and/or multilingualism. As such, all COERLL
resources strive to represent more accurately language
development and performance along dialectal and proficiency
continua.”
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Conclusion: Opening
education
  We teach our students according to hyper-literate norms
  These are unrealistic goals even for many native speakers
  These are insufficient for the real world
  Exposure to a continuum of language behavior is not just
desirable, it is necessary
  Culturally authentic
  Responsive to university mandates
  Enriches our students’ knowledge of a language
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Conclusion: Opening
education
  Students should recognize forms that they will be exposed
to (but not necessarily reproduce)
  Marked forms
  Vernacular forms – appropriate for indexing social information
(region, class, social status)
  Hyper-literate forms – appropriate for academic registers
  The ‘middle ground’ will emerge from students’ exposure to
frequency from all the input (and from our guidance).
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Thank you
  Contact information
  Barbara E. Bullock, Professor of French Linguistics
[email protected]
  Almeida Jacqueline Toribio, Professor of Spanish Linguistics
[email protected]
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References
  Arteaga, D. and Llorente, L. 2009. Spanish as an international
language: implications for teachers and learners. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
  Arteaga, D. and Herschensohn, J. 1995. Using diachronic linguistics in
the language classroom.” The Modern Language Journal 79.212-222.
  Gascoigne, C. 2004. The changing culture of language departments.
Academic Exchange Quarterly, 4, 1–8.
  Lippi-Green, R. 1997. English with an accent: Language, ideology and
discrimination in the United States. Routledge.
  Wolfram, Walt, and Natalie Schilling-Estes. 2006. American English:
Dialects and variation. Second edition. Cambridge/Oxford: Basil
Blackwell.