Using sociolinguistic data to teach
cultural competency
Howard Manns & Paul Thomas
Background:
Sociolinguistic data and pedagogy
 Raise the possibility of bringing these elements together (cf.
Ranney, 1992;Yu, 2005; Etienne & Sax, 2009; Regan et al.,
2009; Mougeon et al., 2010; DLI curriculum)
 Background to Howie’s research vs. background to Monash
curriculum development
Monash Curriculum for Indonesian
Language Level
Assignment
weighting
Learning Materials
Trends and overarching
characteristics
Individual Research
and/or placement
30% Language
70% Content
• Resources collected by students in
consultation with the tutor/supervisor.
Special Purposes
Theatre/Film
40% Language
60% Content
• Recordings of seminars from guest
speakers.
• No prescribed text. Collection of reading
resources with resources collected by
students. Film bank.
• Increasing reliance on
learner collection of
resources .
Special Purposes
Media /Journalism
40% Language
60% Content
• Unscripted, semi structured interviews,
recordings of seminars from guest speakers
• No prescribed text. Collection of reading
resources with current news items collected
by students.
Upper and Lower
Advanced
60% Language
40% Content
• Unscripted, semi structured interviews
• Prescribed text
• Cultural knowledge integrated with
language materials
Upper and Lower
Intermediate
60% Language
40% Content
• Unscripted, semi structured interviews
• Prescribed text
• Cultural knowledge integrated with
language materials
Beginners & Post
Beginners
80% Language
20% Content
• Scripted dialogues
• Prescribed text
• Cultural lectures in English
• Increasing emphasis on
content over language.
• Recurring themes of
language, film/theatre, and
media.
• Exposure to a broad range
of registers/varieties with
the option of experimenting
with non standard varieties.
Nature of the specific problem
 Shifts in register, diglossia, and regional varieties in Indonesian
(Sneddon, 2003a, 2003b among others) and the challenge this
presents learners and those teaching Indonesian. (Sneddon,
1990;Turner, 1995; Goebel, 2002; Djenar, forthcoming)
 Long history of a 'pedagogical dialect’ of the standard language.
 Increasing use of slang, informal and regional varieties post
Suharto (1998+) particularly in areas of the media from
community radio and social media to prestige publications.
 Language learners desire for a clear map or guide, even grammar,
to the use of appropriate and natural language.
 Difficulties of describing in a meaningful way to learners the
influence of social context on the choice of varieties of the
language.
Communicative event
Regional languages
Javanese
English
 Bahasa gaul
Bahasa
sehari-hari
 
B
ahasa
Baku
(standard
language)
(variety of slang)
(colloquial language/regional variety)
Arabic
Malay
 Bahasa baku
(standard language)
What has been produced by the research
that is applicable to pedagogy?
 Audio recordings – possible source of authentic texts (more
than 50 hours of conversations)
 Descriptions of the language used in social settings –
guidelines for discussions of language use in social settings,
use in glossing/footnoting dialogues (innumerable microcontexts; style shifting by individual speakers; Indonesians
talking about language and culture).
Possible applications
Social setting: Curhat (curahan hati) – the process of sharing
one’s emotional stresses/tensions with a close confidant or
someone for whom one the speaker has great respect.
Curriculum: Post VCE/ Intermediate language group (check
European levels) –
Module: Hubungan Pribadi (Personal Relationships)
Language weighting : language 60% content 40%
2.  Social setting: Commentary on language styles used in Radio
Curriculum: Special Purposes unit on the Media/Journalism
Module: Gaya Bahasa Media Massa (language styles of the mass
media)
Language weighting: language 40% content 60%
1. 
Text Samples Curhat
Engaging in curhat
’
Jen:
Ida:
Mbakmu ini yang mo curhat?
Mbakku ini, gara-gara cowoknya yang sering kayak playboy dan
dia perhatian gitu lho. Aku yo sempet marahin juga, “Yo
opo?! Mosok yo?!” Kayak gini.
Jen: Eh kayaknya mbakmu itu, yo sorry
yo, Ida yo.
Ida:
He eh.
Jen: Kok belum dewasa banget ya cara pikirnya.
Ida: Iya mbakku gitu sih.
Jen: Kayaknya lebih dewasaan kamu
sama Sandi deh.
Jen:
Was it your older sister who wanted to curhat?
Ida: Yeah, it was my older sister. The problem was
her boyfriend who is always acting like a
playboy and she has gotten wind of it, that’s
what it was about. I got angry, too, I was like,
“What the heck?! Really?!”. I was like that.
Jen:
It sounds like it could just be your sister,
sorry, Ida.
Ida:
Yeah.
Jen:
Ida:
Jen:
Ida:
How is it that she isn’t very mature in the
way she thinks.
Yeah, my older sister is like that.
It’s like you’re more mature than Sandi, I tell
ya.
Hell yeah, it’s totally like that..
Ida: Ya iya lah, secara gitu lho.
Language: Day-to-day language/responding to curhat
Content:
Personal relationships in Indonesia
Place:
Rumah kos (boarding house)
Text Samples Media Massa
Radio station announcers discuss on-air language styles
Planning for an adult
audience
Karena memang radio kita segmen radio
dewasa, maka kita juga harus gunakan
bahasa yang cukup familiar, cukup
mudah dipahami, gitu ya, karena itu bisa
membantu kita untuk menyampaikan
materi kita kepada pendengar gitu.
Because our radio station is truly a
radio segment for adults, we have
to
use language that is familiar enough
and easy enough to understand,
because that can help us to carry
information to the listeners, it’s
like
that.
Text Samples Media Massa
Radio station announcers discuss on-air language styles
Planning for a youth
audience
Biasanya kalau di media ini, biasanya
kan penyiar menggunakan khusus
ini untuk komunitas anak muda, penyiar
itu, menggunakan bahasa, bahasa yang,
ok lah, dialek yang gaul seperti itu,
biasanya mempengaruhi para pendengar
itu…ikuti gaya penyiar itu, gitu lho,
karena gaya itu, trendsetter.
Normally, for media like this,
normally the announcer uses specific
language for the youth community,
and that announcer, they use
language that is, ok, it is a dialect that
is gaul like that, normally, this
influences the listeners…they join in
the style of that DJ, like that, because
this style is trendsetting.
Sample Cultural Activity for Special Purposes Unit
(exploitation of the data)
 Creating a ‘voice’ for a radio station (community
station/commercial station/campus radio): Planning the
language guidelines for a radio station that will help create
the image of the station including acting out a consultation
process with potential listeners, advertisers, and/or station
management.
 Research currently available stations (potential competitors)
including on-line stations.
 Comparison to existing data
Pushing towards the exclusion of
colloquial/slang varieties
 Lack of resources for developing high quality multimedia
materials on a continual basis.
 Relationship to time/fashion of informal or slang varieties
 Growing regionalism with language an expression of regional
identity.
 Rapid developments in informal language after the fall of
Suharto.
 Desire to present the best possible form of the language,
most elevated, most articulate speakers.
Pushing towards the inclusion of
colloquial/slang varieties
 The emergence of a national informal Indonesian
 Learners questioning the legitimacy/authenticity of the
language being incorporated into the current curriculum.
 The need for communicative competence across a range of
social contexts.
 Growing flexibility and availability of multimedia software.
 Rapid developments in informal language after the fall of
Suharto.
 Growing interests in popular culture
Discussion
 The possibility of incorporating future use of the data at the
initial phase of the research planning.
 The influence of research on the recording of data vs the
influence of collecting material for curriculum development.
 So, in concluding, we ask based on your experiences as
educators, could data like this have a place in the classroom?