LFU:online

Participants will revise their knowledge of research methods within Sociolinguistics, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Through critical assessment of case studies and methods, participants will acquire competencies so to engage critically in their own sociolinguistic research.

Since William Labov’s pioneering work in the 60ies and 70ies, research methods in Sociolinguistics have shifted from (manually) documenting and investigating rather small units of speech (e.g. individual allophonic features or certain grammatical structures) to a much more holistic study of speech communities and the individuals being part thereof. Case studies will take into account both intra- and extralinguistic factors so to gain a comprehensive understanding of speakers‘ verbal behaviors. Nowadays, in order to contrast standard speech and any kinds of varieties, sociolinguistic approaches mostly rely on mixed methods, i.e. on both quantitative and qualitative measures so to do justice to not only saliencies on the speech community level, but also to individual idiosyncrasies. In this seminar, we are going to explore various sociolinguistic methods and approaches in this vein.

Guided revision of theories, group readings, presentation of research progress, discussions of individual samples.

Students are required to attend regularly; presence at the first session, in particular, is mandatory. Other requirements for positive assessment are: language proficiency adequate to the study level, active participation in discussions, regular reporting on research progress, a 20-min presentation (with handout) and a written research paper (stylesheet for linguistics available on Institute’s website).

MA Teacher Training Programme: none

MA 2009: none

Teacher Training Programme "old" (2001): Positive completion of first part of studies (1. Studienabschnitt).

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.