This course will provide students with the necessary tools to conduct a quantitative analysis of variation in spoken or written language data, and report on the findings in journal article format.

1 x 2hr session per week (comprising 5x2hr seminars; 5x2hr workshop) over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.

This is one of the Honours options in English Language and Linguistics and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

ENGLANG4018 Sociolinguistics

None

Report (3,000 words) - 75%

Data coding exercise (1,500 words) - 25%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to:

■ investigate key research practices in sociolinguistic research;

■ apply these research practices to the students' own data in order to answer a relevant research question;

■ show how to convey research findings in a manner appropriate for an academic audience.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ identify a novel research question from available data;

■ collect, transcribe and code language data;

■ conduct a statistical analysis of language data;

■ write a report in the form of a journal article which synthesises and interprets main findings from their research.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.