Interdisciplinary Applications of Sociolinguistic Frameworks and Methods

Sociolinguistics places the role of language at the core of the human social experience and views language as the vehicle by which human beings shape their social roles. This subfield of linguistics deals with “the social dimensions of language and the linguistic dimensions of society” (Florian Coulmas) and tackles both macro-level issues (e.g. social dialects, language status, language spread, language planning and policies, societal multilingualism, the relationship between language and culture), and micro-level issues (e.g. dialectology and language variation, language contact and code switching, and individual bilingualism). The field is interdisciplinary and draws on insights and approaches not only from linguistics, but also from anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, literary criticism, mass communications and political science. After reviewing sociolinguistic frameworks, emergent theories and some common research methodologies used in sociolinguistics, this paper proposes some specific applications of sociolinguistic investigative approaches to the teaching of English and related fields such as English linguistics and English education. The focus is on applications that can contribute to new ways of inspiring students (and scholars) in subject areas where sociolinguistic frameworks and approaches have not traditionally been incorporated. The author’s contention is that psychologically demotivating aspects in the acquisition and the identity-threatening use of English as a foreign language can be diminished by employing investigative methodologies commonly practiced in sociolinguistics which would awaken in students a sense of curiosity and excitement upon making their own discoveries of language in actual use. Adopting these methods for student projects may also directly benefit teaching faculty by suggesting alternative approaches that could be employed in their fields of expertise.