Sociolinguists study language use in order to better understand the relationship between language and society. They pay particular attention to how language varies in actual use and what “work” that variation accomplishes. This presentation for Heron’s Key will identify a few topics sociolinguists investigate—for example, how language varies by region and social class (i.e., dialects), how language varies depending on who is speaking to whom in what situation, how “speech acts” function (e.g., greetings, farewells, compliments, promises, etc.), how talk is organized (e.g., holding the floor, taking a conversational turn, interrupting), attitudes toward and beliefs about language, and more. About Carole Edelsky: Carole Edelsky has as Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. She was Professor at Arizona State University for 32 years, teaching classes such as Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Qualitative Research, Teacher Research, Theoretical Foundations of Language and Literacy, and others pertaining to language/literacy education. She has written numerous books and articles on language education from a sociolinguistic perspective and has received honors such as the 2000 award as Outstanding Educator in the English Language Arts from the National Council of Teachers of English. -Lunch at 12:15pm in the Maritime room at Heron’s Key. Bring your own sack lunch. Lemonade and ice tea will be available for purchase. - Presentation at 1:00pm in the Maritime room at Heron’s Key. (Please note: Childcare not provided.) To register, please call 253.313.0793.
