Accents and Dialects

Assessment: presentation [50%], written assignment [50%]
This module offers students the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge acquired from ELA020C001 to naturally-occurring spoken language, and makes the empirical fact of linguistic variation concrete rather than conceptual. It provides the students with a firm theoretical grounding in the basic methodological approaches to the sampling and analysis of varieties of British English, and gives them the opportunity to put some of these approaches into practice in their own field work. This provides a taster for ELA020N102/ELA020X104 English in its Social Context, and gives those students who go on to take that module useful practice in field work methodologies and analytical techniques.
Reading: Hughes, A., P. Trudgill and Watt, D. (2012) English Accents and Dialects: an introduction to social and regional varieties of English in the British Isles, (5th edition). London: Edward Arnold.