Topic: Language and Culture

When we teach language, we often position it as a tool for communication, which it very legitimately is. This is a positive shift from previous generations where language was seen as an academic subject – you learned it, received a grade and promptly forgot it. However, with our advanced students, we want to make sure they understand that language is much more than just a communication tool; we want them to understand the power of language. In this session, we’re going to look at the vocabulary, grammar, discourse and paralinguistic tools that can be strategically used in order to be persuasive.

Researchers have a keen interest in the relationship between language and identity. Current research shows that there is a strong connection between our language use and language choices and our identity. In this video, we’ll take a look at what has been established so far on the relationship between language and identity, as well as which questions still remain to be answered. We will start out by defining identity and looking at the different ways in which we can project our identities to the world. We will then explore the various types of identities as well as the concept of identity formation. We will wrap up the video by examining how language and identity intersect.

An interesting area of language use is language use and gender. It generates a lot of captivating debate, is the source of a great deal of comedy and can even create some tension if you get too involved in the topic. As language teachers, it is a valuable area of language use for us to explore with our advanced level students so that they can refine both their understanding of the language and their use of the language.

Researchers have found that humans use language differently as they move from one age group to the next throughout their life-spans. They have also found that the language used to talk about people and the language used to talk to people varies between the different age categories. In this video, we will first divide humans into four broad age categories with which to discuss the topic of language use and age. We will then take a look at some of the various words and terms used to describe people in the different age categories. Next, we will discuss how people in each of the four age categories use language themselves. Finally, we will examine some of the distinct features of the language used to speak to people in each of the age categories, as well as some of the assumptions behind this language use.

Every society has a number of choices to make in terms of which language will be used in that society and when. When it comes to multilingual societies, decisions also need to be made concerning how many languages the society will support, how many languages members of the society are expected to learn, and so on. In this session, we’ll take a brief look at the layers of language use in multilingual and bilingual societies. We’ll then consider some of the language policy choices that governments must make. Finally, we’ll explore how individuals in a multilingual society use language.

In this session, we will look at defining key terms when it comes to the connection between language use and ethnic diversity. We will discuss diversity, race, ethnicity, stereotyping, discrimination and racism and how they connect to individual choices when it comes to language use. Next, we will examine the intersection between ethnicity and language variation. Then, we will discuss the distinctions between regional language variation, socioeconomic language variation and ethnic language variation. Finally, we will look at some specific examples of language variations and why it can be difficult to categorize each of them.