I’m very happy to once again be the instructor for this course – giving me the opportunity to launch this fourth edition of the class blog. Thanks and a nod to Alison Crump, who envisioned and created this blog back in 2016, and Mela Sarkar who carried on the tradition in 2019 and passed the baton onto me in 2020. Both Alison and Mela are contributing members of our BILD research community (Mela’s brainchild) which has its own blog and an online, peer edited journal (Alison is a co-editor). I encourage you to visit the links to these sites for more interactive discussions about all things sociolinguistic.
Sociolinguistic issues are all around us, and often seem even more on the forefront in Quebec. With the recent adoption of Loi 96 and our current provincial election campaign is it possible that we are hearing even more debate around language than usual? A quick google search reveals wide range of opinions on this! And we will certainly be talking about this more over the course of the semester as it brings up issues related to language and society, language policy and planning, language and education, language ideologies, and I could go on!
I am been impressed so far by the rich discussions around sociolinguistics in class, and I look forward to reading your blogs on this site.
