Author: Caroline Riches

Welcome to the fourth (2022) edition of the Educational Sociolinguistics class blog!

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.

Welcome to the third (2020) edition of the Educational Sociolinguistics class blog!

I’m very happy to be the instructor for this course – giving me the opportunity to launch this third 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 thanks for your baton-passing post, Mela! 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 co-editor). I encourage you to visit the links to these sites for more interactive discussions about all things sociolinguistic. And if you haven’t already (it was assigned reading for our first class!), be sure to read Alison’s research article about blogging as pedagogy (a.k.a. this blog site).  

As we are currently living through the Covid-19 pandemic, my sociolinguistic noticing often involves issues related to the current crisis. I want to share a youtube video with you that was sent around in our department at the end of March. At that time, our (Canadian) medical experts were not advising ‘masks for all’ – although masks were suggested or required in specific situations/locations such as on airplanes and in hospitals.

Since then, wearing masks in public has been mandated in Quebec and across the country.  

This video impressed me for a number of reasons, apart from the very clear and compelling message, and I can spin some of these as sociolinguistic: 

1. The register of this message. (Why did I find the delivery of this message so compelling and appropriate?)

2. The clarity of this message in English, by an ESL speaker. (Why do I think the speaker in the video learned English as a second/foreign/additional language?)

3. What type of speech act or event would you categorize this as?

We have only had one class together so far, but I already have an inkling of the rich language-related experiences that the class brings, and intellectual and creative thinking that this class is capable of. I look forward to being inspired by your blog postings over this term.

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