Cult & Society/International Perspective

INTL101 – McIntosh Winter 2021 – Section IDs 33856-33863

INTL101 — Cult & Society/International Perspective Linguistic Autobiography

For this assignment, you are being asked to write a short paper about some form of language policy – looking at issues learned about in class that have had some impact on you or your ancestors, your language (learning/use) goals, and your current beliefs about issues around some language policy. (e.g., should English be the de facto lingua franca of international commerce?), etc. Connect your experience as a user of one or more language to concepts covered throughout this course. Think about how your experience as a speaker of a language (or languages) has been formed and about who or what has been part of this formation. You should contextualize your experiences in the larger social setting and explore how these experiences have shaped your own attitudes about language and language policy. To do this, apart from your academic research, I encourage you to interview family members and friends with whom you have grown up. Final version is due via TurnItIn March 10th by 11:59pm. Requirements:

1. A thesis statement which connects your personal language experiences to at least ONE topic we have discussed in class.

2. Develop the body of the paper connecting it to your topic and thesis statement – develop your thesis and how that relates to at least THREE concepts covered in class.

3. A well-integrated reference to at least THREE sources (These should include concepts from the class readings, discussions, and lectures.) Citing documentaries or lectures only count as one citation.

4. Correct use of terms from class when appropriate (e.g., Speech Community, Classic language planning, linguistic discrimination, Linguicide, mutual intelligibility, overt/covert prestige, diglossia, etc…)

5. The paper should be clearly written, proofread, and no longer than 750 words. Thesis statement The thesis statement is the point of your paper; it should summarize how your personal experience relates to course concepts. It should be clear, concise, and the body of your paper should support and connect to it. Some generic examples:

• Language polies in my home country growing up affected attitudes about the status of my regional variety motivated me to switch to the standard form after leaving home.

• My positive attitudes towards my heritage language allowed me to maintain it throughout my adolescence.

• My family’s language use has been affected the top-down language policies enacted in my home country, as we have shifted from our heritage language, spoken by my grandparents, to only speaking (insert language).

• Being part of the Tagalog speech community helped my family to maintain the language despite subtractive bilingual education programs I experience growing up.

• My school had a subtractive bilingual program, so we switched from Chinese to English medium instruction by the 8th grade.

• Much like other heritage speakers, I have limited literacy in my heritage language, but I can be mistaken for a monolingual Hindi speaker under the right circumstances.

• Going to Saturday School helped me become literate in my heritage language despite being schooled in an English-Only environment.

INTL101 – McIntosh Winter 2021 – Section IDs 33856-33863

References & Use of Terms from Class The references should be to academic papers, material we read or watched in class, or other sources (not Wikipedia or Google). You may cite the lecture slides or documentaries shown in class, however, this will only count as ONE reference. If the reference is a non-academic source, like a video about language attitudes or a blog post, you should justify its use i.e.: “This quote is representative about attitudes towards language policy in the Philippines”. You do not need to cite the terms we learned in class unless you are referencing a particular reading.

By “well-integrated” I mean that the source should be relevant, and it should demonstrate or add information which helps to contextualize or better understand your own experience. The source should support your main and/or sub- points of your paper’s thesis. Please meet with us during office hours, during your sessions with your TA or email us for clarifications about your final draft. If you are trying to find more information about a language or language variety that you speak, there are many great online resources, including the World Atlas of Languages - https://wals.info/, Glottolog - https://glottolog.org, Ethnologue - https://www.ethnologue.com/ and North American English Dialects - https://aschmann.net/AmEng/. (be sure you ar logged into the UCSD VPN to access Ethnologue) Style and clarity

• Use of APA style is required for references. Although nice to include, a title page and abstract are OPTIONAL for this paper. If you need writing assistance, please seek help from the Teaching & Learning Commons. (you should do this sooner than later as appointments full up quickly at the end of the quarter – If you can’t get help there at the very least have one of your colleagues proofread your paper before you turn it in.) All papers are to be word-processed, proofread, and solely the work of the author. (References do not count towards the overall word limit.)

• Though the paper need not be written in a very formal register, please conform to Standard English.

The writing should be clear and proofread – Please seek help from the Teaching & Learning Commons for help on your final draft.

For Interviewing family members/friends • Interviews (though not required) should help to add context to your paper’s thesis. If you decide to

use interviews, please come up with some questions ahead of time and use the same set with each person. You should submit your questions (not the actual interview) as an appendix in your final paper. (The appendix goes at the very end of the paper after the reference list.) Please meet with us or email us if you have any queries about the interview or paper format. (interview questions do not count towards the overall word limit.)