ERIC ED367131: The COSWL (Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics) Collection of Language and Gender Syllabi.

248 Pages·1993·4.4 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 367 131 FL 021 603
AUTHOR
Hume, Elizabeth, Ed.; McElhinny, Bonnie S., Ed.
The COSWL (Committee on the Status of Women in
TITLE
Linguistics) Collection of Language and Gender
Syllabi.
PUB DATE
93
NOTE
250p.
AVAILABLE FROM
Linguistic Society of America, 1325 18th Street,
N.W., Suite 211, Washington, DC 20036.
PUB TYPE
Reference Materials
General (130)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC10 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Anthropology; Classroom Techniques; *College
Curriculum; *Course Content; Educational Strategies;
English; Folk Culture; French; German; Graduate
Study; Higher Education; *Language Role;
*Linguistics; Research Methodology; Second Languages;
*Sex Differences; Testing; Undergraduate Study
ABSTRACT
A collection of 27 syllabi for undergraduate and
graduate courses on language and gender is presented. The syllabi
come from a variety of departments, including linguistics,
anthropology, English, French, German, and folklore. Special features
of the collection include: syllabi for undergraduate and graduate
courses; ideas for paper topics; examples of exam questions;
instructions for field work exercises (gathering and analyzing gender
differences in natural speech); bibliographies of works on language
and gender; and comments from instructors about teaching the cuurses.
The collection is intended as a resource for those developing or
teaching a course about language and gender. (MSE)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
The COSWL (Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics)
Collection of Language and Gender Syllabi
edited by Elizabeth Hume and Bonnie S. McElhinny
1993
-PERMISSION
TO REPRODUCE
MATERIAL
THIS
HAS BEEN
GRANTED BY
U S DEPAPTIMENT OF EDUCATION
ktif
One e or Educabona, Research and Improvement
Ve-
E DUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER rERICI
nis document has been reprOduced as
received from the person or orgamzation
originalmg
MInom Changes have been made to rmprove
TO THE EDUCATIONAL
reproductron qualIty
RESOURCES
INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
Points ol view or opimonS stated .n this docu
mem do not necessahly represent ofIrcnal
OE RI posdion or polICy
2
MOLE
BEST COPY
INTRODUCTION
This collection includes 27 syllabi for courses on language and gender taught in an array of
departments (linguistics, anthropology, English, French, German and folklore). Special features
of the collection includes:
*syllabi for graduate and undergraduate courses
*ideas for paper topics
*examples of exam questions
*instructions for fieldwork exercises (gathering and analyzing gender
differences in natural speech)
*bibliogaphies of works on language and gender
*comments from instructors about teaching the courses
We hope this collection will be a resource for anyone interested in teaching language and gender--
whether you are organizing such a course for the first time, looking to update or revise a syllabus
for a course taught many times, or hoping to improve a unit on language and gender in a
sociolinguistics or other survey source. This project is one response to the LSA's mandate to
COSWL (the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics) to "encourage and support
research on language and women."
The syllabi here display a number of imaginative approaches to the teaching of a single topic. They
also display a considerable commitment to thoughtful pedagogy, to designing syllabi and exercises
to stimulate students' thought, and to assembling materials that will allow students to undertake a
wide range of relevant projects. It is unfortunately the practice in much of the academy to borrow
pedagogical ideas such as these without acknowledgement, though they require thought as
intensive as that required for any research project. We hope you will consider citing the sources of
your pedagogical ideas when you adapt these exercises and syllabi for your own classroom use as
one wtty to accord teaching and thought about teaching the attentions and rewards it does not
always receive.
This project was coordinated by Elizabeth Hume (Ohio State University, Linguistics) and Bonnie
McElhinny (Stanford University, Linguistics). We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of a
number of people without whose help this project would not have been realized. In particular,
we'd like to thank Christina McDougall for her help in compiling the syllabi. In addition, we'd
like to thank Chris Barker, Helen Dry, Bob Kaspar and John Lawler for technical advice and
assistance, and to thank COSWL members (Dawn Bates, Vicky Bergvall, Janet Bing, Alice
Freed, Lynne Murphy, and Craige Roberts) for invaluable comments and suggestions. We also
acknowledge the Departments of Linguistics at OSU and Stanford for support given this project,
and in particular acknowledge the assistance of Brian Joseph. Finally we thank all those who
contributed syllabi.
Additional hardcopies of "The COSWL Collection of Language and Gender Syllabi" are available
from:
Linguistic Society of America
1325 18th Street, NW Suite 211
Washington DC 20036
202/835-1714
Electronic copies are also available on-line in LINGUIST archives (for LINGUIST subscribers)
and through anonymous ftp from the Univ. of Michigan file-server (for others).
Beth Hume and Bonnie McElhinny, July 1993
3
OBTAINING COPIES FROM THE LINGUIST DATABASE
In the archives of LINGUIST, the syllabi are kept in 7 files called:
lg-gen-0 syl
lg-gen-1 syl
--and so forth, through lg-gen-6 syl
To retrieve the syllabi, send a message to:
[email protected] (if you are on Internet)
OR
LISTSERV@TAMVM1 (if you are on BITNET)
The message should consist of a line or lines like the following:
get <filename> <filetype> linguist
For example,
get lg-gen-1 syl linguist
It is possible to request all the syllabi at once by sending one multi-line message consisting of 7
'get' commands; however the files are large, so don't do this unless you can handle large email
messages.
The listserv will respond only to addresses it recognizes, so be sure to send the request from the
address from which you subscribed to LINGUIST.
********
OBTAINING COPIES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FILE-SERVER
To obtain copies through ftp from the University of Michigan file-server you must be on Internet.
Follow the following procedure:
ftp linguistics.archive.umich.edu <at your system prompt>
login: anonymous
passwd: <type your email address>
cd linguistics
cd handouts
cd syllabi
get L-G.Syllabi.0
get L-G.Syllabi.1
get L-G.Syllabi.2
get L-G.Syllabi.3
get L-G.Syllabi.4
get L-G.Syllabi.5
get L-G.Syllabi.6
quit
Please note that these syllabi are lodged on a UNIX system. Unix is case-sensitive. If you use
upper-case letters instead of lower-case letters, or lower-case letters instead of upper-case letters, it
will not recognize your command. Follow the above format carefully.
You may not want to obtain all these files at the same time. They take up a considerable amount of
diskspace. Use only one or two 'get' commands if diskspace is at a premium.
umich.edu'
Questions should be directed to 'linguistics-archivists
THE COSWL COLLECTION OF LANGUAGE AND GENDER SYLLABI
Table of CONTENTS
Introduction
Overview of Syllabi
Syllabi
Niko Besnier (Anthropology, Yale)
1.
"Language and Gender in Cultural
Perspective"
2.
Janet Bing (English, Old Dominion)
"Language, Gender and Power"
3.
Sue Blackwell (English, Univ. of Birmingham)
"Language and Gender"
4.
Rebecca Burns-Hoffman (English, Univ. of Miami) "Language and Gender
5.
Penelope Eckert (IRL) &
Sally McConnell-Ginet (Linguistics, Cornell)
"Gender and Language Use"
6.
Suzanne Fleischmann (French, Berkeley)
"Sexual Difference, Gender and the
French Language"
7.
Alice Freed (Linguistics, Montclair State)
"Women, Men and Language"
8.
Rebecca Freeman (Education, Penn)
"Language and Gender"
9.
Barbara Fox (Linguistics, Univ. of Colorado)
"Language and Gender"
Randy Allen Harris (English, Univ. of Waterloo)
10.
"Varieties of English"
11.
Shirley Brice Heath (English/Linguistics,
Stanford) & Bonnie McElhinny (Linguistics,
Stanford)
"Language and Gender"
Beth Hume (Linguistics, Ohio State)
12.
"Language and Gender"
Mary Jane Hurst (English, Texas Tech)
13.
"Language and Gender"
Deborah Kapchan (Folklore Institute, Univ. of
14.
Indiana--Bloomington)
"The Gender of the Word"
Mimi Klaiman (Linguistics, Univ. of Indiana)
"Language and Women"
15.
Kerstin Lange (Anthropology)
16.
"Language, Sex and Gender"
Joseph Malone (Columbia)
17.
"Gender Systems"
Sally McConnell-Ginet (Linguistics, Cornell)
"Language and the Sexes"
18.
Bonnie McElhinny (Linguistics, Stanford)
"Language and Gender"
19.
20. Rae Moses (Linguistics, Northwestern)
"Language and Gender"
21.
Mary Par lee & Ana Celia Zentella
(Linguistics, Hunter College)
"Language, Gender and Social Identity"
22.
Craige Roberts (Linguistics, Ohio State)
"Language and Gender"
23.
Bambi Schieffelin (Anthropology, NYU)
"Language in Everyday Life"
24.
Ron Souther land (Linguistics, Univ. of Calgary)
"Language and Power"
25.
Deborah Tannen (Linguistics, Georgetown)
"Gender Differences in Language Use"
26.
Lenora Timm (Linguistics, UC-Davis)
"Language, Gender and Society"
27.
Ruth Wodak (Linguistics, Univ. of Vienna)
"Sprachverhalten von Frau und Mann"
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Language and Gender in Cultural Perspective
Anthropology 601b
Yale University, Spring Semester 1993
seminar meetings:
Th 2:30-4:20, 175 Whitney, room 24
instructor:
Niko Besnier
office:
51 Hillhouse, room 13
phone & e-mail:
2-3674, uttanu@yalevm
office hours:
W 1:30-3:30 or by appointment
paper deadline:
Monday, May 3, 12 noon
Aims of the course
In the last two decades, anthropology has undergone a major paradigm shift, as
gender, a hitherto peripheral category in the discipline, has emerged as a pivotal area of
anthropological inquiry. This seminar explores the role that gender plays in the "fourth
subfield" of the discipline, namely linguistic anthropology. Because the fourth subfield is
a continuum between anthropology and linguistics, the seminar will also touch on the
ways in which linguists (particularly sociolinguists) have approached the
relationship between language and gender. However, the seminar will emphasize
ethnographic approaches to language and gender over approaches that are primarily
concerned with language structure. We will read ethnographic accounts from a broad
variety of ethnographic settings, ranging from postindustrial complex societies to small-
scale communities.
The seminar will first concentrate on the various theoretical frameworks through
which the relationship between language and gender has been studied. This survey will
suggest that the nature of this relationship is far from being understood. However, most
headway in the direction of understanding has been made by theoretical approaches
which centralize the way in which both language and gender are embedded in structures
of power, authority, and social inequality, and are closely associated with conflicts
over these structures. Indeed, linguistic practices often emerge as the very battleground
of the struggle over power and inequality. Thus, in order to understand how language and
gender are interwoven, we must cast our nets wide and investigate the social and cultural
contexts that give meaning to both linguistic practices and gender categories.
How this contextualization should be accomplished is best understood empirically.
In the last part of the seminar, we will focus on a number of ethnographies that have been
particularly successful in locating language and gender in social and cultural perspectives.
We win focus on several aspects of linguistic and social practices in which gender has
been shown to be pivotal, i:_cluding language socialization, emotionality, and literacy.
The questions and problems which arise in each of these areas of concern will
enable us to formulate the general theoretical concerns of relevance to the study of
language and gender from an ethnographic perspective.
Texts
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1986. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin
Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Goodwin, Marjorie. 1990. He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization in
a Black Peer Group. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
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Radway, Janice A. 1991. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and
Popular Literature. 2nd edition. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of
North Carolina Press.
All three books are required and available at Book Haven, 290 York Street,
787-2848. A supplementary packet of required readings will be available for
purchase after the beginning of week 2 at Audubon Copy, 48 Whitney Avenue,
865-3115.
Course requirements
Research paper (70%)
(a)
The term paper for this seminar may be a report of original research, a critical review of
the literature on a specific topic of relevance to the seminar, or a grant proposal for future
research. Participants in the seminar arc strongly urged to consult with me well ahead of
time about the topic of the paper. A proposal for the paper is due on February 11, and
will be returned to you with comments the following week. The proposal should be
as elaborate or lengthy as you think is necessary to provide me with enough information
to comment on. Ideally, a working bibliography will be attached to it. The paper is
expected to be of professional quality and form.
Seminar presentation (20%)
(b)
Every participant in the seminar will make a seminar presentation based on a paper-length
ethnography chosen from the list provided in the semester outline. (It is also possible for
a seminar participant to present an ethnography not on this list, in which case my prior
approval is needed.) This exercise has two purposes: it is an efficient way for us all to
learn about the range of ethnographic work that has been conducted on topics
relating to the seminar; and it is a forum in which seminar participants will be able to
practice the presentation skills they will later be expected to have in pedagogical settings
as professionals. In evaluating the presentations, I shall pay equal attention to content
and form: thus, presentations should be well prepared, clear, and not read, and the
judicious use of handouts or other pedagogical aids are strongly encouraged.
General seminar participation (10%)
(c)
Please note that the semester is very short; thus a missed seminar meeting subtracts a
significant percentage of seminar time.
Readings and breakdown of topics
Gender and its socio-cultural context. Sex vs. gender, gender role vs.
gender identity, female vs. male, women vs. men, nature vs. culture, domestic
vs. public, and the trouble with dichotomies. The place of gender in society
and culture.
Rubin, Gayle. 1975. The Traffic in Women: Notes On the "Political
Economy" of Sex. In Toward an Anthropology of Women. Rayna R. Reiter,
ed. Pp. 157-210. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Rosaldo, Michelle Z. 1974. Women, Culture, and Society: A
Theoretical Overview. In Women, Culture, and Society. Michelle Z.
Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds. Pp. 14-42. Stanford, CA: Stanford
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