EKIS276 Redefining Language in the 21st Century (5 cr)

This self-study option contains works from leading critical sociolinguists of the early 21st century, one from a European, one from an Austral-Asian perspective. They contain attempts to retheorize canonical understandings of language, linking new theories of how language works in society to empirical work across contexts.

They describe some of the ways in which language can be seen as embedded in the social and cultural world of contemporary societies and communities. They attempt to challenge old patterns of thinking and increase our critical understandings of the complex, translocal and transcultural forms that English and multilingualism can take in our world of increasing globalization.

After this course, students will be able to:

• describe key attempts to retheorize former, even canonical understandings of language in the 21st century

• understand the ways in which language can be seen as embedded in the social and cultural world of contemporary societies and communities

• understand the complex, translocal and transcultural forms that English and multilingualism can take in the world of increasing globalization