Language Codes: Helping teachers decode the "L" in JALT
Michael Phillips
Introducing himself via "googlegangers" to kick off a light-hearted sampling of aspects of linguistics as an alternative to the usual microanalysis dictated by our profession, by stepping back and looking at the big picture of what language really is, Phillips gave us a three-session approach to defining and understanding what language codes embody and represent, examining idiolects and language identity and challenging participant notions of correctness, acceptability and accommodation through diglossic issues.
Citing our students as examples, Phillips reminded us that knowing the language was more than just knowing the grammar and that agreement and systematic behavior regarding language use, as well as appropriacy and semantics, influence our using it differently from how they do.
Viewing a picture triggered different images in our brains; watching some movie clips highlighted different idiolects among speakers and the emerging dialects of non-standard English with various types of fillers employed, rife with modern slang for solidarity building. We then attempted to describe elements of our own idiolects, with their various accents and lexical items.
Finally, a discussion between standard and non-standard speakers of English—Noam Chomsky and Ali G—illustrated appropriacy and marked language in an amusing way
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