Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 15:04:58 -0500

From: "Timothy C. Frazer" mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU

Subject: Re: Intro



20 years ago I used to teach Intro to Linguistics to English majors

right out of the texts, which were mostly, it seemed to me, aimed at

Linguistics majors. (Fromkin and Rodman may be an exception, but the last

time I looked it was too broad, too thin and too cutesey).

AFter a near-rebellion about 10 years ago, I abandoned teaching Intro and

developed a sociolinguistics course which would work without a

standard Introduction to Linguistics. We cover a lot of the same stuff

Dan Alford does. I focus on language and power, on selections of

standards as an extension of that power. I used Chaika (now in 3rd ed.)

with a lot of editorializing. I also used some films form The Story of

Language, altho not without some caution since a lot of that is

badly-informed journalistic stuff.

I also use Tannen and Kochmann's "Black and White Styles. . . ." And I

do dialects from this part of the midwest, with emphasis on how Inalnd

Northern became a defacto standard. For the latter, I have often used

Tom Murray's special issue of Kansas Quarterly from 1990, _Language and

Dialects of the Plains_.



I plan to revise for the Fall cause the repetition is getting to me.

I may use the Milroys' "authority in language" but I haven't read it

yet. I may use excerpts from Verdelle's _The Good Negress_ but I haven't

read it yet, either ( a novel about language variaton). I once used

Carkeet's novel "The Final Catastrophe" about a linguist who becomes

a marriage fixer, but the kids didn't like it like I did. I use a lot of

videos cause I am sort of a film buff.

I would like to write my own text, aimed at the particular thingsI focus

on



Tim Frazer