units

ATS3665

Faculty of Arts

18 September 2017 16 April 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitLinguistics
OfferedClayton First semester 2013 (Day)
Clayton First semester 2013 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)Dr Simon Musgrave

Notes

Previously coded LIN3030

Synopsis

This unit introduces students to the key issues in language endangerment. It examines historical and contemporary assessments of linguistic diversity and language endangerment within the broader framework of the loss of biological and cultural diversity. It reflects on a wide range of issues, including factors in assessing speaker fluency and the degree of endangerment, symptoms and causes of language shift, and changes in domains of language use and patterns of language transmission. General principles and issues are embedded within case studies from a range of regions and language families. The seminar combines lectures with group discussion of key concepts guided by focus questions.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should have:

  1. gained familiarity with the significant aspects of the rapidly growing field of language endangerment research and practice
  2. have an understanding of, and an ability to apply, key terms, concepts and theoretical models relevant to a wide range of language endangerment settings
  3. developed the ability to critically evaluate assessments of language endangerment.

Students should be able to:

  1. demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of language endangerment research
  2. analyse the key factors in assessing language endangerment and speaker fluency;
  3. evaluate alternative explanations for language variation
  4. interpret theoretical frameworks developed and utilised by researchers in the field
  5. apply key concepts to new sets of data.

They should also be able to:

  1. formulate research questions
  2. utilise appropriate methodologies to conduct independent research
  3. present their results in discussion forums in small groups (on campus)/on line discussion (off campus), and in written exposition (including planning, arguing on the basis of evidence, and documenting), and
  4. engage in team work and critical academic discussion of information and argument.

Assessment

For Level 3:
Research essay proposal (500 words): 10%
Research essay (3000 words): 45%
Take home test 1.5 hour: 35%
Group/Online participation: 10%
The Take-home test will include additional questions for level 3 students only.



Chief examiner(s)

Dr Simon Musgrave

Contact hours

One 2- hour lecture per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Linguistics
Anthropology

Prohibitions

LIN4030