Module B: Language, Identity, Culture
What this module asks
Module B examines how language constructs and is constructed by identity and culture. Core concepts: language and identity (how idiolect, dialect, register and naming position a speaker), language and culture (how words encode values, kinship, belief and history), code-switching (shifting variety or register according to audience and purpose), standard and non-standard varieties and the attitudes attached to them, language maintenance and loss (including the effect of colonisation and global English), and representation (how texts frame a group's voice).
Traps in questions
- Treating language as neutral. Questions often ask you to analyse attitudes towards a variety, not just describe it. Prescriptivist versus descriptivist framing matters.
- Confusing accent, dialect and register. Accent is pronunciation; dialect includes lexis and grammar; register is the situational variety. Misusing these terms costs marks.
- Stereotyping a culture. Avoid generalisations such as 'their language shows they are family-oriented'. Use specific evidence from the text.
- Ignoring the text type. A memoir, a speech and a social-media post construct identity differently; comment on form and audience.
- Missing the personal dimension. The module rewards reflection on how your own linguistic repertoire shapes your identity.
Rule of thumb
For any language example, run variety–function–attitude: what variety is used, what social work it does, and what attitude towards it the text reveals. This three-step structure keeps analysis cultural rather than merely grammatical.
Worked example
Weak: The character uses slang, which shows her culture. Strong: The character's shift from formal register in the interview to her home dialect when speaking to her grandmother enacts code-switching as an act of belonging; the text's juxtaposition of the two exchanges suggests that the standard variety grants access while the dialect grants intimacy, challenging a simple hierarchy of 'correct' language. This names the varieties, explains their function and infers an attitude.