Nowadays, the online video-sharing platform YouTube is responsible for a major share of the world's Internet traffic and, according to YouTube's official statistics, "[o]ver 2 billion logged-in users visit YouTube each month, and every day people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views." (cf. https://www.youtube.com/intl/en-GB/about/press/)
And yet, YouTube data and its platform are virtually absent from (socio-)linguistic research despite the wealth and variety of data provided, especially regarding the varieties of World Englishes.
In this seminar, we will take a good look at YouTube from a linguist's point of view by discussing perspectives from media linguistics, computer-mediated communication (CMC), corpus linguistics, and sociolinguistics. We will try to assess whether YouTube is actually suitable for linguistic research projects and how researchers can navigate YouTube in a meaningful way, before students will develop and conduct their own small-scale research projects on YouTube in the context of World Englishes research.
Due to the special circumstances this semester poses, this course will be conducted online with both sychronous (e.g. ZOOM) and asynchronous (e.g. LernraumPlus) elements!
e.g.
Frequency | Weekday | Time | Format / Place | Period | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
weekly | Do | 10-12 | ONLINE | 12.04.-23.07.2021
not on: 5/13/21 / 6/3/21 |
Module | Course | Requirements | |
---|---|---|---|
23-ANG-M-AngHM1_IAS Language and the Processes of Culture | The English Language in Context | Study requirement
|
Student information |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
23-ANG-M-HM1 Hauptmodul 1: The English Language and the Processes of Culture | HM 1.1 The English Language in Context | Study requirement
|
Student information |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
23-ANG-M-HM4 Hauptmodul 4: Media and the Processes of Culture | HM 4.1 Cultural Communication | Study requirement
|
Student information |
HM 4.2 Mediating Cultures | Study requirement
|
Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
23-LIN-MaTY Language Typology and Language Comparison / Lingüística comparada y tipología de idiomas | Sprachtyopologie und Sprachvergleich | Study requirement
|
Student information |
Sprachtypologie und Sprachvergleich | Study requirement
|
Student information | |
Sprachtypologie und Sprachvergleich | Study requirement
|
Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information |
The binding module descriptions contain further information, including specifications on the "types of assignments" students need to complete. In cases where a module description mentions more than one kind of assignment, the respective member of the teaching staff will decide which task(s) they assign the students.
A corresponding course offer for this course already exists in the e-learning system. Teaching staff can store materials relating to teaching courses there: