SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROFILE RESEARCH PAPER INTRODUCTION Language teaching and learning is one of the most difficult aspects of the process of acquiring new languages for both teachers and students. Sociolinguistics course is one of the integral parts of this process that has been developing for several years and it mainly studies the connection of a language's use with social factors such as a language user's gender, race, geography, and socioeconomic status. The reading materials we have learned during this course have given us a lot of knowledge regarding the sociolinguistic processes at work, the importance of study in this field, and how these aspects affect language change and development. Sociolinguistics, according to Labov (1963), is essential for integrating language changes, which were previously ignored by other linguists. Piker (2007) noted that sociolinguistics examines speech to make assumptions about it. We examine how these generalizations impact language usage and question them as well. Instead of focusing on facts, sociolinguistics studies hypotheses about how societal norms affect our usage of language. We shall attempt to describe knowledge that incorporates more than just language grammar knowledge since it will become apparent that speakers know more or agree on more than just language grammar. Additionally, they display organized, systematized conduct during their performances. Knowing a language also means learning how to utilize it because speakers can create and employ sentences. To understand how each person behaves concerning these norms, this study aims to establish the language standards that apply to a certain group. This study is particularly insightful since most individuals are unaware of how societal standards affect how they use language. It will be also examined how linguistic diversity both enables and frequently indicates the direction of shift throughout time. SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROFILE OF A GROUP OF LEARNERS In selecting the group of ELLs for this research, it is important to take into account the particular characteristics that distinguish this group from other groups. For this assignment, I would like to select a group of students from the school where I previously worked. This is a Russian school located in Tashkent city and all lessons except foreign languages are conducted in Russian. On average, about a thousand students study in the school annually and they all have different social characteristics. The school mainly specializes in the teaching of exact sciences, and it has about 100 teachers and specialists. Moreover, it is under the Ministry of Public Education system, and all its educational programs, curriculum, and syllabus are provided by this Ministry. In specific subjects, this school has achieved some successes, for example, hundreds of students studying in it have taken high places in the republican Olympiads. When it comes to teaching English, the school aims to teach English only by using modern and interactive teaching methods and approaches (such as CLT and TBLT) and to make English lessons interactive. Therefore, more hours are allocated to English classes than other subjects in the distribution of general class hours. Furthermore, the main emphasis in English classes is not on improving students' grammatical knowledge, but on increasing their communication potential, namely to improve their speaking and writing skills in English. There, I mainly conducted English classes for high school students. More than 100 pupils, from fifth to eleventh grade, took my English classes at that school. I chose the 10th-grade students to whom I conducted English classes there. 14 students from various social and geographic backgrounds make up the chosen group. As Bucholtz (2003) noted when doing sociolinguistic research, it is vital to take into account the respondents' ethnicity and the location in which they were grown because these are the factors that are at the core of what is necessary to recognize linguistic variation and diversities. There are a total of 14 students in the group to which I was assigned and they are from different ethnic origins. 8 of them are considered to be the children of the foreign representatives of the population, while the remaining 6 students are ethnic Uzbeks. For this study, I divided those 10th-grade ELLs into two different subgroups based on their ethnicity and language background. A total of 6 students were selected for those groups. Below, I will explain the above-mentioned social factors in terms of their relevancy to the ELLs in those subgroups and their characteristics. So as I mentioned above I made up two subgroups and below I will describe them one by one. Svetlana is a Russian girl 13 years old. She lives in Tashkent. Svetlana is one of the best students in her class and is interested in learning math and English. In addition, she is a visual learner and has intrinsic and instrumental motivation to learn English. As for her language background, she is a bilingual girl, that is, she can communicate in Russian and English. Ahmad is an Uzbek guy who is 14 years old. He lives in the Zangiota district. Ahmad is an auditory learner and has intrinsic and integrative motivation. In addition, he is studying English mainly to study abroad. Ahmad is a multilingual student and can communicate in Uzbek, Russian, and English. Lin is a Korean girl and she is 13 years old. She lives in Tashkent city. She is interested in ICT and English. She is a visual learner and has an instrumental motivation in learning English. Her dream is to work for Samsung Electronics in the future. Lin is multilingual and can communicate in Russian, Korean, and English. Mavlon is an Uzbek guy and 14 years old. He comes from Tashkent city. He is also one of the best students in his class as well as an active and kinesthetic learner. Additionally, he has instrumental and intrinsic motivation to learn English. His goal is to study in the USA by winning a FLEX grant. He is also multilingual and can communicate in Uzbek, Russian, and English. Barchinay is a Kazakh girl who is 13 years old. She is from Tashkent city. She is a passive learner and has extrinsic motivation in learning English. She is also a multilingual student and knows Kazakh, Russian and English languages. Qosim is an Uzbek guy and 13 years old. He is also from Tashkent city. He is interested in physics and engineering. In addition, he is a visual learner and has intrinsic and instrumental motivation. His dream is to get IELTS band 8 and to apply for US Undergraduate scholarships. He is also multilingual and speaks Uzbek, Russian and English like his classmates. In addition, other social factors should be taken into account, and they also play an important role in creating this sociolinguistic profile. I will explain those factors below. One of the determining factors in the language acquisition process is discovered to be age. Even though anyone who learns L1 at an early age can acquire a second language, age has a direct correlation to how well a person learns a language according to Johnstone (1996). The age of the learner is very important in achieving the desired results because learning a foreign language is a more difficult and critical process. Because the students in both subgroups are roughly the same age, namely between the ages of 13 and 14, we can categorize them as teenagers. As much of the prior sociolinguistic study was conducted by estimating this subject, gender is one of the key factors for differentiating learners. Cameron (2005) proposes that language and gender studies should be more clearly segmented into distinctions using diversity methods as opposed to the traditional tripartite division. The first subgroup consists of 3 female students, whereas the second one includes 3 male students. Eckert (2003) highlights gender as a deciding factor in students' linguistic competence, citing annual data that show the effect of gender on the performance of various capabilities or disciplines in educational contexts. Social and socioeconomic status also plays a special role in the process of researching sociolinguistic changes and therefore this factor was selected as part of this sub-study. It also has an important role in dividing ELLs into two subgroups. Labov (1963) noted how well people can communicate with each other in a certain language or dialect can be connected to their socioeconomic status. Furthermore, he emphasizes that in the process of defining and analyzing the standard form of a language, the statuses of those who communicate in that language are important. The two groups separated for this study were divided into higher and lower status types, respectively. 3 female students in the first group are of higher status, and 3 male students in the second group are of a lower status. This, in turn, affects their language acquisition processes. The reason is that students from high-status families may not have the same conditions and opportunities as students living in low-status families. In a high-status family, parents can provide their children with all modern conditions and technologies for good education. Sociolinguists can use ethnicity as a tool to illuminate how language plays a role in the formation of identity. According to Fought (2011), ethnicity is what gives studying languages its complexity and difficulty. This factor was also important in dividing the students in that class into two groups. In addition, in this place, I paid attention to the extent to which students of different ethnic origins in these two groups can learn English successfully when they are studying in the same class. Students in subgroups belong to different ethnic origins, for example, 3 girls in the first subgroup belong to Russian, Kazakh, and Korean nationality. 3 boys in the second group belong to the Uzbek nationality. Except for English classes, they communicate with each other only in Russian. And in my English classes, the only factor that united them was English, because the goal of all of them was to learn English perfectly. In addition, if in the geographical area where they live, there is the majority of the population speaks another language, and they can speak that language partially and fully. Language background is also important. The reason is that during the research I witnessed that the children of the foreign representatives of the population in the first subgroup, namely Ukrainian, Russian and Belorussian students do not face serious problems in learning English. Furthermore, their overall performance in English is much better than others. I think this is because Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages belong to the same language family as English. Another factor is that they grew up in a family where the European worldview prevails, and their thinking and worldview are much broader and higher than that of local students. As observed by Fought (2011), our ethnic heritage may influence our accent, make us the focus of criticism from others, and expose us to painful mocking, discrimination, and biases. SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROFILE OF THE LEARNING CONTEXT The school selected for this study is located in the Chilonzor district of Tashkent, and its location makes the school an easily accessible destination for all students. That is why this school has a high ranking and is the preferred choice by most parents. The fundamental factor binding all of these different learners together is the learning context. They are all studying in one school and one class. Given that they speak different mother tongues and are of diverse ethnicities, English is also the sole language that unifies them in a single goal. Moreover, the three Uzbek guys Ahmad, Mavlon, and Qosim speaks with Tashkent dialect which is closer to the standard Uzbek language. The other three girls are from other ethnicities and they do not speak Uzbek, they only speak Russian while communicating with each other. One of the main goals of this school is to provide students, regardless of their level, with the necessary knowledge and to create the necessary conditions for them to learn English at least at the B2 level before leaving school. Modern teaching aids including LCDs, projectors, microphones, and speakers are available in the classrooms where English sessions are conducted. As for the other distinct features of their L3 learning context, I should mention that I witnessed some of them. For example, since they are all multilingual (we can consider them multilingual because they know 3 languages), they translanguage between the languages and code-switch in their L3 learning contexts. Furthermore, in the process of communication in L3, in some cases, they mix L3 (English) and L1 (Russian). In addition, after graduating from school, they want to apply for scholarship programs at higher educational institutions in various foreign countries and aim to get at least 7.0 points on the IELTS exam. The course syllabus is specifically created for learners and includes all language skills starting at the beginner levels. To be more specific, in this course, students acquire integrated knowledge of grammar, reading, listening, speaking, and other language abilities. In the same way, the selected set of students is instructed. They study English primarily from the "Fly High" series SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROFILE OF THE CONTEXT WHERE ENGLISH WILL BE USED Similar to how social elements are important in the learning of second languages, the learner's geographic context must have an effect on performance and the process of developing the language. The main reason for learning English for the target learners is to study abroad. Many of them intend to go to the USA to study for their undergraduate degrees in the future. One of the main reasons for this is the high quality of education there, and the second is the acquisition of Standard American English. They are inspired by Hollywood movies and the American English used in them. By watching these movies, they want to go to the USA themselves someday and acquire a real American English Accent. But in this process, they are always told to be prepared for some possible challenges that they are likely to face after going to a foreign country, for example, culture shock, language diversity, etc., and to be friendly to people of other races, nationalities, and religions. Moreover, we look at the student's current level of linguistic competence. The learners may interact in any English-speaking country thanks to their elementary level, but initially, the language may also be a problem due to native dialects or slow speaking tempo. To avoid being misinterpreted by native English speakers, the students are studying the language in its standard form. The relevancy of factors such as race, gender, sex, and ethnicity to this sociolinguistic profile should also be discussed. These factors were also considered in the process of selecting ELLs for this study. One of these variables is ethnicity, which served as the primary criterion for choosing the target group of students. There are 14 students in my group, 8 of whom have various ethnicity. When it comes to the factor of race, it is not relevant to this sociolinguistic profile because while compiling such kinds of work the researcher should be neutral to races. For example, we cannot judge a learner to be white and intelligent because he is European, and to be narrow-eyed, and not so intelligent because she is Mongoloid as it can be an inappropriate word used against someone's personality. Gender is considered to be a complicated sociocultural and sociopsychological construct that is not restricted to simply biological or physiological sex. Therefore, this factor was also not found to be a relevant factor for this sociolinguistic profile, because the group members selected for this work consisted of only two sexes, male and female. There are no members of other genders in the group. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS The students' level of language competence and areas that needed to be reinforced throughout the course of the sessions were determined using diagnostic and placement assessments at the beginning of the procedure. According to the test results, it was found that students have problems with 4 skills in English. To overcome these problems, I would like to implement the following in my classes: ● Incorporating all four techniques into each session; ● Constructing tasks that improve the students' productive and receptive skills; ● Utilizing interactive and integrated teaching methods and implementing modern technologies; ● Implementing CLT, TBLT, and other interactive teaching methods to make the lessons more interesting; The initial stage in a learner's language development is selecting efficient teaching techniques. Diagnostic tests were utilized to assess the student's knowledge and determine their needs. According to Brown (2010), diagnostic tests give instructors more knowledge about the areas in which pupils struggle, assisting them in deciding what should be focused on. The findings reveal that the gendered portion does very well in speaking, while the other grouping performs well in reading. On the account of this, I realized that inductive teaching strategies, CLT, PPP, and TBLT all needed to be utilized in combination in the classroom. Kameenui (1998), pointed out that every learner, regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances, may benefit from CLT and TBLT, because the teaching objectives of both of them are the same for every ELL. Furthermore, he noted that it is critical to consider students' financial, psychological, experiential, and cultural backgrounds while developing a curriculum for a group of pupils whose social characteristics differ from each other. Technology-based or game-based language instruction is also essential to creating a lively language classroom. Besides, when developing specific lesson plans, racial and cultural diversity must be taken into account. Topics that conflict with the pupils' social identities are not permitted to be covered by the instructor. For example, selecting a topic regarding religious preferences could not be compatible with other students' religious beliefs, or texts that are primarily fascinating to female students (such as texts about cooking or clothing) might depress male students. To capture students' attention, numerous instructional techniques such as role acting, problemsolving, brainstorming, and mingling activities are extremely effective. When it comes to pedagogical implications, I must develop the selection of methods or approaches, the modification of materials or classroom practices according to the distinct features as well as learning styles in terms of the learning context of my ELLs. Also, since the main goal of most of them is to have a native speaker accent, I can use methods such as roleplay games or TV shows in my lessons. For example, I can take one American TV show or news program and show it to the students and then ask them to summarize their conclusions about the program. Or I tell them that they can improve their pronunciation and accents by listening to the audio version of this show and imitating it. ASSESSMENT IMPLICATIONS When it comes to the language assessment part, I have to highlight some parts. Because they are important. In the assessment section, I cannot include the race and ethnicity factors. This is because it is inappropriate to assess ELLs based on their race or background in the language acquisition process. For example, if there is a Korean or Japanese student in the group and their English accent is poor, scoring them poorly on this factor is a bias. Similarly, male and female students should not be kept on two different levels or biased towards one of the two categories in the assessment process, on the contrary, the assessment should focus on maintaining equality between the two sexes. In the assessment process, the most important point should be focused on their overall performance in the language, not on sociolinguistic factors. When it comes to assessment and evaluation, it is advised to implement continual as well as diagnostic tests. To assist teachers to identify students' strengths and shortcomings in connection to the course material, diagnostic testing is a preliminary step in the information- gathering process. The educational materials are closely related to the diagnostic tests (Chiesa et al., 2019). Secondly, a technique known as continuous or formative assessment is used to track students' progress throughout the duration of the course and generates a single final grade. Brown (2010), noted another positive aspect of formative assessment as the idea that results are created utilizing a range of settings, objectives, and activities, allowing both teachers and students to acknowledge their areas of weakness. To evaluate students at the end of the term, the final exam may only be used as a summative evaluation CONCLUSION In conclusion, I have considered this sociolinguistic profile research paper to be valuable since getting constructive feedback raised the quality of the study, and another person's perspective is always able to see mistakes that we would not notice. As a result of several societal causes, the students are realistic with one another. According to Mesthrie et al. (2009), social variables are traits or qualities that affect how people behave and thrive in a certain group. It could have a minor or significant impact on the way of living. In addition to the characteristics indicated above, this study also briefly discusses the age, gender, and socioeconomic level of the selected students. Numerous examples are given by Goldstein (2006) to show how speakers of English as a second language may distinguish between different English types and transition between them. 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