How Is HEL Relevant to Me?

This chapter discusses teaching the History of the English Language (HEL) as a sociolinguist and being guided by three areas in learning sciences: goals, self-regulated learning, and interest, particularly social and personal. Specifically, this chapter addresses the age-old student question, “How is this relevant to me?” Part of our job as college teachers involves getting students to realize the practicality of a course for their needs (e.g., “I need to take this class in order to graduate”), and another part is to acknowledge (or awaken in some cases) their intellectual curiosity (e.g., “I’ve always wondered why “knight” is spelled with letters that aren’t even pronounced”). This chapter provides examples of instruction and assignments that correspond to research literature on goals and interest with respect to teaching and self-regulated learning more broadly and teaching HEL from the perspective of a sociolinguist more specifically.