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Language Diversity and Linguistic Identity: Romance Languages in the United States


Course Description

Issues of language diversity and linguistic identity, with a special focus on the Romance Languages spoken in the United States. This course explores the history, demographics, and structure of French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish in the United States, adopting current techniques in sociolinguistics and dialectology. Taught in English.


Athena Title

Romance Languages in the U.S.


Equivalent Courses

Not open to students with credit in SPAN 2150


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Course Objectives

The primary objective of the course is to expose students to issues related to language diversity and its role in the daily lives of speakers of Romance Languages in the United States. This class will offer students the opportunity to learn about both the social and linguistic dimensions of French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish in the United States, covering topics such as language and migration, bilingualism, language attrition, heritage speakers, and language mixing. The course will provide students with the opportunity to apply current approaches and techniques to the study of language variation, including interviews with native speakers and language surveys. Moreover, students will observe speakers' attitudes about language use, focusing on populations of French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish speakers in the United States and the perceived status of these languages in American society. The centerpiece of the course will be a linguistic "fieldwork" project in which students conduct interviews with speakers in the local community and then use these interviews as data for an analysis of patterns of language use.


Topical Outline

The following is a sample topical outline of the course: 1. The linguistic "facts of life": What is language and how do we use it? 2. Language use and language variation in the United States 3. Romance Languages in the United States: A historical and social profile 4. Bilingualism and language contact 5. Code switching and code mixing 6. French in the United States 7. Italian in the United States 8. Portuguese in the United States 9. Spanish in the United States 10. Language subordination and linguistic profiling 11. Language diversity in the modern classroom


General Education Core

CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts