Linguistics (LING)

Contrastive linguistics introduces students of any language to the study of linguistics using English as the language of communication for all class-related activities. This course uses linguistics to talk about the language, i.e., use metalinguistic speech to describe what is different and what is similar between languages (e.g., English and Spanish). This course teaches how speakers use their second language, switch between the two languages and make sense of the way other people are speaking in order to avoid making grammatical mistakes, cultural misunderstandings and misinterpreting intentions that can get "lost in translation." Students will gain a deeper and fuller understanding of their second language and the way languages work in general.

This course introduces students of any language to the sociolinguistic aspects of bilingualism using examples of bilingual communities in the United States for study. It focuses on bilingualism as an individual phenomenon (i.e., how do languages develop and interact in the mind of a bilingual speaker) and as a social phenomenon (i.e., how do groups of bilinguals interact in a community and how does their language shape social structures and those social structures shape their bilingualism). While we will study the use of multiple languages in the US, this course uses English as the language of communication for all class-related activities.

This course takes a historical approach to the study of Romance languages, the linguistic evolution from Latin to Romance, with a focus on three of the modern Romance languages, Spanish, Italian and French. The language of instruction is English. Students will study examples of sound change, morphological change, syntactical change and lexical development. The course will introduce linguistic geography, language contact, the relationship of language and culture, the role of dialects, the creation of the national standards, minority languages, and the expansion of Romance languages beyond Europe.

This course in forensic linguistics will provide students with a deeper understanding of contexts in which language and the law intersect, such as the analysis of police interrogations/interviews, linguistic evidence, police statements, legal statutes and interpreted mediated events. The course will also examine language use (oral and textual) with vulnerable populations (e.g., children, persons with cognitive and intellectual disabilities), non-native speakers of English, African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and the use of linguistic profiling.

This course is designed for world language education majors and other students who may be interested in pursuing a teaching career or learning about world language teaching. The course focuses on current methods of teaching world languages (and EFL) and their rationales, including national and state standards, language acquisition research, and theories of second language learning. The course also focuses on teaching practices and materials that can be used later in the field. Course activities and assignments will allow students to apply the theoretical knowledge in analytical and creative ways.