SPAN478A

Prerequisites: SPAN325, SPAN425, or permission of instructor. After over 500 years of presence in the United States, the study of Spanish currently brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines (linguistics, sociology, anthropology, education, legal studies, etc.) investigating a wide range of topics related to Spanish and Spanish-speaking communities in the US. The course examines the sociolinguistic context of the Spanish language spoken in the U.S. as well as its historical and contemporary challenges. While we will identify language internal traits in the various regions of the US where Spanish is spoken, the course will also focus on a range of extralinguistic factors such as race, gender, economic level, education, nationality and age and how language use is affected by these demographic characteristics.