Course Catalog

This course will focus on sociocultural and linguistic analysis of the Spanish language in the United States. The course will examine the linguistic diversity of Spanish spoken in different communities throughout the United States, including Spanish-speaking communities in New York, California, and Texas, among others. We will also examine the presence of Spanish in our local community, the greater Green Bay area, through community-based learning activities. As a way of connecting what we do in the classroom to what goes on outside of the classroom, students enrolled in this course will participate in English-Spanish conversation exchanges with native Spanish speakers in a community-based non-profit program. Students will examine the linguistic features of the Spanish they hear, explore how concepts covered in class, such as language maintenance, manifest in our local Spanish-speaking community, and gain first-hand insight into Hispanic culture through interactions with their conversation partner. Students will reflect on the presence of Spanish in our local community, its features, and their experiences participating in these English-Spanish conversation exchanges in discussion and in writing. As we study the features of Spanish spoken in different communities throughout the U.S., including our local community, we will also consider questions such as whether Spanish is the same as or different from other immigrant languages in the United States today, the relationship between language and identity, and what is Spanglish, among other questions. Prerequisite: SPAN 311.