Course Description
This course will first explore the nature of bilingualism, focusing on its neurolinguistic, psycholinguistic, and linguistic aspects. Students will examine the most important concepts and research questions in these areas. In addition, the class will focus on bilingualism in the United States and the Spanish-speaking world, including the examination of bilingual education programs (e.g., immersion programs) and important political matters connected to them.
Course Summary
Bilingualism in the Spanish speaking world was another course under the instruction of professor Pablo Oliva. Similar to his other courses, his activities and exercises were predominately engaging while also fulfilling the goal in encouraging learning. Compared to other courses, the material presented was challenging and involved a lot of time to digest. Even so, Professor Oliva did a really good job at reviewing the material after it was assigned. In the beginning of the term we first went over the physiology of the brain. We learned the different parts of the brain and went over which parts of the brain pertain to language. After having basic understanding of how the brain worked, we discussed topics relating to speech impediments and what causes them. The most interesting was related to Aphasias and how they affect bilingual people. It was discovered that although language is stored in the language center of the brain known as Broca's and Wernicke's (mostly found in the left hemisphere), second languages are stored on the other side of the brain. This in turn has resulted in the ability to regain speech in some patients that were bilingual. Other topics learned in class included the critical stages of language development relating to how and when we learn speech. L1 refers to our maternal language which is usually what the mother speaks to the child. L2 refers to the second language learned that isn't spoken amongst family. Of course this is circumstantial and cases exist where children learn more than one language at a time. A phenomenon relating to this involved doctors telling parents not to speak to their children in more than one language. This was due to a child's lack or inability to speak causing concern. It was later found that children would typically absorb both languages while receiving all input from either languages that the child was being exposed to. Eventually the child would be able to speak both languages without struggle. Other topics that we touched base on also related to the acquisition of second languages and how attrition can occur when it's not being used. In demonstrating our understanding of the class we were asked to present the variations of Spanish that has been influenced by other languages. I focused on different dialects of Spanish spoken in the U.S.
MLO's Satisfied
MLO 1-3
Work Samples
características_dialectales_del_español_en_e.e.u.u..pdf | |
File Size: | 289 kb |
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