MLO 2: Linguistics
Students develop their knowledge of fundamental concepts in the fields of Hispanic and Applied Linguistics, and are able to apply them in the completion of research papers and data-driven small-scale research studies pertaining current issues in these areas.
WLC300: WLC Major Pro-Seminar, LING 392: Nature of Language & Language Acquisition, SPAN 395: Spanish Applied Linguistics and SPAN 303: Advanced Spanish Grammar
Many of the courses completed satisfied this Major Learning Outcome. Yet, a few were especially focused on exploring and teaching us the aspects of linguistics. WLC 300: Pro-seminar, helped me do a mini linguistics overview with an assigned research on the topic and presentations from experts. During Pro-seminar, I conducted a mini observation of a special case on dialect or regionalisms use, among a member of the Hispanic society. The importance of this activity is that it served as an early phase of research and of the type of work I would do in further and more advanced courses in that topic, such as in, Linguistics 392, Spanish 395 and Spanish 303. Additionally, as expected in Linguistics 392, the compositions of linguistics such as, phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and the factor of pragmatics as a huge role for communication, were analyzed and used to comprehend certain activities. Research by my partner and I was constructed to understand the university of linguistics either being in a monolingual, bilingual or multilingual environment. The research paper was centered on evaluating a native Spanish speakers’ ability in putting to use all compositions of linguistics as he acquired English as a second language. The research done in Ling 392, eventually served as a vivid example of what areas of difficulty we as native speakers tend to have as we initiate the journey of adapting a second language (English). Spanish 395, effectively overlapped on the information learned in Spanish 303, the approach in both courses had the goal of preparing Spanish major future instructors or professionals within the knowledge of the language. A detail in which both Spanish 395 and Span 303 coincided was in the personal growth I had within the topic on what is considered the “correct” Spanish. As a native Spanish speaker, who was taught Spanish at home, I uphold a non-academic Spanish, which allows flaws to form and progressively grow, especially as you may acquire a second language. The topic “variation” is genuinely what covers the million versions of Spanish spoken, all entitling down to no such form of correct version, but respecting and acknowledging the various forms. It was difficult to comprehend at first how linguistic experts would accept the informal versions, mainly titled as “incorrect”, but it was amazing to learn that all those experts, educators or professionals working with a language, simply acknowledge the versions by not diminishing any, yet recommend the academical one as the adequate version, as it is adaptable for use in many environments.