Topics are chosen for their significance and impact on the Hispanic cultures and may include, but are not limited, to religion, politics, issues of gender, philosophy, feminism, minority groups, linguistics. Recent linguistic topics have included Dialectology . Emphasis will be placed on building a vocabulary of commercial terminology, the writing of business letters, and role-plays of job interviews and business presentations. In addition, cultural, psychological and sociological distinctions will be treated, as a means of facilitating commercial relations within the Spanish-speaking world. This course can be beneficial to both native and non-native speakers of Spanish.
Phonology is the study of speech sounds and their patterns in a given language.
Students in this course will learn about the contrastive sounds of the Spanish language and how they are pronounced in different phonetic and stylistic contexts. Laboratory work will include listening to tapes and the preparation of an individual series of recordings by each student. Later in the semester the historical development of the Spanish language from Latin to the present day will be discussed. We will also examine different dialects and sociolinguistic aspects of contemporary Spanish in Spain, Latin America and the United States. Students will have the opportunity to pursue topics of individual interests, chosen in consultation with the instructor, in the form of oral and written presentations.