Faculty First Year Seminars 197LLC2 - Many Faces of Lang in West NE

This course will provide students with an overYiev of some commonlv spoken languages in Western New England (WNE) (especially in 1-Iartford, Springfield and Holyoke) namely African American English,Jamaican Creole English, Haitian Creole, Puerto Rican Spanish/English, Portuguese and Vietnamese. We will pay special attention to language stigma and the idea of a "standard English". Vhile there is very little academic work on any of these language varieties as spoken in WNE, students will discuss their personal experiences with these languages and invited speakers will share their experiences as well. , great deal of attention will be paid to the language attitudes that New Englanders from all different backgrounds have with respect to these language varieties and the implications of
these language attitudes in society. Students will be exposed to possible areas of research for all topics discussed, especially in light of the paucity of research on language variation in WNE.

Freshmen Only