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Linguistics is the discipline that studies human language in all of its forms. This is a final year optional module which introduces students to empirical research methods through practice. The field of Spanish linguistics has grown recently in research methods and approaches. In this course, we will focus on two areas: bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking world, including the second/third language acquisition of Spanish, and variation in Spanish. Within these areas, students will be free to work on a topic of their choice: phonology/phonetics, syntax, pragmatics, attitudes, pedagogical approaches to second/heritage/third language acquisition, etc.
Students will carry out empirical research in small groups. With that objective in mind, they will read literature on a topic of their own choosing, synthesize it, write research questions and hypotheses, create materials for data collection (surveys, interview questions, etc.), collect and analyze data, and write up a report.
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