World Languages and Cultures Syllabus
Weeks 1-6: Overview of Linguistics, World Languages and Cultures
Linguistics
What the heck are phonetics, semantics, morphology and phonology?
How do people acquire a first language? How do people acquire a second language?
Psycholinguistics – How do we study language learning and processing?
Sociolinguistics – How does region, social class and ethnicity influence speech?
Neurolinguistics – How does the brain learn language?
Historical linguistics – How did/do languages evolve? How did written languages develop?
The future of language – How will we communicate in 500 years? 5,000 years?
Animal Communication – Do other organisms use language to communicate?
World Languages – How are world languages classified?
Indo-European: Germanic, Celtic, Hellenic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Romance
Uralic: Finnish, Lapp, Hungarian
Altaic: Turkish, Korean, Japanese
Austroasiatic: Vietnamese, Cambodian
Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese
Afroasiatic: Aramaic, Arabic, Somali
North, Central and South American: Navaho, Nez Perce, Zapotec, Talamanca
Creoles: Haitian Creole
Sign language: American Sign Language, French Sign Language
World Cultures
What is meant by culture, and how does it influence our lives?
For your target culture, what is the religion, food, dance, family structure, social structure,
political system, customs?
How are new stories portrayed by different news services in different countries?
How do Fox, CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, NY Times, The Economist cover the same event?
Language Careers: Translator, Interpreter, CIA, Speech therapist, Language coach, ESL instructor
Weeks 7-15: Independent Language Study
Textbook and workbook work
Language Lab
Audio activities
On-line language learning programs
International news web-sites
Music, film, poetry: Recite a poem, perform a skit, make a city
Pen pals, social media networks
Native-speaker mentor
Weeks 16-18: Presentations and Final Exam
Prepare a meal from your target culture
Show film clips in your target language, that illustrate aspects of the culture
Teach the fundamentals of your target language
Final Exam: Linguistics, World Languages and Cultures, Target Language
Linguistics
What the heck are phonetics, semantics, morphology and phonology?
How do people acquire a first language? How do people acquire a second language?
Psycholinguistics – How do we study language learning and processing?
Sociolinguistics – How does region, social class and ethnicity influence speech?
Neurolinguistics – How does the brain learn language?
Historical linguistics – How did/do languages evolve? How did written languages develop?
The future of language – How will we communicate in 500 years? 5,000 years?
Animal Communication – Do other organisms use language to communicate?
World Languages – How are world languages classified?
Indo-European: Germanic, Celtic, Hellenic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Romance
Uralic: Finnish, Lapp, Hungarian
Altaic: Turkish, Korean, Japanese
Austroasiatic: Vietnamese, Cambodian
Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese
Afroasiatic: Aramaic, Arabic, Somali
North, Central and South American: Navaho, Nez Perce, Zapotec, Talamanca
Creoles: Haitian Creole
Sign language: American Sign Language, French Sign Language
World Cultures
What is meant by culture, and how does it influence our lives?
For your target culture, what is the religion, food, dance, family structure, social structure,
political system, customs?
How are new stories portrayed by different news services in different countries?
How do Fox, CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, NY Times, The Economist cover the same event?
Language Careers: Translator, Interpreter, CIA, Speech therapist, Language coach, ESL instructor
Weeks 7-15: Independent Language Study
Textbook and workbook work
Language Lab
Audio activities
On-line language learning programs
International news web-sites
Music, film, poetry: Recite a poem, perform a skit, make a city
Pen pals, social media networks
Native-speaker mentor
Weeks 16-18: Presentations and Final Exam
Prepare a meal from your target culture
Show film clips in your target language, that illustrate aspects of the culture
Teach the fundamentals of your target language
Final Exam: Linguistics, World Languages and Cultures, Target Language