This course presents a linguistic survey of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, with a focus on the regional, social, and ethnic diversity in language use. Through the study of the history of Spanish and Portuguese in the region, contact with Amerindian and African languages and language planning and policy, students will gain an understanding of how the Spanish and Portuguese varieties spoken in Latin America were formed and of the social reality in which they exist today. Readings will be drawn from a selection of classic and contemporary research in the area, and will be critically assessed through tutorial discussion and in a final essay.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. understand the role of language in society, in particular as it applies to the Latin American context;
2. critically engage with scholarship in the field;
3. think about, write and present an argument using evidence and results from sociolinguistic research;
4. conduct and present research in Spanish.

1. Responses to questions based on tutorial reading, submitted weekly in Spanish (20%) [LO 1, 2, 3, 4]
2. 2 x 50-min in-class tests (30%) [LO 1, 2, 3, 4]
3. 1,000-word essay, in Spanish (30%) [LO 1, 2, 3, 4]
4. 10-minute oral presentation, in Spanish (20%) [LO 1, 2, 3, 4]

2.5 weekly contact hours (including one 1.5-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial), plus 7.5 hours of regular work per week outside class

Successful completion of SPAN2002, or demonstrated equivalent language skills. Upon successful completion of a placement test, you will issued with a permission to enrol.

See Requisite Statement

A set of weekly readings will be made available on Wattle, drawn from (among others):

Lipski, John M. 2006. El Español de América. Madrid: Catédra.

Mar-Molinero, Clare. 2000. Politics of language in the Spanish-speaking world. London / New York: Routledge.

Penny, Ralph. 2000. Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Penny, Ralph2005. Gramática histórica del español (2 ed.). Barcelona: Ariel.

Silva-Corvalán, Carmen. 2001. Sociolingüística y pragmática del español (Georgetown Studies in Spanish Linguistics). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

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