SP/LG/SO 470 - Sociolinguistics of Spanish

New Fall 2025 Course pending approval from IES Abroad Curriculum Committee

The course delves into the study of the relationship between language and society across social, spatial, and stylistic dimensions, exploring how various social factors—such as age, gender, educational attainment, and geographic location—shape and influence the variation of the Spanish language. Through a rigorous theoretical and applied framework, the course examines key phenomena including the contemporary status of Spanish globally, linguistic variation across multiple dimensions (diatopic, diaphasic, and diastratic), bilingualism, language contact, and linguistic change within diverse sociocultural contexts. The course not only seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of language dynamics within its societal framework, but also aims to cultivate a critical awareness of linguistic identity and the role of language policies in shaping the Spanish-speaking world. This academic engagement encourages students to critically evaluate the sociolinguistic processes that underpin language use and variation, fostering advanced competencies in the analysis of sociolinguistic issues.