Slavic 210

Ways of Being: Introduction to Bilingualism

Winter 2015

Instructor: Katarzyna Dziwirek Telephone: 543-7691, 543-6848

Office: Smith Hall M260 e-mail: dziwirek@uw.edu

Office Hours: Tue, Thu 1:30-2:30 and by appointment

Class website: http://faculty.washington.edu/dziwirek/slavic210/slav210.shtml

Textbooks:

& Myers-Scotton, Carol. 2006. Multiple Voices: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publlishers Inc.

& Shin, Sarah J. 2013. Bilingualism in Schools and Society. Routledge (Taylor & Francis).

Learning objectives/goals:

1. Explore the phenomenon of bilingualism from multiple perspectives

2. Expose students to the various disciplines and UW departments which study bilingualism

3. Validate students’ experiences as bilinguals and enhance their understanding of diversity

4. Expose students to minority language communities in Washington state and involve them in language documentation

Requirements:

u Readings: Please follow the reading schedule.

v Class Participation: You should be prepared to discuss the readings in class and contribute your comments and critical evaluations. This also includes asking our guest speakers intelligent questions!

w Assignments, projects and grading: there are 5 study activities (1-3 pages x 10 points each = 50 points), a country report (4-5 pages, 20 points), two tests (2 x 40 points), a final project (5-7 pages, 50 points: paper 30, handout 10, presentation 10). Total: 200 points. Final grade is based on the number of points achieved and class participation. Point penalty for late assignments. For all assignments and projects provide references/works cited.

Country Report (due 2/5)

Pick a country or area of the world and write a brief report on the linguistic situation there. Research what languages are spoken, how linguistic minorities are accommodated, what are the official language policies, status of bilingual education, etc. Where appropriate reflect on larger issues: what is a language, what is the difference between a language and a dialect, etc. (4 pages) Best reports will be posted on the class website.

Report on a Minority Language (due 3/17, presentations 3/10 and 3/13)

This project is survey of a minority language spoken in your community, i.e., the greater Seattle area, Washington State, or the Pacific Northwest. It can be a language of an immigrant community or a Native American language. Please choose your language early and let me know what your choice is by January 22 as this is a quarter long fieldwork project. You will need to identify key figures/leaders in the community and interview at least one such person. Your report should include the estimated number of speakers of the language in the area (use census figures and other data), information on the efforts to promote language maintenance (is there a community center, a heritage language school, what organizations there are, what publications, cultural activities, is the language taught at UW, etc.), and a brief evaluation of language maintenance/shift across generations (are there more or fewer speakers of the language in this area now than 20/40/60 years ago? why? consider immigration patterns and degree of integration over time, etc.). You can use interviews, surveys, publications, participate in community events, etc. Cite interviews in references. This can be a group project (at most 2 students). A group is expected to turn in a longer assignment (>7 pages). Best reports will be posted on the class website.

�Honors students enrolled in Honors 211 C are expected to write more in-depth country reports (5 or > pages), a longer final project (>7 pages), and submit an additional project (5 pages, due 3/12, 25 points), for a total of 225 points. Please choose ONE of the following:

Code-Switching

If you are a bilingual person: for one week pay special attention to your speech. Keep a notebook with you and write down all instances of code-switching. Summarize your data and try to find generalizations: when do you code-switch the most (talking to X, talking about X, in the context of X), what type of switching is most common (using language X nouns, verbs….).

Identity - Culture, Emotions, Behavior

Write about your own experiences or interview a bilingual person about the cultural obstacles you/they had faced, with special emphasis on emotions. Reflect on what it means to be a bicultural person when it comes to everyday behavior and fitting in in a different culture. This can be “unscientific” and anecdotal, but do address the bigger questions of to what extent the language we speak determines who we are, how we behave, how we express emotions, what behaviors we expect from others, what we perceive as rude/polite, etc.

“State of the Art” Report

Pick an area of special interest to you (bilingual children, code-switching, language death, pressures in language maintenance, linguistic diversity and linguistic human rights, neurolinguistic aspects of bilingualism, etc.), and write a literature review summarizing the current "state of the art" on this topic.

Honors students are encouraged to archive items from this course in their Honors learning portfolios. Readings, lecture notes, visual materials, syllabi, tests, papers, etc., are examples of items that might assist with reflection on experiential learning and ways of thinking within and across disciplines. The Honors electronic learning portfolios span students’ undergraduate years and are best used as an ongoing, dynamic forum for the integration of knowledge. In addition to archiving items, students are also asked to take a few minutes to write-up a paragraph or two describing the significance of the archived items and how what they learned in the course contributed to their larger experiences, goals, and thoughts about education and learning.

Course Outline and Reading List

Week 1: Introductions, Definitions

January 6 Introduction of Course Themes and Goals

January 8

Shin, Chapter 1: Facts and myths about bilingualism

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 1: Introduction

$ Video: The Linguists

Study Activity 1: Select five individuals whom you would describe as bilingual. Ask each of them whether he or she would consider himself or herself bilingual and why. Compare your definition with theirs and list the important factors that need to be taken into account in defining bilingual speakers. (2-3 pages) Due 1/15.

Week 2: Social and Political Dimensions of Bilingualism

January 13

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 2: What is a Language? What is a Dialect?

Shin, Chapter 3: The Politics of Bilingualism

Guest Speaker: Bojan Belić (Slavic) Am I mono-/bi-/tri-/quadri-/multilingual?

Study Activity 2: Study Question 2 or 4 p. 71 Shin (2 pages) Due 1/22.

January 15

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 3: Who is a Bilingual?

Shin, Chapter 2: Bilingualism in a Globalized World

Guest Speaker: David Caballero (Electrical Engineering) on diglossia in Paraguay

Ö Study Activity 1 due

Week 3: Social and Political Dimensions of Bilingualism

January 20

The Ethnologue: www.ethnologue.com

Documents relating to language rights:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:

social.un.org/index/IndigenousPeoples/DeclarationontheRightsofIndigenousPeoples.aspx

UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage:

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00006

European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages:

http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/148.htm

Native American Languages Act of 1990: www2.nau.edu/jar/SIL/NALAct.pdf

January 22

$ Video: Voices of the World. The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity

Test 1 review

Ö Study Activity 2 due

Ö Minority community selection due

Week 4: Social and Political Dimensions of Bilingualism

January 27

Guest speaker: Jaroslava Soldanova (Slavic) on Czech diglossia

Test 1

January 29

$ Video: James Tollefson: Linguistic Winners and Losers: The Power of Language Policy

Guest speaker: Rachel Vaughn (Carlson Center) on fieldwork

Week 5: Measurement of Bilingualism in Societies and Individuals

February 3

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 4: Language Maintenance and Shift

Study Activity 3: Carry out a ‘domain analysis’ of the language choice patterns of a bilingual family or a small group of bilingual speakers, using a questionnaire or through interview. Summarize your findings in a chart or table. (1-2 pages) Due 2/12.

February 5

Census 2000: Language Use and English-Speaking Ability

American Communities Survey

Guest speaker: Cassandra Hartnett (Suzzallo Library Government Publications) on the

US Census and the American Communities Survey

Ö Country Report due

Week 6: Bilingual children

February 10

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 11: Age of Acquisition and Success with a Second Language

Shin, Chapter 9: Multilingual families

Guest speaker: Michelle Anciaux Aoki (International Education Administrator, Seattle

Public Schools)

February 12

Shin, Chapter 4: Heritage language education

Shin, Chapter 7: Educating English Learners

Guest speaker: Maria Burgess (Linguistics) on linguistic capital and heritage speakers

Study Activity 4: Find out what tests are used to measure language achievement in your school district. For what purposes are these tests being used? Are they fair to bilingual children? OR, find out how speakers of other languages are assessed for placement in your school district. (2 pages) Due 2/19.

Ö Study Activity 3 due

Week 7: Bilingual Adults: Language and Identity

February 17

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 5: Ideologies and Attitudes

Shin, Chapter 5: Bilingualism and identity

Guest speaker: Wendy Kempsell Jacinto (Linguistics) on language attitudes in Germany

Study Activity 5: Analyze an IQ test and locate any items that you think are unfair to bilinguals, OR ask a bilingual person how they see the relationship between bilingualism and thinking: do they feel it gives them any advantages or disadvantages, elicit examples. (1-3 pages) Due 2/26.

February 19

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 6: The Social Motivations for Language Use in Interpersonal

Interactions

Guest speaker: Maya Smith (French and Italian) Language use and attitudes among

Senegalese immigrants in Paris, Rome, and New York

Test 2 review

Ö Study Activity 4 due

Week 8: Linguistic Aspects of Bilingualism

February 24

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 7: Inter-cultural Communication

Test 2

February 26

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 8: Lexical Borrowing

Guest speaker: Clarissa Surek-Clark (Linguistics) on language contact and creoles

Ö Study Activity 5 due

Week 9: Linguistic Aspects of Bilingualism

March 3

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 9: What Happens to Grammars in Bilingual Contexts

Guest speaker: Wendy Kempsell Jacinto (Linguistics) on Spanish-English code-

switching in the US

March 5

Shin, Chapter 6: Social and conversational aspects of code-switching

Myers-Scotton, Chapter 13: Conclusions

Guest speaker: Julia Herschensohn (Linguistics) -

Week 10: Final Project Reports

March 10

Final Project Reports

March 12

Final Project reports

Ö Honors project due

Final papers due: Tuesday 3/17 by noon under the door of Smith M260, no extensions, yes incompletes.