ITAL-5520 Ital. Today: Socio&Appl. Ling.

Course Description

The main objective of this course is to introduce students to both sociolinguistic and applied linguistic theories and concepts that are essential to understanding how the Italian language functions today. Such knowledge is basic to both research and teaching in different areas of Italian studies. The section devoted to sociolinguistics focuses on theories and concepts that exemplify the many ways in which linguistic issues are connected to social issues of importance to modern Italy such as definitions of identities, class, regional and social differentiations, ideologies related to ingroup and outgroup belonging, and so forth. The section devoted to applied linguistics has a practical orientation in that its objective is to provide students with notions and tools that are essential for the teaching of Italian. Various approaches to the teaching of foreign and second languages with particular reference to Italian will be presented and discussed with students, and then problems and strategies related to the development of the different competencies involved in learning a language will be introduced. Students will also be required to conduct classroom observations and practical exercises.

Section Notes

The course meets synchronously on Zoom The main objective of this course is to introduce students to both sociolinguistic and applied linguistic theories and concepts that are essential to understanding how the Italian language functions today. Such knowledge is basic to both research and teaching in different areas of Italian studies. The section devoted to sociolinguistics focuses on theories and concepts that exemplify the many ways in which linguistic issues are connected to social issues of importance to modern Italy such as definitions of identities, class, regional and social differentiations, ideologies related to ingroup and outgroup belonging, and so forth. The section devoted to applied linguistics has a practical orientation in that its objective is to provide students with notions and tools that are essential for the teaching of Italian. The course is taught in Italian.