Study of Language Structures

Catalog description

Contrastive linguistics introduces students of any language to the study of linguistics using English as the language of communication for all class-related activities. This course uses linguistics to talk about the language, i.e., use metalinguistic speech to describe what is different and what is similar between languages (e.g., English and Spanish). This course teaches how speakers use their second language, switch between the two languages and make sense of the way other people are speaking in order to avoid making grammatical mistakes, cultural misunderstandings and misinterpreting intentions that can get "lost in translation." Students will gain a deeper and fuller understanding of their second language and the way languages work in general.