This course examines ‘globalization’ and its impact on world’s languages, cultures and peoples. It answers questions like: What is globalization? How has globalization changed the world around us politically, economically, culturally and linguistically? What have been the positive and negative linguistic outcomes of globalization? To answer these questions, we will focus on the sociolinguistic dimension of globalization in our contemporary world and the multiple issues and challenges that concern world languages and cultures. Topics covered in the course include: the ‘global’ language(s), linguistic harmonization, linguistic hybridity, linguistic inequality, language and identity, language and colonialism, language death and decline, language revitalization and documentation, to name but a few. Although the geographic focus of the course is as global as its central topic, special attention will be paid to languages (from all over the world) that are chosen by students for their class projects.
School of Arts and Sciences
