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Hispanic Linguistics

In this section you will find all my final papers during my studies in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Minnesota. There are three divisions where each year's jobs are displayed. Being a formative and evolutionary process, through the different samples of works, you will be able to see the evolution of the learning process. Subjects correspond to different branches of linguistics where it is intended to train a multifaceted linguist.

First Year

In the first year I saw different subjects that are part of the training of a linguist. I took a pragmatic class where the real use of communication and the analysis that can be done for each communicative event. I also took sociolinguistics where the importance of a linguistic study with social variables is highlighted since many times they are the most representative and significant results are derived. Similarly, the advanced learners class taught me the gap between the different concepts of "advanced" since depending on the perspective there are different variables and conceptions. On the phonological side, I was able to understand what a "sound" can mean, there are various study methods and analysis perspectives. For the phonology subject, the final paper could not be put into practice due to the coronavirus pandemic that led to a lack of participants and also to the analysis of results, however, the theoretical framework was completed and it is ready to be continued. Finally, in the class of Language & Education Policy was able to distinguish the importance of the "policy" behind the use of language and its implications. To see the final paper of each subject just click on each name below:

Second Year

During the second year I continued to consolidate my knowledge of Hispanic linguistics from other perspectives. However, due to the pandemic, it was not possible to complete a project, but the study proposal was made. For the classroom discourse class, I continued with my investigation about the paradox between the concept of multilingualism in academic journals and the language policies to publish in these journals. I took this topic in a deeper level of critical analysis and gave it more consistency. In the case of dialogism class, based on Per Linell's (2009) proposal, I analyzed the role of third parties in the definition of indigenous identity. In this work, I relied on public videos where indigenous people from various communities define their own identity. Another of the classes I took was Spanish in the United States, where we worked on the use that is given to Spanish by different communities of Hispanic descent in the American territory. In this class I learned the uses that are given to the Spanish language both from the perspective of the speaker and the listener, mainly by heritage speakers. For this subject I wrore a proposal of research about the perception of code-switching in heritage speakers according to Spanish teachers in the United States. 

In reference to the second half of the year, I took a class on sociolinguistic research approaches where I did four projects, instead of a final paper. The first two were related to an individual interview and the last two to an analysis of a familiar and informal discourse. Each analysis was made under different perspectives and approaches to gain more experience in different approaches. I also took a class on Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency (CAF) where through the study of different investigations, it is possible to become aware of the multidimensionality of these components in the learning and teaching process of a language. For this reason, I took Spanish teachers as the participants for my research since they are a population that can show their perception from different perspectives (teaching - learning). Finally, in the perceptual studies phonology class, I investigated some of the prosodic factors that can affect the concept of fluency in Spanish L2 learners. I consider this last study as a multifaceted one since it considers the sociophonetic perspective and the acquisition of a second language. Click on each name below to see the final paper, keep in mind that in sociolinguistics each number represents each project, so there will be four files:

Sociolinguistics 1, 2, 3 and 4

Reference: 

Linell, P. (2009). Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically: interactional and contextual theories of human sense-making (EBSCOhost (ed.)) [Book]. Information Age Pub.

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