230623 Language and Ethnicity (S) (SoSe 2009)

Among the contact phenomena in the English-speaking world the dimension of ethnicity has become increasingly important. One of the goals of this seminar will be to explore some of the aspects of ethnicity, identity, and language use. In a first phase we will try to establish a working understanding of ethnicity that is elastic enough to deal both with ethnicity within English-speaking communities as well as with the ethnicity of users of English, some of whom are not what are commonly understood as native speakers.

What role does a person’s ethnic identity play in his or her choice of languages and how does it influence the nature of those languages? What role does interference (L1 – L2; English variety 1 – English variety 2) play? A selection of case studies will help us to understand a variety of different sorts of language use situation, both historical and present-day and obviously both native and non- native. Special attention will be given to Spanish-English contact in the United States under the aspect of ethnic identity.

The work of the seminar will include background reading, the writing of essays on aspects of relevance to the topic, and a (group) presentation within the framework of one of the case studies.