Languages and Cultures of America Field Research Project: local communities and their language practices

For this assignment,1 you will leave the UCSD area to learn more about one of the topics or speech communities we’ve talked about in this class. This is a two-part research paper which will involve performing some research on your field visit (i.e., your visit to some area outside of the UCSD campus) as well as further research into the speech community you have chosen.

In our class, the focus is language and culture. The field visit will give you further insight into cultural and historical dimensions of an American community. The goal is to allow you to perform an in-depth exploration of a speech community that is of particular interest to you. By exploring San Diego County, you can situate the experiences we discuss in class within a more local perspective. Your additional research will then complement this with information on the sociolinguistic context of the community you have chosen. Some questions you may address include: What languages are now used in your chosen area? What educational opportunities are there (e.g., dual immersion, classes to support English language learning)? Are there language revitalization/maintenance efforts underway? What U.S. policies or cultural patterns have had a hand in the current state of the speech community?

For this assignment, you will need to do the following:

1. Visit a relevant place of interest (the topic of your paper should be tied to an American context; for a non-exhaustive list of places you could visit, see page 3 of this document)

2. Write a short research paper in which you:

a. Describe the location of your visit in detail (i.e. park, museum, etc.)

b. Discuss what you learned by visiting.

c. Explain how the place you visited is relevant to a course topic (incorporate course concepts)

d. Complement what you learned on your visit with further research (minimally 2 sources) onthe sociolinguistic context of the speech community.

Your report should consist of approximately 550-700 words (~ 2 double-spaced pages with 1-inch margins; 12-point font). This word count does not include the appendix. The report will be evaluated along the following dimensions (The remainder of your grade will be based on the submission itself: whether you submitted a report of the appropriate length, whether you submitted all the required components, etc.)

3. Essay structure, grammar, and style.?Introduction, body, conclusion. Grammar and style should be formal and coherent.

4. Evidence of field-visit and field notes.?Provide photographic evidence of visit, and a scan of your field notes as an appendix.

5. Information learned in the field.?Describe the location. Explore information and insights gathered on-site.

6. Incorporation of Course Concepts.?Explain how the place you visited is relevant to concepts covered in the course (lecture material and class readings).

7. Sociolinguistic Research.?Discuss relevant information on the current sociolinguistic situation of the speech community.

8. Synthesis.Synthesize the information gathered: avoid lists that hit each point above. Instead, tie these elements into a larger cohesive narrative that draw connections between course concepts, and information from your field research visit and independent sources.

Some possibsle places to visit, though there are many, many more places you can visit

On local Native American Communities: Museum of Man