Professor Kimberly Geeslin
Email: kgeeslin@indiana.edu

S614	Topics in Acquisition of Spanish
	Topic: Second Language Variation

MW 9:30am – 10:45am/section #24887/3cr./Woodburn Hall 109

The purpose of this course is to examine closely the intersection of
research on language variation and studies of the process through
which learners pass as they acquire these variable norms.  Arguably
one of the most difficult aspects of a second language to acquire,
norms for variation involve an understanding of which forms are
appropriate for the expression of a given meaning in a single
discourse context. The acquisition of these norms is inextricably
linked to a second language speaker’s ability to indicate group
membership through phonological, morphological, syntactic and
lexical choices. In the second half of this course, the methods of
analysis employed in variation approaches to second language
acquisition will be applied to the study of the acquisition of other
phenomena in Spanish, by English-speaking learners.  Such phenomena
are the result of diachronic change in progress, and these changing
norms create moving targets for language learners.  It will be seen
that certain grammatical features that have long been understood to
be static across time, are not invariable and therefore create
challenges for second language learners attempting to reach native-
like competence, and for second language acquisition researchers
whose goal is to describe this process.

Students should have access to a general reference text on
sociolinguistics (such as those from S513) and on second language
acquisition (such as those listed on the MA reading list, or
required for S515).