LING 1000: Language in U.S. Society

Nontechnical exploration of the ways that language is used in America. Emphasizes language as a social institution and how values and goals of both public institutions and private groups shape and are shaped by language and its use.

Learning Objectives

• Students will examine real people using real language in real situations, as opposed to theoretical approaches to linguistics. Therefore students will draw from their own experiences to understand the course material;
• Students will grow in their expertise of their own language use as a member of U.S. society (whatever length of time they have been in the U.S., at CU, etc.) as they learn terminology to describe their daily language practices;
• Students will examine what is ‘taken for granted’ or understood as ‘normative’ language use and consider multiple perspectives of language acquisition, language learning, day-to-day conversations and institutional talk;
• Students will think critically about language and the role that language plays in our lives as social beings, moving from a theoretical or structural perspective to consider how they and those they interact with are using language strategically and for multiple intersecting purposes.
   

In this course, you will

  Uncover details about language use that you are subconsciously aware of but perhaps haven’t thought about in detail;

  Learn from your peers’ experiences with language use in the U.S.;

  Explore language use in specific contexts like: the courtroom, the classroom, political debates, in interviews and on social media.

Meet Your Instructor 

Sarah Adams

  saad1393@colorado.edu 

Sarah Adams is a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at CU Boulder after getting her Masters in Linguistics here in 2022. She has lived in Denver since 2016, back when she was a middle school Spanish teacher. As a sociolinguist, Sarah is interested in the intersection of language with our social identities and she focuses on sports discourse and conversation analysis. In her free time, Sarah spends time with her cat Poppy listening to Taylor Swift and watching hockey, F1 and the WNBA.