Foreign Language Class Added to Mason Catalog

By Broadside News Editor Asma Chaudhary

A new course will be added to the George Mason University catalog next semester titled, FRLN 385: Multilingualism, identity and power. The course, which will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., focuses on sociolinguistics and cultures.

There are no prerequisites for the course except that students are to have completed general education requirements or to have enrolled in them during the same time.

For the course, various objectives include questioning of how people choose certain languages to speak when they are multilingual. In addition, the course will study the effect of nationality, ethnicity and race with language.

According to a recent e-mail about the course, “students are expected to acquire an understanding of the sociolinguistics of multilingualism and language contact situations.”

Therefore, students can research characteristics that define identity and how it makes an effect of a certain society and possibly its political system.

In addition, the course is divided into different sections for in-depth discussions on ethnic communities and how the U.S. Census Bureau collects data. Using that information, student groups will create a “demographic report,” which will report their results in order to create more dialogue about certain patterns with linguistics.

For more information, students may e-mail Dr. Jennifer Leeman at jleeman@gmu.edu.