The Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies program is offering an interdepartmental undergraduate minor in Applied Language Studies (ALS) starting Fall 2009. Sometimes called Applied Linguistics, the field of Applied Language Studies is devoted to the study of particular domains of language learning and use, such as foreign language learning and teaching, bi- and multilingualism, translation and interpretation, communication in professional contexts, or intercultural communication. The ALS minor will help students use their language learning experience, for example, to gain an understanding of:

• how languages are learned
• how language is related to individual cognition and to social context
• how languages are used to achieve a wide range of social, cultural, aesthetic purposes
• how language relates to culture, power and identity
• how language and other symbolic systems construct both actual and virtual realities
• what it means to be bi- or multilingual

This minor will be particularly useful for those who have experienced learning or speaking a language other than English, but it is open to all undergraduates.

Course requirements:

How to sign up:

Please contact: Carol Snow, Student Affairs Officer, Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies Program, 359 Campbell Hall, at (510) 642-2628. Drop-in Advising: M-F 9:30-12, 1-4

For more information, contact: Prof. Richard Kern or Prof. Claire Kramsch; or see: http://ls.berkeley.edu/ugis/als/.

Catalogue description

This course is an introduction to the study of language as applied to real-world problems in specific situations in which people use and learn languages, e.g., language learning and teaching, language socialization, bilingualism and multilingualism, language policy and planning , computer-mediated communication, stylistics, translation, intercultural communication, language and symbolic power, political and commercial rhetoric. In each of these cases, language at once represents, expresses and is a metaphor for reality. The course explores such questions as: How do people acquire a language that is not their own and how does this affect their social and cultural identity? How do people not only say things but do things with words? How does language both reflect and construct values, beliefs and ideologies? How can language both create problems and help solve them in the real world of politics, religion and academia? Three hours lecture and discussion per week. Fieldwork: observation and analysis of language-related real world problems.