Goals and Topics: This course is about the facts of American English, both historical and current. Students will learn about the circumstances of colonial settlement as they relate to the English language, in other words how the languages of different ethnic groups came together with different dialects of British settlers to form a peculiarly American variety of English. Students will learn, through treatment of further settlement and changing social conditions, how American English has become and remained a regionally and socially pluralistic variety of English. Finally, students will develop perspective about American English as it exists today: is American English still changing? how is American English related to other varieties of English? what are the cultural and social implications of our standards and varieties?
- Teacher: Bill Kretzschmar