SLS 150 provides historical and global perspectives on being and becoming multilingual and multicultural. These are features of people, cultures and states both in the past and increasingly, in the present conditions of the 21st century, which the course addresses on a topical (rather than time-sequence) basis. The historical and geographical contexts encompass cases (national and individual) of second language learning, teaching, use, growth, change, and loss across major regions of the world, from ancient times to the (technologically-mediated) present. Within the broad global and historical understanding, it also addresses concepts and practices enabling individuals to better understand their motivations and improve their abilities to learn or maintain and use a second language and interact across cultural differences and boundaries.
Department of Second Language Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa