This is a community-based research (CBR) course for 400-level students of Modern Languages who wish to bridge service and action research. The course provides an experiential component for advanced students of Modern Languages. Such a component will allow ML students to use their second language and culture while acquiring or honing their research skills. CBR helps bridge the gap between university and community life to facilitate the development of life-long learning habits and humanistic citizenship. ML students and faculty will jointly design and create ways in which to give back to the community under study, which will be chosen based upon the language, culture and/or history of a specific community. Some examples of this would be to: document a communitys history or culture, establish an ongoing link between the university and the community, or identify and solve a community problem. Using both English and their target language, students in this course may participate in historical, ethnographic and cultural research; ethnographic fieldwork; and problem solving around the question of how best to identify a particular linguistic/cultural community and document, interpret, preserve and disemminate its history and culture. Class activities may include group, pair and independent reading and research; group and pair travel; group, pair and one-on-one interaction with community members; public presentations; photography/filming/scanning; webpage and document design; and different kinds of writing in both English and the target language. Prerequisites: Completion of 300 level coursework in ML and permission of the instructor.
