Students in SPA 211 discuss issues of multilingualism with Prof. César Cumbe
Prof. César Cumbe
On April 18, Prof. César Cumbe, from the University of Maputo, visited the SPA 211 class as part of the Mozambique Week event. He spoke about multilingualism and language contact in the city of Maputo.
During the semester, the students have learned about dialectal variation in Spanish and they have reflected about the social, political and cultural aspects that determine the way in which people speak.
SPA 211 students
In preparation for Prof. Cumbe’s visit, the students had read about the linguistic diversity in Africa, including the role of Spanish in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara. They also did some research about the implications of Portuguese as an official language in Mozambique and the national status of the 43 African languages that are also spoken in this country.
SPA 211 students
Prof. Cumbe’s presentation of visual representation of multilingualism in Maputo was followed by an open discussion with the students. They asked several questions about the use of the official and the national languages in everyday life and the consequences of language contact in public education, identity, and social stratification.
See more pictures of this event here.
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