Project Explores Spanish as It Is Spoken in Texas

From http://sites.la.utexas.edu/spanishtx/about-the-project

The purpose of “Spanish in Texas” is to make available authentic knowledge about the diversity of Spanish and speakers of the Spanish language in Texas for the improvement of educational programs in the state of Texas and beyond.

The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL)’s team of Spanish-English bilingual undergraduates from UT have recorded more than 45 interviews and conversations with Spanish speakers throughout the state. Click on the “Videos” link to see closed captioned [CC] extracts from some of these interviews. The project directors are working with bilingual specialists and educators to develop instructional materials based on the video corpus for use by student, educators, researchers and the general public.

Materials already available include links to videos of Spanish speakers from Texas with comments about the language you’ll hear and why it takes the form that it does; links to the “Linguistic Landscape” of Texas with images of signs that reflect the unique nature of a bilingual Texas; and facts about Spanish speakers in the United States that may help people to reconsider many of the myths people tell about Spanish speakers in the United States.

The project website is available at http://sites.la.utexas.edu/spanishtx