Of the 30,168 people who live in Princeton, NJ, 8.4% identify as Hispanic and 4.74% report speaking Spanish on a regular basis. In fact, Spanish is the second most common non-English language spoken in Princeton.
In 2018, 5,260 undergraduate students and 2,845 graduate students were enrolled in Princeton University. Although the Hispanic population at Princeton University is small, it has been steadily growing over the past years. For the 2018-2019 academic year, 10% of students (undergraduate and graduate), 5% of faculty, and 6% of staff identified as Hispanic.
With this in mind, we found the need to document the use of Spanish in Princeton University, as this gives more visibility to our own Spanish-speaking community. Furthermore, creating a repository of interviews and casual conversations provides a more authentic perspective of a language that has an important presence on our campus, and it becomes a venue for the voices and experiences of those who live, study, and work in Princeton.
Finally, we hope that this corpus may become a reliable source for teaching and learning, not just for members of Princeton University, but also for anyone who may have an interest in Spanish and Hispanic cultures. These are some of the practical applications of our corpus:
As a tool for language learning:
– By learning various grammar topics and vocabulary.
– By improving listening comprehension skills and pronunciation.
– By becoming familiarized with stylistic aspects of the language (e.g. discourse markers, slang, etc.).
– By finding motivation to improve one’s linguistic skills from what they see in their peers interviews.
As a tool for linguistic analysis:
– By examining the way in which Spanish is spoken in the U.S.
– By analyzing language contact (cases of code switching, lexical borrowing, etc.).
– By studying the use of Spanish by Heritage speakers.
– By researching how students acquire Spanish.
As a tool for social analysis:
– By learning more about everyday life at Princeton University.
– By finding first-hand information about study-abroad programs, student projects and career goals, etc.
– By exploring the current challenges that members of the Princeton University community are facing (e.g. discrimination, identity, stereotypes, etc.).
