An in-depth investigation of topics in the fields of general and/or applied linguistics with emphasis on a particular country/region/linguistic population, language or language group. Possible topics include: history of a language or language group; sociolinguistics of a language or language group(s); structure of a language or language group; phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics or discourse analysis of a language and/or its dialects; acquisition of pragmatic, cultural and/or communicative competence in a language. This course will require advanced, in-depth theoretical and critical approaches to the material. Students will be expected to conduct part of their research in the target language of their area of study. May be repeated up to six credits with different subtitles. Prerequisite: Graduate standing and consent of instructor.