Beginning Linguistics - CSD 023 OL1 - Course Syllabus

Syllabus Beginning Linguistics, CSD-023, Fall, 2012 Charles Barasch, M.S., CCC-SLP [email protected] This course is being taught on-line, using a program called Blackboard. Although some of you may have taken on-line courses before, I imagine that for many of you it is a new experience. The process may seem Oz-like to you (and it is!), but it should work out well - we'll just follow the yellow brick road together and see where it takes us. Feel free to contact me any time at the e-mail address above. Course objectives The overall objective is to give you an understanding of our most human attribute: COMMUNICATION WITH LANGUAGE. Specifically, we will study the basic nature of human language, how language is constructed, and how language is acquired. We will examine how language is affected by social factors, how languages change, and whether all languages are "equal." The structure of the course follows the textbook, with a few differences. What to expect You'll find each week's lesson in Course Documents. Each week you will be expected to read from your textbook (generally a chapter each week) and discuss the week's lesson with your classmates. The discussions will be asynchronous (which means you can log on and post messages any time you want to - even while everyone else is asleep). Each lesson will be posted on Monday. Besides the textbook readings, I will provide " lecture" notes, just as if you were sitting in class. There will be two written projects and a shorter web-based exercise. The two quizzes and the final exam will be on-line. Required text Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams, N. (2010). An introduction to language (9th edition). Boston: Wadsworth. Additional readings will be assigned. Grading 2 quizzes (10 points each) 20 Discussion Group participation 25 " Dialect" Project 15 " Genie" Project 20 " Translation" Exercise 5 Final Exam 15

Total 100 Schedule Aug.27 Introductions Sep. 3 What is Language? (Chapter 1) 10 Brain and Language (Chapter 2) Description of Dialect Project 17 Language and Society (Chapter 10) 24 Language and Society, continued Oct. 1 Morphology (Chapter 3) Quiz 1 8 Syntax (Chapter 4) Dialect Project due Oct. 12 15 Semantics/Meaning (Chapter 5) Description of Genie Project 22 Language Acquisition (Chapter 8) 29 Genie discussion & first draft Nov. 5 Phonetics (Chapter 6) Quiz 2 12 Phonology (Chapter 7) Translation Exercise due Nov. 16 26 Language Processing (Chapter 9) Dec. 3 Language Change (Chapter 11) Genie final draft due 7 Final Exam begins on-line The tools Course Documents: Here you will find the lessons for this course. Discussion Board: For group discussion. Quiz: We will use Blackboard's Quiz tool for our on-line quizzes. Calendar: This will help you keep track of when each assignment is due; you can also use the calendar as a private datebook.