Linguistics 100.004 Introduction to Language and Linguistics Ryan Taylor Instructional team Instructor: Ryan Taylor Teaching Assistants: Rachel Soo Ife Adebara Yifang Yuan Required materials George Yule, The study of language. Either the 6th, 5th or 4th editions A clicker Pencil, paper and printed copies of exercises that I will post on the website. Linguistics exercises are best done with paper and a pencil. You will need to jot things down and erase them and start again. Doing this on a computer is cumbersome. I will post them as far in advance as possible. How to get help with organizational issues Questions about organizational details, for example grades, when things are due etc: 1. 2. 3. 4. Check the syllabus Check the discussion board Ask the question on the discussion board Email your TA or me. Please do not ask me these questions before class. I like to give accurate information and will have to look in the syllabus in order to find out these details anyways. How to get help with course content 1. 2. Try to figure out your problem yourself. Struggling helps you to remember the content. Come to see me or your TAs in person either during office hours or in tutorials. I get sincere pleasure from helping students out one on one and wish they would come to me more often for help. It also helps to make me aware of what students are struggling with. How to find us Website: Canvas: Quizzes, grades and discussion board Ryan’s office hours: 20 minutes after each class outside the classroom 2-3 on Tuesdays in Stores Road Annex room 4 TA hours will be posted on the website. Reasons you might not want to take this class While there is no final exam, there is a lot of work day-to-day: lecture and tutorial participation is mandatory. No devices are allowed in lectures, unless they are required for in class assignments. Learning through doing (Active learning) Linguistics is very much an activity. You will learn more by doing exercises than by hearing me talk about the exercises. I will show you how to do the exercises in class and then you will have an opportunity to practice both in class and during your tutorials. How to do well in this course Watch online lectures Attend lectures Attend tutorials Ensure you understand how to do all of the exercises you are given in lecture and tutorial. There is no final exam for this course. Lecture notes I will put my slides on Canvas after the lecture, but the exercises are really the heart of this class. Go through syllabus Looking ahead What are the design features of human language? Next week: What are the design features of human language? Do the readings and watch the videos listed on the website for week 2. First quiz available on the weekend but due on Monday Register your clicker Print off worksheet for Monday’s class. Discussion topic: Is it possible to study language as a science? What are you excited to learn about?
