Spring 2016 Language Acquisition and Linguistics Instructor: Dr. Ted Taylor Office: 161 Psychology Building Phone: 549-2383 Office Hours: 1:30-3:30 MW, 1:30-2:30 Fri. E-mail: 560LangAcLing@gmail.com (Please use for correspondence related to this class.) Texts: 1. Berko Gleason, Jean, and Nan Bernstein Ratner, eds. The Development of Language. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc., 2013. Print. 2. Freeman, David E., and Yvonne S. Freeman. Between Worlds: Access to Second Language Acquisition. 3 rd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2011. Print. 3. Freeman, David E., and Yvonne S. Freeman. Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, and Grammar. 2 nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2014. Print. Course Goal This course examines how children acquire a language both a first language and a second language and covers basic linguistics, as applied primarily to English. The goal is to learn enough about how language acquisition works and about how English is structured (in phonology, morphology, orthography, and syntax) so that you can make use of these types of knowledge in your own teaching. Student Learning Outcomes Demonstrates understanding and ability to implement research-based knowledge about the following: (a) linguistics including orthography, phonology, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics applied to English language development for linguistically and culturally diverse students; (b) instructional practices that support acquisition of English language as an additional language for CLD students; (c) written and oral discourse that include intention and functions of speech, genres, and organizational features and patterns. Requirements 1. Quizzes all together will count for 12% of your course grade. Each quiz will cover new material (from the reading assignments, lectures, and student presentations) since the last quiz. 2. There will be a midterm exam and a comprehensive final exam, each of which will test your knowledge about how language acquisition works and about English linguistics. The midterm will count for 20% of your course grade and the final exam will count for 20%.
page two 3. 24% of your course grade is for participation. During the semester, you will accumulate participation points as follows: 1 point for each assigned contribution to the discussion forums, provided that it is submitted by the deadline; 3 points for each comprehensionquestion assignment turned in on time (doesn t apply to undergraduates); and 10 points for in-class presentation of your research. Other points may come from irregular short assignments of various types. 4. 4% of your course grade will be the grade for your Works Cited page, submitted as a separate assignment before the research paper (see below). 5. Using MLA Style, you will write a research paper of 1500-2000 words (not counting the bibliography), on some issue or question within the areas of language acquisition and language teaching, approved by the instructor. You will present your paper to the class and lead discussion of the paper. The class will read one another s papers and, in addition to presenting your own paper, you will be responsible for contributing to the discussion of the other papers. Your research paper will contribute 15% of your grade for the course. 6. Attendance will count as 5% of your course grade. For full attendance at every class meeting, your attendance grade will be 100%. For the first and second missed classes, your attendance grade will drop 30% for each missed class. For the third missed class, your attendance grade will drop 40 % (to 0%). Partial attendance for a class (coming late, leaving early, leaving and returning during class, or unauthorized use of a cell phone or other electronic device during class) will lower your attendance grade by 10 percentage points. Missing more than 30 minutes of class will count as a full absence. Other Grading Policies 1. Plusses and minuses (as in B+ or A-) will not be part of your course grade. 2. The grading scale for letter grades A, B, C, D, or F for the purposes of this course is as follows: A, 90.0% to 100.0%; B, 80.0% to 89.9%; C, 70.0% to 79.9%; D, 60.0% to 69.9%; F, 0.0% to 59.9%. 3. Unless otherwise indicated on a returned quiz, exam, or paper, the letter grade for that item will be recorded in the gradebook as follows: A, 95.0%; A-, 90.0%; B+, 89.9%; B, 85.0%; B-, 80.0%; C+, 79.9%; C, 75.0%; C-, 70.0%; D+, 69.9%; D, 65.0%; D-, 60.0%; F, 55%. 4. If you miss a quiz or exam due to an unexcused absence, your grade for the quiz or exam will be recorded as 0.0%. 5. You will be granted an extension of the deadline for turning in your paper only if extenuating circumstances that you can document prevent you from turning in the paper on time and only if you let me know about the extenuating circumstances in advance, when that is possible. Otherwise, your grade for the paper will be lowered by one third of a letter grade (for example, from "B-" to "C+" or from "B" to "B-") for every day that it is late.
page three Accommodations for Disabilities This University abides by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which stipulates that no student shall be denied the benefits of an education "solely by reason of a handicap." If you have a documented disability that may impact your work in this class and for which you may require accommodations, please see the Disability Resource Coordinator as soon as possible to arrange accommodations. In order to receive accommodations, you must be registered with and provide documentation of your disability to: the Disability Resource Office, which is located in the Library and Academic Resources Center, Suite 169. Policy on Academic Dishonesty Academic Dishonesty is defined in the Colorado State University-Pueblo Catalog, 2015-2016 as any form of cheating which results in students giving or receiving unauthorized assistance in an academic exercise or receiving credit for work that is not their own. For more information on CSU-Pueblo s position on academic dishonesty and for a detailed description of specific acts of academic dishonesty or misconduct, please see pages 45 and 46 of the catalog. In the Department of English and Foreign Languages, we take matters of academic dishonesty seriously. Any instance of academic dishonesty may result in a failing grade for the work in question, a failing grade for the course, and lesser penalties as determined by the course instructor and/or the department chairperson. Furthermore, in severe cases, misconduct of this sort may be subject to disciplinary action by the Dean of Student Life. Schedule The directions for assignments shown here are preliminary and incomplete. See Announcements in Blackboard every week for a precise account of the week s assignments. Date Assignments and Activities 1/18 W1 CLASS MEETING Introduction to Course. The Biological Bases of Language. Film Discovering the Human Language
page four 1/25 W2 2/1 W3 Study for Quiz I. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz I online. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 1, The Development of Language: An Overview and a Preview. Read The Language Instinct, Ch. 1 An Instinct to Acquire an Art and Ch. 2 Chatterboxes (available in Blackboard). Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Two, before Friday of Week One, respond to two of the Week Two discussion questions from the list provided in Blackboard. Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Two discussion Study for Quiz II. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz II online. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 4, English Phonology. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 3, Phonological Development. Undergraduate students, before Friday of Week Two, in the Minimal Pair forum for Week Three in Blackboard, respond to two of the Week Three undergraduate Graduate students, in the Minimal Pair forum in Blackboard, add additional minimal pairs in the threads started by the undergraduates.
page five 2/8 W4 2/15 W5 Study for Quiz III. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz III online. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 5, Implications from Phonology for Teaching a Second Language and Teaching Reading, pp. 119-130. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 4, Semantic Development: Learning the Meanings of Words. Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Four, before Friday of Week Three, respond to two of the Week Four discussion Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Four discussion Study for Quiz IV. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz IV online. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 7, English Morphology. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 8, Implications from Morphology for Teaching Reading and Teaching a Second Language. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 9, English Syntax. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 10, Implications from Syntax for Teaching a Second Language and Teaching Reading. Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Five, before Friday of Week Four, respond to two of the Week Five discussion questions from the list provided in Blackboard. Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Five discussion
page six 2/22 W6 2/29 W7 Study for Quiz V. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz V online. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 5, Putting Words Together. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 2, Communication Development in Infancy. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 6, Language in Social Contexts: Development of Communicative Competence. Graduate students and undergraduate students, write answers to the assigned study questions. Study for Quiz VI. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz VI online. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 8, Variation in Language Development: Implications for the Study of Language Acquisition. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 10, Language and Literacy in the School Years. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 6, English Orthography. Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Seven, before Friday of Week Six, respond to one of the Week Seven discussion questions from the list provided in Blackboard. Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Seven discussion
page seven 3/7 CLASS MEETING W8 Study for the midterm exam. (Reviewing the quizzes would be a good start.) See the link to study questions for the midterm, in Blackboard. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 11, Developments in the Adult Years. Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Eight, before Friday of Week Seven, respond to one of the Week Eight discussion Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Eight discussion Come prepared to discuss your idea for a paper topic (graduate students and undergraduate students). Bring at least one related article. IN CLASS: Midterm Exam Research paper conferences.
3/14 W9 Study for Quiz VII. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz VII online. Read The Development of Language, Ch. 9, Atypical Language Development. Read sources for your research paper and plan the paper. Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Nine, before Friday of Week Eight, respond to one of the Week Nine discussion Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Nine discussion Turn in your Works Cited page. Consult the assignment sheet to make sure you are preparing the Works Cited page properly. To get credit, make sure that you use MLA Style and that you use no prohibited sources (most websites). Watch YouTube clips from the film Sound and Fury and answer the related study questions.
page eight 3/28 W10 4/4 W11 Study for Quiz VIII. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz VIII online. Read Essential Linguistics, Ch. 5, Implications from Phonology for Teaching a Second Language and Teaching Reading, pp. 130-144. Read Between Worlds, Ch. 5, What are the Principal Theories of First and Second Language Acquisition? Read Between Worlds, Ch. 1, Who Are Our English Learners? Read Between Worlds, Ch. 2, What Factors Affect the School Success of English Language Learners? Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Ten, before Friday of Week Nine, respond to two of the Week Ten discussion questions from the list provided in Blackboard. Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Ten discussion Start writing your research paper. Study for Quiz IX. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz IX online. Read Between Worlds, Ch. 3, What Influences How Teachers Teach? Read Between Worlds, Ch. 4, How Do People Learn and How Do They Acquire Language? Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Eleven, before Friday of Week Ten, respond to two of the Week Eleven discussion Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Eleven discussion Turn in your research paper. Consult the assignment sheet to make sure you are preparing the paper properly.
page nine 4/11 W12 4/18 W13 CLASS MEETING Prepare presentation of your research. IN CLASS: Students presentations of research. Study for Quiz X. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz X online. Read Between Worlds, Ch. 6, What Are the Key Theories and Models of Bilingual Education? Read Between Worlds, Ch. 7, "How Can Schools Develop an Intercultural Orientation?" Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Thirteen, before Friday of Week Twelve, respond to two of the Week Twelve discussion Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Thirteen discussion Proofread and revise your research paper as needed. Verify your use of MLA Style and reread the assignment sheet to make sure you are complying with the directions. Turn in the revision of your research paper (optional).
page ten 4/25 W14 5/2 6:00-8:20 Study for Quiz XI. See the link to study questions for the quiz, in Blackboard. Take Quiz XI online. Read Between Worlds, Ch. 8, How Should We Teach Reading to Emergent Bilinguals? Read Between Worlds, Ch. 9, How Can Teachers Help ELLs Develop Academic Language? Undergraduate students, in the discussion forum for Week Fourteen, before Friday of Week Thirteen, respond to two of the Week Fourteen discussion Graduate students, contribute a comment to the Week Fourteen discussion CLASS MEETING Study for the Final Exam. IN CLASS: Final Exam.