LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Teaching field linguistics: language variation and non-standard varieties in fieldwork
Event date: 20 May, 2010
Location: Building 65 Mansfield Cooper (Room 2.02), The University of Manchester

What students say about linguistics: why study syntax?

This paper was written by a student about their experiences of studying linguistics at university.

Learning and teaching discourse analysis
Learning and teaching discourse analysis engages students and tutors in the exploration of texts and talk. Analysis of discourse data encourages students to reflect upon and critically evaluate knowledge acquired in the study of, for example, syntax and semantics as well as naturally drawing students to the investigation of socially-situated language use. Such study provides students with the opportunity to examine how meaning is constructed and negotiated in discourse and to reflect on the role that language plays in social life. Teaching discourse analysis involves introducing students to relevant theories and guiding them in the application of these theories to real life language use. Learning is grounded in students' own experience and in the questions they ask about problems in the humanities and social sciences.

The Applied Linguistics MA: course content and students' perceived needs
This article considers the expectations of students attending MA courses in Applied Linguistics, many of whom have a background in language teaching. It contrasts academic approaches to language with those widely adopted in the language classroom. It identifies four possible rationales when planning course content for Grammar and Linguistics modules at MA level. One treats linguistics as a body of knowledge; another aims to develop students language awareness. A third meets short-term goals by providing the linguistic knowledge necessary for the study of second language acquisition. A fourth aims for long-term goals by equipping students for new professional roles.

Argumentation
This contribution discusses the role of argumentation in the teaching of language and linguistics.

Syntax: generative grammar
Teaching syntax using a generative approach

Construction grammar
Construction grammar is a theory of syntax in which constructions are the central unit of grammatical representation. There is no textbook currently available for construction grammar, but there are many good case studies. Basic principles of construction grammar are outlined in the guide and references therein. The best learning technique is for a student to use one of the many freely available text corpora in various languages to select and analyze a single construction or family of constructions.

Some issues on which linguists can agree
A list of 83 points on which linguists seem to agree and which are important for education. The list was compiled in 1980 but is currently (2002) being revised.

Single honours linguistics courses with a formal orientation
This article outlines a formal approach to the teaching of introductory syntax. The crucial elements are the distinction between knowledge and use of language, the idea that our knowledge is rule-governed and that the rules can be made explicit in terms of a theory that makes universal claims. All such claims must be testable, and students made aware of the importance of evidence. Elementary illustrations of all these points are provided from English and the Nigerian language Nupe.

Introductory course in English grammar

About a one-term introductory course on English Grammar which teaches BA students to analyse most of the syntactic structure of any sentence in any text; it uses Word Grammar analyses.

Typology
Typology is the study of language universals by the empirical method of induction from a sample of diverse languages. Textbooks are available (Croft 2002, Comrie 1989). the most effective learning tool is for each student to "adopt" a reference grammar of an unfamiliar language; the languages used in a class should be genetically and geographically diverse. Descriptive exercises are based on the adopted grammars, and analytical exercises on data sets available on the Web.

Linguistics: Quizzes
These quizzes are designed for students at the early stages of their Linguistics progamme or for non-specialist Linguistics students. They have been designed using Hot Potatoes authorware (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/) which can be used to create cloze, mix, match, multiple-choice exercises as well as crosswords and quizzes. The materials were authored by (and are copyright to) the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of the West of England, Bristol.