LING10001: The Secret Life of Language

3 Problem Solving Assignments worth 50%, 1 2-hour Exam worth 50%

I absolutely loved this subject! I've always wanted to study Linguistics at Uni, and this subject was a wonderful introduction to it. It was impeccably organised and coordinated, the teaching staff were incredible (shout-out to Peter for awesome lectures, and to Nick for super fun tutorials - Nick's solo singing at the end of each tutorial was a true highlight )

Tutorials this semester were very cramped, having 30 students and 1 tutor, which was not fair on either the students or the tutor. However, I found that everyone worked really well together in the breakout rooms. 'Reading Groups' were also made available, which to me was new coming from Science, but I definitely benefited from them and made a good friend from it too!

The assignments took some work, but with time and effort they were fine. They tested linguistic reasoning, knowledge and application in a Problem-solving or structured argumentation context.

The content was super interesting, I personally enjoyed Syntax & Morphology and the smaller topics like Language & the Brain, Language Variation, and First & Second Language Variation. Semantics & Pragmatics were the most wishy-washy of the lot, and felt like it belonged in a Philosophy class more. I personally found Phonetics, Phonology to be trickier (but completely doable with effort), as I'm not a natural auditory learner.
Overall, I thought this subject was pretty straightforward, super enjoyable and interesting, well coordinated, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Linguistics!

Peter Hurst

1 Sample exam (NOT representative of the final exam at all)

5/5

An Introduction to Language by Fromkin (9th AU Edition) - I found readings to be helpful, but there weren't super necessary

2x1hr lectures, 1x1hr tutorial

2020 Semester 2

90 H1

3 Assignments throughout semester (totalling to 50%) 2 hour exam (50%)

Wow this was awesome.
Stonecold and El2012 have already reviewed this, but a fair bit has changed since '11/'12, including the actual lecturers, and fair chunk of how the course is structured.
Just some preliminary comments clearing up the many

Yes, with screen capture, but occasionally you'd miss things that the lecturer would explain on the board (eg. writing out certain IPA symbols) but there were repeat lectures if you were busy.

Rachel Nordlinger and Jill Vaughan

- The breadth of content was really good. This subject is essentially a tasting platter of all the different linguistics fields in later years, and whilst quite a bit to cover, it rarely felt too rushed or vague. More on each of these areas later.
- Lectures were consistently engaging. Plus, lecturers would frequently ask if there was anyone who spoke whatever language we were talking about as an example, and there was almost always someone available (Russian, German, Lithuanian, Malay, Greek etc.)
-The way the tutorial exercises are structured, you can have a sound grasp of basic Icelandic (for example) grammar and pronunciation within minutes. Tutes were very practical, but they didn't slow down for people who missed content in lectures. My tutor would frequently dismiss questions unless he thought they were worth answering. That's not to say the staff are unhelpful - they're lovely! But there's no handholding here. I suppose if you sought out tutors/lecturers out side of class time they'd go over concepts in more depth, but the course is reasonably fast paced for an "artsy" subject and you're expected to keep up.
-Assignments were basically problem solving exercises. If you didn't understand these process in lectures, you'd be in trouble. There were a couple of odd questions that relied on knowledge outside what had been demonstrated, but even these were pretty simple once you got your head around the basics.
-aaaand to continue the pictorial summations of awesome subjects, if you take Secret Life of Language you get to study stuff like this:

Yes, just one

5 Out of 5

Introduction to Language by Fromkin et al is "highly recommended," but unnecessary. The lectures go into heaps of detail, and there's an online version available. If you really want to buy it, don't pay the $120 that the co-op demands, there are plenty of 2nd hand versions floating around.
Course manual is a necessity though.

2x1 hour lectures, 1x1 hour tute per week

2014 Semester 2

TBA

Problem-solving assignments totalling 2000 words 50% (due throughout the semester) and a 2-hour examination 50% (end of semester).

Prior to taking this subject, I was interested in learning a little bit more about linguistics since I quite enjoyed VCE english language. This subject did just that, it brought me to concepts in linguistics I hadn't come across before. I thought the lectures were well planned during the semester and the tutorials helped to 'fill in the gaps' about anything that was left ambiguous in the lectures. In addition, the lecturers also gave us the opportunity to attend a 'make-up' tutorial during the Anzac day holiday week, which I thought emphasized further how well constructed this subject is. The only issue I had with this subject was, and as stone cold mentioned in his post on the secret life of language, was that the exam didn't cover certain lectures in the semester (e.g. the brain and language and very minimal on language acquisition) and wasn't a general overview of the subject's workload as such , but rather we were given more detailed problem solving questions (harder than those given on the assignments and the sample exam given out wasn't exactly a great indication on the difficulty of the exam). I thought the assignments through the semester were fair and helped to consolidate topics covered. This was a good subject for anyone really, whether they had done VCE english language or not, and is a good breadth for anyone who has no idea what to choose.

Yes, with screen capture.

Associate Professor Janet Fletcher (Introductory lecture, morphology, phonetics/ phonology, language variation, historical linguistics), Maureen Saclot (syntax, semantics), Dr. Susan Douglas (the brain and language, first language acquisition), Dr. Carsten Roever (second language acquisition and bilingualism)

No. A sample exam was made available, and as Stone Cold previously mentioned on his SLL post was easier than the actual exam.

3.5/5

Once again, the course manual must be purchased. It contains tutorial exercises and complements the lecture notes well.

Weekly: 2 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour tutorial

2012, Semester 1

H2B