SEL1008 : The Nature of Language
- Offered for Year: 2020/21
- Module Leader(s): Dr Joel Wallenberg
- Lecturer: Dr Rachael Bailes, Dr Geoffrey Poole
- Owning School: English Lit, Language & Linguistics
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
Aims
1. Investigate the nature of language
2. Come to an understanding of the various areas within the field of linguistics
3. Learn how the study of linguistics relates to other sciences, particularly neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and computation
Outline Of Syllabus
Topics will be drawn from the following:
1. How to think about language scientifically
2. Computation, mind, and language
3. Thinking about Language : Chomsky
4. Acquisition and Evidence
5. Writing a Language/Linguistics Essay
6. Language Change
7. Language and Populations (Creoles and Viruses)
8. Sociolinguistics, Variation and Memory
9. Animal Communication
10. Meaning and Communication
11. What it's all for: language in broader scientific perspective
Seminars will involve group discussion of issues raised in lectures, and there will be occasional additional sessions with the whole class to catch up on questions raised in the seminars and standard lectures.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 51:30 | 51:30 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | N/A |
| Guided Independent Study | Reflective learning activity | 28 | 4:00 | 112:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 1 | 1:30 | 1:30 | Essay preparation |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | N/A |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
1. Lectures introduce students to knowledge outcomes.
2. Seminars develop these skills of analysis in greater depth.
3. Private study is an important part of the programme, requiring close reading of the materials both in advance of lectures and as a follow up to them.
4. Students will be an assignment intended to probe and expand the students' understanding of the concepts covered in lectures.
5. The written assignments are intended to teach scientific writing, progressively working up to longer and more complex pieces of writing throughout the semester.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 1 | M | 30 | 500 words. To learn how to structure a linguistics essay. |
| Written exercise | 1 | M | 10 | Short example of hypothesis-formulation and hypothesis-testing. |
| Essay | 1 | A | 60 | 2000 words. Final essay assessed both for structure and content. |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The written exercise motivates students to think in terms of the scientific method, i.e. forming a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test it. The two essays teach how longer scientific essays are structured, and encourage students to creatively engage with the module material. Assessment by essay allows students to develop formal argumentation and presentation skills relative to the topics covered in the module.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- SEL1008's Timetable