© Dr. Loren R. Schmidt, 1999-2016
No part of this syllabus may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission.
Elements of Assessment:
The following assignments will be factored into your course grade. In addition, these will also help assess your progress in mastering the outcomes noted above.
(1) Class Participation: The nature of this class demands that all students contribute regularly to the discussions, including any Forum questions posted at the Heritage University Virtual Campus (AKA MyHeritage) and/or short in-class or written responses in a reading journal for online students. STUDENTS ATTENDING SOME OR ALL SESSIONS ASYNCHRONOUSLY ONLINE MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL FORUM ASSIGNMENTS (see MyHeritage Forum portals for these assignments). Both quality and quantity will be considered, with an emphasis on the former. Altogether, 40 points (35 + 5 for the Check-In Task) may be earned for participation and other reading responses.
(2) Sentence Combining Exercises: Students will be responsible for completing the homework exercises in our sentence combining book. Most of these will be ungraded but will earn points; however, a few "mastery" exercises will be graded. Altogether, your sentence combining homework will be worth 40 points.
(3) Field Research Project: This paper should use linguistic field research (in this case a longitudinal observation of a single subject) to learn about the real-world meaning of language acquisition theory. Students will then report the results of their field research to the class. Afterwards, students will write a paper of 750-1000 words (3+ pages including charts and diagrams PLUS the original field research notes) detailing their research, showing the development or changes in the subject's phonology (using IPA symbols), morphology (including both vocabulary and use of derivational and inflectional affixes), and syntax (using phrase structure trees of typical sentences), and then discussing the theoretical and practical issues in linguistics connected with their research project. The project paper and presentation will be worth 60 points total. GRADUATE STUDENTS: Papers will include a biblography of three sources related to your research project, two of which must be cited in the paper.
(4) Seminar Leader (30 points each, 60 points total): Students will work individually to prepare TWO (2) sections from the text for in-person or on-line discussion. The seminar leadership will include the following:
—pointing out or clarifying important ideas and concepts by way of synthesized outline or PowerPoint presented in class or on Elluminate and posted on MyHeritage
—demonstrating the teaching method covered in the section either in class or on Elluminate
—preparing a Forum question(s) to be posted on MyHeritage
—leading the discussion by responding to online responses to question(s)Verification Activity: This assignment also serves to verify or authenticate the work of online students. Online students will be expected to produce positive ID to the instructor at the time of the online presentation.
(5) Figuring Course Grades:
Check-In Tasks 5 Participation & Exercises (Forums) 35 Sentence Combining Exercises/Reviews 40 Project 60 Seminar Leader #1 30 Seminar Leader #2 30
Total Possible: 200 (196+ = A+; 184+ = A; 180+ = A-; 176+ = B+; 164+ = B; 160+ = B-; 156+ = C+; 144+ = C; 140+ = C-; 136+ = D+; 124+ = D; 120+ = D-; 119- = F)