General Course Information

Instructor: Maritza Salgueiro-Carlisle
Section: 111; June 18, 2000 to August 16, 2002
Office Telephone: (661) 395-4291
Email Address: mcarlisl@bc.cc.ca.us

Required Texts
Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R. (1993). An Introduction to Language, (6th ed.). New York City: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York City: Harper Perennial.

Students in the Santa Clarita area may purchase their textbooks at the bookstore on the campus of College of the Canyons. Students in the Bakersfield area may purchase textbooks at The Runner Bookstore on the campus of California State University. In addition, textbooks can be purchased through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, or Borders.com.

This class is primarily designed to provide students with a broad introduction to the science of linguistics; emphasis will be placed on recent developments in linguistic theory. The first half of the course will concentrate on defining language as a human-specific endowment through an examination of such topics as language universals, linguistic creativity, and non-human communication. This first section of the course will also cover the types of linguistic knowledge that all speakers of a language must have--knowledge of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The second half of the course will be more concerned with language in its social context. Topics covered in this section of the course will include language variation, historical linguistics, the development of writing systems, and language in the age of computers.

English 415 Online is an asynchronous course that allows students to study at their convenience and to work at their own pace provided that all the course work and the final examination are completed by the final day of class, August 16. The course is divided into 12 sections, which correspond to the twelve chapters of An Introduction to Language. Each section of the course has a number of online exercises associated with it, and students are expected to work through the course in the order of the sections and to complete all of the online exercises by the given deadlines.

Though some students request early examinations, I encourage everyone to take the exam on the last day of class August 16.

On June 18, I will be at College of the Canyons to teach students how to be successful on the online course. Students will receive an email before the 18th with the exact time and place. A second orientation will be held at CSUB; details will appear in an email to the students living close to CSUB. At the orientation, I will administer the pretest for the class. The pretest is a requirement, and students who do not take the pretest will not be allowed to continue in the class.

To complete the course, students must fulfill the following four requirements:

The first requirement is the completion of all online exercises. As mentioned previously, the course is divided into 12 sections, which correspond to the twelve chapters of An Introduction to Language. The exercises associated with each section consist of both objective questions and short essay questions; the latter require a writtten responses and cover important linguistic issues such as the differences between human language and animal communication.

The second and third requirements are the two examinations for the course, a midterm and a final. The midterm examination covers the first six sections of the course, and the final will concentrate on the last six, though some topics from the first six sections will also be covered. Students should read the deadlines for all course requirements to find out the last dates that the two examinations may be taken.

The examinations will consist of both objective questions and short essay questions. The objective questions will cover specific details of the structure of language and linguistic terminology and concepts, and the essay questions will cover important theoretical issues and the problems of linguistic analysis. Students will be well prepared for both examinations by completing the online exercises and finishing the assigned readings.

Students must take both examinations in a proctored environment. Because most of the students in the summer quarter are from Bakersfield or Santa Clarita, they will be taking their examinations at CSUB or at the Testing Center on the campus of College of the Canyons. Students living at some distance from CSUB or College of the Canyons can make arrangements to have the examinations sent to the closest community college where they can be appropriately proctored.

Students may take either exam before the scheduled date. However, they must inform the instructor at least two weeks in advance so that proper arrangements can be made.

The final requirement is the writing of a term paper.

The final grade will be calculated according to the following schema.

As indicated in the table above, each of the four requirements will be 25% of the final grade.

Students take the course over the WWW using web-based teaching software installed on a CSUB server. This software includes a mail message system that allows students to send mail messages to any other student enrolled in the course. Students do not need to learn any email addresses using this system. In addition, each page of course material has a "Mail Instructor" button on it that allows students to send a message to the instructor at any time. Make sure that you hit the "submit" button to send the message. If you hit "preview" and forget to submit, the instructor will not receive the message.

The course also has a discussion list which is divided into twelve folders corresponding to the twelve major sections of the course. Students are highly encouraged to subit questions and comments. Other students should then address these questions and comments. Communicate with each other and assist each other; you will find taking the course a much more enjoyable experience if you do. Also, under the discussion list is a folder entitled "Introductions" in which each student should write a brief biographical sketch. Let us know who you are and why you are taking the course.

Students enroll for this course just as they do for any other course.

The course is located on a CSUB server running TopClass, the web-based teaching software used to design the course. To get into TopClass, students need a userid and a password. On June 16, the instructor will enroll all students into the TopClass system. The userid for all students will be the initial of their first names followed by the last name. Write the two as one word in lower case letters. For example, a student named John Anderson will have the userid of janderson. Students with hyphenated last names will use the initial of their first name and only the first of the two last names, so Mary Allen-Smith will have the userid of mallen. At first, all students will have the same password--student. However, students can change their own passwords once they get into the system.

I urge students to go to TopClass and hit the link entitled "Getting Started." Students do not need a userid or password to get into this section of TopClass, and the section has important information on how to navigate through the system.

You are only the second group of students to take English 415 online, but students have done exceptionally well in other online courses. English 319 (The Structure of English) has been frequently offered online, as a regular offering on campus, and on instructional television (ITV). The students in all three courses read the same books and essentially took the same three examinations. A recent study revealed that the students did equally well in all three presentations; not a single statistical difference obtained among the averages of the three examinations or the final averages for the courses. The table below displays the averages for the three examinations and the final averages.

Welcome to the course, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy your online experience.

Syllabus for English 415 Online