Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

Course Overview

This graduate-level course is designed to teach future scientists in the study of language acquisition. Much of the learning in this class happens through student-professor interaction, so the requirement to attend class carries more weight than in other classes.

The course consists of lectures on the fundamentals of first language acquisition over a variety of topics, especially in relation to linguistic theory. The topics covered will include syntax, semantics, and phonology in development. The course and the reading list critically survey the field and prepares the student to design and perform experiments in language acquisition.

Course Requirements

1. Attendance
2. Readings
3. Class participation is heavily weighted in this class, due to the nature of language acquisition.
4. Term paper:
   
   a) Select a topic (see readings section).
   b) Begin to write, and submit preliminary pages.
   c) Submit a final paper, due last day of class.
   
   More information on the term paper is available in the assignments section.