24.S95 | Spring 2023 | Graduate

Linguistics in K–12 Education

Pages

Below, Prof. Maya Honda discusses how students in 24.S95 worked collaboratively to present an hour-long class to groups of middle schoolers at MIT’s Spark event.

Collaborating with others can be very challenging, especially if you don’t know your colleagues well. But the five students rose to the challenge and did a fine job of designing and presenting two sections of Linguistics: The Science of Language at MIT ESP (Educational Studies Program) Spring Spark. We used our class as a design laboratory, first identifying “desired results,” then moving on with the planning using the UbD (Understanding by Design) framework. Students took responsibility for creating and presenting slides for different parts of the class slide show (the introduction, a discussion of phonology, a discussion of semantics and pragmatics, the conclusion). They practiced in class; they also had a public practice for the MIT Linguistics community. It was an intense design process that took place over about a month’s time.

There were some tense moments in class, to be sure. For example, one day, a seminar student was presenting their portion of the Spark presentation and another student sharply questioned their line of reasoning and their approach to the topic. The presenter was quite upset by this. But the students as a group resolved the conflict on their own, with one student stepping up to say that everyone had to listen calmly to one another and another student saying that everyone had to first respect one another’s work before offering a critique.

When we reflected as a group on the whole Spark experience, the students said that they valued the feedback that they received from one another, from their partner teacher and from me, and from people who attended the public practice. They didn’t follow all the suggestions they received, but they appreciated hearing them.

So the students took away from their Spark experience the importance of listening in collaborative work. They were also excited to teach middle schoolers and to be peppered with questions about language and linguistics.

Our class will participate in Spring Spark, a 2-day-long, weekend program at MIT hosted by the student-run MIT Educational Studies Program. This annual event is impressive in its size and scope: roughly 300 teachers offer about 250 classes on all sorts of topics to around 1,000 seventh and eighth graders.

Spring Spark will take place Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19. We will register as a group to cooperatively teach two sections of Language Science, so please hold these dates open.

To prepare for Spring Spark, you will work with class colleagues to design an hour-long class, using the UbD framework of course design. You will also attend an hour-long Spring Spark teacher orientation in late February. Other details will be discussed in class. 

After Spring Spark, you will write an essay (300–500 words) in which you reflect on your experience designing and teaching the lesson. This essay should be posted online by 10 pm the night before our eighth class session. Reflections will be discussed in class that week.

If you are unable to participate in Spring Spark, please speak with me about arranging an alternative teaching experience.

Early in the semester, we will meet virtually with middle school and high school teachers from around the country who teach linguistics. We will hear from them about how we can work with their students, from giving a presentation to teaching a lesson or presenting an activity.

You will pair up with a teacher and meet to discuss a linguistic focus and the format of your presentation, lesson, or activity (hereafter referred to as the “lesson”). Then you will develop a 30-minute lesson within the UbD framework and teach it virtually in April (though teaching in March may be possible). You will meet with your partner teacher before and after you teach to get feedback on the lesson. The two of you may also arrange additional meetings and class visits by mutual agreement.

You will prepare a brief proposal in the form of a UbD template about what you plan to do in your partner teacher’s class. Please upload your proposal to the class website by 10 pm the night before our fifth class session. Proposals will be discussed in class that week. After you teach the lesson, you will write an essay (500–700 words) in which you reflect on your experience designing the lesson and working with your partner teacher and your partner teacher’s students. Please upload your reflection essay to the class website by 10 pm on the night before the thirteenth class session. Reflections will be discussed in class that week.

For your final project, you will develop a linguistics unit, using the UbD framework, and write a paper about the unit. In designing your unit, you can build on the work that we do in class, or you can create your own unit from the ground up, or you can contextualize the lesson that you designed for your partner teacher’s class by designing a unit for which the lesson would be just one of several learning activities.

In the paper about your unit, you will discuss the unit’s desired results, evidence of understanding, learning plan, and learning events in the context of a hypothetical introductory high school linguistics course. You will also reflect on your experience developing the unit (and your experience teaching some aspect of the unit, if you had the opportunity to do so). Further details will be discussed in class.

You will meet with me by the seventh class session to discuss your initial ideas for your unit. Ideas and unit designs will be discussed in class in the weeks following Spring Break. Your final project paper is due by 5 pm on the Wednesday one week after our last class meeting.

Below, Prof. Maya Honda discusses how she developed 24.S95 Linguistics in K–12 Education, and how the course reflects her own professional focus as an academic.

In the 1980s, as a psychology and human development student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I cross-registered at MIT for Kenneth Hale and Wayne O’Neil’s Workshop on Linguistics and Education (the long-ago precursor to my course). In the 1960s, as young MIT Linguistics faculty, Ken and Wayne, as well as Samuel Jay Keyser, were among the earliest advocates of integrating modern linguistics into the primary and secondary school curriculum. They believed that investigating one’s own knowledge of language was a uniquely accessible way to introduce young people to the scientific enterprise: posing questions about language, collecting language data, looking for patterns in the data, formulating testable hypotheses about the data, and searching for counterevidence. I got very interested in the work. For my dissertation, I investigated the effects of linguistics instruction and found evidence that linguistic inquiry is an accessible and effective means of developing junior high and high school students’ understanding of the nature of science and scientific inquiry.

When I started teaching at Wheelock College in Boston, I began working with Wayne to develop problem sets in a variety of languages to teach linguistic inquiry to my students. Our book Thinking Linguistically: A Scientific Approach to Language (Wiley, 2008) reflects that work. Across three decades or so, we worked together in diverse educational settings using the problem set approach to engage fifth graders on up in cross-linguistic inquiry.

In 2022, Danny Fox invited me to teach a graduate seminar on linguistics in K–12 education. A colleague said to me, “It’s your dream course!” And it is. I came out of retirement to teach this course, and I’m glad that I did. It’s been great to have the opportunity to work with MIT graduate students and to share what I’ve learned from working with teachers and students in schools. It’s not likely that my students will become school teachers, but I hope that the seminar excites them about teaching and prepares them to design teaching materials and to work collaboratively with teachers to integrate linguistics into the school curriculum.

Instructor Interview

In the pages linked below, Prof. Maya Honda describes various aspects of how she taught 24.S95 Linguistics in K–12 Education in spring 2023.

How the Course Came About

Why Teach Linguistics in Schools?

Using a “Backwards” Course Design

Collaborative Work

The Format of the Teaching Experience

Curriculum Information

Prerequisites

There were no formal prerequisites for Linguistics graduate students who wished to register for the class; graduate students from other departments and undergraduates were allowed to register if they previously taken a linguistics course, or with instructor approval.

Offered

24.S95 was taught for the first time in spring 2023; it will be offered again in spring 2024.

Assessment

  • Prepared class participation and reflection essays: 50%
  • Poster presentation: 15%
  • Final Project Paper: 35%

Student Information

Enrollment

Fewer than 10 students

Breakdown by Year

Primarily second- and third-year graduate students; one undergraduate.

Breakdown by Major

Most of the students were studying linguistics, either at MIT or Harvard; one was in MIT’s chemical engineering program. 

How Student Time Was Spent

During an average week, students were expected to spend 12 hours on the course, roughly divided as follows:

In Class (3 hours)

Met 1 time per week for 3 hours per session; mandatory attendance. Class sessions were conducted in a seminar format, with extensive discussion.

Out of Class (8 hours)

Outside of class, students read assigned texts, worked in teams and individually to develop lesson plans and a poster presentation, consulted with partner teachers at selected middle schools or high schools, delivered the lessons they had developed, and wrote a final project paper.

At the end of this course, you will make a poster presentation to the class and to the MIT Linguistics community about your work, how it could be developed, and how it could support the design of an introductory high school linguistics course. You can choose to present the lesson that you designed for your partner teacher’s class, the lesson that the class designed for Spring Spark, or your linguistics unit (see Final Project page). The goal is to demonstrate and share what you have learned about course design, about teaching, and about what linguists need to know about introducing language science to K–12 students. Further details about the poster presentation will be discussed in class.

Poster presentations will take place during our last class. The MIT Linguistics community will be invited to attend.

Session 1: Introductions | Rationale for Linguistics in K–12 Education 

  • Chomsky, Noam. 1984. “Noam Chomsky Writes to Mrs. Davis about Grammar and Education.” English Education, 16(3): 165–166.
  • Hale, Ken. 1975. Appendix A: Excerpt from Navajo Linguistics. Unpublished manuscript, MIT.
  • Hale, Ken. 1981. “Linguistics and Local Languages in a Science Curriculum for Bilingual/Bicultural Programs.” Paper presented at the 6th Annual Congress of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia. Canberra, Australia. 
  • Honda, Maya, Wayne O’Neil, and David Pippin. 2010. “On Promoting Linguistics Literacy: Bringing Language Science to the English Classroom.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 175–188. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Linguistic Society of America April 2021 Member Spotlight: Amy Plackowski.

Session 2: Linguistics in Secondary Education | Understanding by Design (UbD) 

  • Hudson, Richard and Neil Sheldon. 2013. “Linguistics at School: The UK Linguistics Olympiad.” Language and Linguistics Compass, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12010
  • Lidz, Jeffrey and Yakov Kronrod. 2014. “Expanding Our Reach and Theirs: When Linguists Go to High School.” Language and Linguistics Compass, 8(10). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12094
  • Loosen, Suzanne. 2014. “High School Linguistics: A Secondary School Elective Course.” Language: Teaching Linguistics, 90(4): e258–e273. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2014.0072
  • Mulder, Jean. 2010. “Envisioning Linguistics in Secondary Education: An Australian Exemplar.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 62–75. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Plackowski, Amy L. 2020. “Using Understanding by Design to Build a High School Linguistics Course.” American Speech, 95(2): 235–242. https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-8501379
  • Wiggins, Grant. 2012. “What is UbD? Grant Wiggins Answers, with Cases.” YouTube. 
  • Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe. 2011. Introduction and modules A–D. In The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

Session 3: Introductory Linguistics: Desired Results | UbD, continued 

  • Larson, Richard. 2023. “Rethinking Introductory Linguistics.” Unpublished manuscript (revision 2). 
  • Spring, Cari L., Michael J. Flynn, Brian D. Joseph, Rae Moses, Susan Steele, and Charlotte Webb. 2000. “The Successful Introductory Course: Bridging the Gap for the Nonmajor.” Language, 76(1): 110–122. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2000.0124  
  • Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe. 2011. Modules E–H. In The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
  • Essential Questions Overview. (YouTube). 
  • Linguistics teaching materials to be assigned for review. 

Session 4: Introductory Linguistics: Evidence of Understanding and Learning Plan | UbD, continued | Designing a Lesson for Spring Spark 

Due: Proposal for Design and Teaching Experience II (UbD template) 

Please upload your proposal to the class website by 10 pm the night before session 5. Proposals will be        
discussed in class. 

Session 5: “Impact with Intention” Workshop | Sharing Lesson Proposals | Refining the Spring Spark Lesson 

Mary Cate Gustafson-Quiett, Curriculum Design Manager at the Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) Lab and Manager of the Undergraduate Teacher Opportunities Partnership (UTOP) at MIT, will lead the “Impact with Intention” workshop. 

STEP/UTOP videos to be assigned. 

Session 6: Designing a Unit on Expressions and Expression Building | Practicing the Spring Spark Lesson 

March 18, 19 Spring Spark!

Reminder: Plan to meet with me before session 7 to discuss your ideas about the final project. 

Due: Reflection Essay about Design and Teaching Experience I 

Please upload your reflection essay (300–500 words) to the class website by 10 pm the night before session 7. Reflections will be discussed in class. 

Session 7: Reflecting on Spring Spark | Linguistics in Primary Education | Designing a Unit on Expressions and Expression Building, continued 

  • Fabb, Nigel. 1985. “Linguistics for Ten-Year-Olds.” MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 6: 45–61.
  • Denham, Kristin. 2010. “Linguistics in a Primary School.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (Eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 189–203. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  
  • Goodluck, Helen. 1991. “More Linguistics for 10-Year-Olds.” Innovations in Linguistic Education, 5(2): 35–41.
  • Keyser, Samuel Jay. 1970. “The Role of Linguistics in the Elementary School Curriculum.” Elementary English, 47: 39–45.  
  • Oppenheimer, Kathleen, Lauren K. Salig, Craig A. Thorburn, and Erika L. Exton. 2022. “Taking Language Science to Zoom School: Virtual Outreach to Elementary School Students.” Language and Linguistics Compass, 16(9). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12471 

Session 8: Standards in K–12 Education | Designing a Unit on Externalization 

  • Lord, Carol and Sharon Klein. (2010). “Linguistics and Educational Standards: The California Experience.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 76–90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  
  • Reaser, Jeffrey. (2010). “Developing Sociolinguistic Curricula that Help Teachers Meet Standards.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (Eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 91–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Session 9: Designing a Unit on Interpretation

  • [no assigned readings] 

Session 10: Linguistics Out of School | Designing a Unit on Language Growth and Development 

  • Farris-Trimble, Ashley and Danica Reid. 2019. “Little Linguists: A Model for Engaging University Students and Elementary Schoolers in a Day Camp Setting.” Language and Linguistics Compass, 13(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12342  
  • McGory, Julia Tevis and Jefferson Barlew. 2020. “Linguistics for High Schoolers: A Summer Camp Model.” Language and Linguistics Compass, 14(11). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12397  
  • Wagner, Laura, Shari R. Speer, Leslie C. Moore, Elizabeth A. McCullough, Kiwako Ito, Cynthia G. Clopper, and Kathryn Campbell-Kibler. 2015. “Linguistics in a Science Museum: Integrating Research, Teaching, and Outreach at the Language Sciences Research Lab.” Language and Linguistics Compass, 9(10). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12164  

Session 11: Reflecting on Teaching Linguistically | Designing a Unit on Language Variation  

  • Carlson, Deirdre. 2010. “A Primary Teacher’s Linguistic Journey.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education,  244–250. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Fields-Carey, Leatha and Suzanne Sweat. 2010. “Using the Voices of North Carolina Curriculum.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 272–276. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • McNulty, Athena. 2010. “Language Lessons in an American Middle School.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 257–263. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Pippin, David. 2010. “The Diary of Opal Whiteley: A Literary and Linguistic Mystery.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 264–271. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Thomas, Caroline and Sara Weaver. 2010. “Why do VCE English Language?” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 251–256. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Due: Reflection Essay about Design and Teaching Experience II 

Please upload your reflection essay (500–700 words) to the class website by 10 pm on the night before session 12.        
Reflections will be discussed in class. 

Session 12: Reflecting on Teaching Experience II | Designing a Unit on Language Change 

  • Lobeck, Ann. 2010. “Educating Linguists: How Partner Teaching Enriches Linguistics.” In Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (eds.), Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education, 204–212. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Session 13: Class Poster Presentations | Reflecting on Our Work 

Due: Final Project Paper: A Linguistics Unit 

Please upload your final project paper to the class website by 5 pm on Wednesday of the week after session 13.

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 1 session / week; 3 hrs / session

Prerequisites

There are two prerequisites: first, that you come motivated to make linguistic inquiry accessible to all; second, that you come committed to collaborating with others in this work.

Previous experience teaching linguistics at any level is welcome, but not required. Graduate students from other departments and undergraduates are also welcome if they have taken a linguistics course or have my approval.

Course Description

In this seminar, we will explore the idea that the study of language in K–12 (kindergarten to grade 12) education can be a means to develop young people’s understanding of scientific inquiry as well as their understanding of the nature of language. We will examine the view that the native language knowledge that each student brings to the classroom comprises a rich, accessible database, which can be used to give students the opportunity to become familiar with the methods, concepts, and attitudes of scientific inquiry. We will probe past and current efforts to engage young learners in linguistic inquiry and consider how to advance this work.

The challenge of this seminar is to create pedagogical materials and methods that will motivate learners of all ages to be inquisitive about their native language and about language in general, with a primary focus on secondary school students (grades 6–12). Seminar participants will work with one another and in partnership with K–12 teachers whenever possible.

Course Context

This course is offered in the context of a revitalized MIT Linguistics initiative to introduce high school students to language science. A major objective of the initiative is to design an introductory high school linguistics course that will excite students about the scientific study of human language. We will pursue our work with this objective in mind, using our class as a design laboratory.

Learning Goals

This course is designed to enable you to do the following:

  • Analyze case studies of K–12 linguistics through the lens of curriculum design
  • Design and present a linguistics “unit” (course/unit/lesson) within the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework of “backwards” course design, which involves identifying “desired results,” determining “evidence of understanding,” and developing a “learning plan” and “learning events”
  • Engage learners in linguistic inquiry by using effective instructional practices
  • Collaborate with others by giving and receiving feedback on unit design and co-teaching
  • Deepen your thinking about core linguistic concepts through reflection on curriculum
  • Reflect on what linguists need to know about introducing linguistics in K–12 settings

Course Requirements

Prepared Class Participation

We will spend much of class learning by doing: learning the UbD framework by designing units of instruction. The vitality of our discussions and the progress we make in our design work depend on everyone being an active, prepared participant in every class. Class participation, with no more than two absences, will contribute significantly to your grade. If you must miss class for any reason, please email me as soon as you can.

Assignments

(For more information about each of these projects, see the Assignments page.) 

Design and Teaching Experience I: Spring Spark

Our class will participate in Spring Spark, a 2-day-long, weekend program at MIT hosted by the student-run MIT Educational Studies Program. We will register as a group to cooperatively teach two sections of Language Science.

Design and Teaching Experience II: A Linguistics Lesson in a Partner Teacher’s Class

You will pair up with a middle school or high school teacher who will help you develop a presentation, lesson, or activity (hereafter referred to as the ‘lesson’), which you will then deliver in that teacher’s class.

Poster Presentation

At the end of this course, you will make a poster presentation to the class and to the MIT Linguistics community about your work.

Final Project and Paper: A Linguistics Unit

For your final project, you will develop a linguistics unit using the UbD framework, and write a paper about the unit. 

A Note about Collaboration

This course will involve a good deal of work with class colleagues. I encourage you to work with others throughout the semester as you develop, try out, assess, and hone your ideas and your work. But please: Write up the work that you submit on your own. If you collaborated with others on the work, acknowledge their contribution. If you have any questions about this, please speak to me.

Academic Integrity

I will hold all members of this class to the high standard of academic integrity that is expected of students at MIT. I expect that you will submit work that you have done yourself and that you will acknowledge the sources that you use and the contributions of others to your work. (See A Note about Collaboration, above.) It is important that you know, understand, and uphold MIT’s policies regarding academic integrity, which are available at Academic Integrity at MIT: A Handbook for Students. If you have any questions about these policies, please speak with me.

Diversity

MIT and MIT Linguistics value diversity of backgrounds and an inclusive environment. I too share these values. I welcome all of you and I hope to foster a sense of community in this course. I expect all members of this class to contribute to making this class a respectful, welcoming, and inclusive environment. If this standard is not being upheld, please speak with me.

Accessibility

Accessibility is necessary for an inclusive environment. If you need disability-related accommodations, I encourage you to meet with me early in the semester so that I can support you with your approved accommodations. If you have not yet been approved for accommodations, please contact Student Disability Services.

Grading

Your course grade will be based on the following components:

  • Prepared class participation and reflection essays (50%)
  • Poster presentation (15%)
  • Final project paper (35%).

If you have any questions or concerns about your work in this course, please speak to me.

Below, Prof. Maya Honda discusses the logistics of the partnership between the students in her seminar and the middle school and high school teachers they were individually working with to develop and deliver a linguistics lesson to the teachers’ students.

The seminar involved online collaboration with and between students and teachers. I know the five partner teachers from an online network of teachers who teach linguistics in public and private schools; all five partner teachers teach outside of Massachusetts—in Maryland, Michigan, Montana, and New York. Because of this, all of my interactions with them took place online and almost all of the interactions between the seminar students and the teachers and their students did too. Of the four seminar students who were able to teach their lessons, two taught their lessons online. Two chose to take the train to New York City to teach their lessons in-person.

Below, Prof. Maya Honda discusses her implementation of the Understanding by Design approach in 24.S95.

In the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, the instructor begins designing an instructional unit (which can be a course, a unit, or a lesson) by identifying and clearly stating the “desired results,” the learning goals. That sounds commonsensical, but often as not, as instructors, we jump into designing a course or a unit around topics or activities, without clarifying for ourselves and our students what we want them to understand and what we expect them to be able to do with what they learn. Identifying “desired results” is directly tied to the next step in course design, which is determining “evidence of understanding.” We all want our students to understand what we teach them, but how will we know if they do? In the UbD framework, instructors must articulate for their students how they will demonstrate learning and understanding. Students shouldn’t be left wondering, What does the instructor want? After determining “desired results” and “evidence of understanding,” then the instructor moves on to developing a “learning plan” and “learning events”; the syllabus and the lesson plans come last, not first, in the UbD framework.

Below, Prof. Maya Honda discusses the rationale for introducing linguistics as a topic of study at the middle school and high school level.

Everyone knows a language. This means that every student brings to the classroom a rich, accessible database of linguistic knowledge that can be used to give students the opportunity to become familiar with the methods, concepts, and attitudes of scientific inquiry. By examining and constructing explanations for language phenomena, such as how we pluralize nouns or how we ask a question, students can make their tacit knowledge of language explicit. Again and again in my work with fifth graders on up, students have been surprised to uncover things about language that they never knew they knew. This kind of learning is enlightening and empowering: enlightening because students learn about language, which is at the core of who we are as human beings, and empowering because they realize their ability to engage in scientific inquiry.

In linguistics, middle school and high school students can do research and theory construction at a fairly sophisticated level without any special equipment. They can really do linguistics. The traditional school sciences don’t offer a similar opportunity.

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Spring 2023
Level
Learning Resource Types
Instructor Insights
Lecture Notes
Written Assignments with Examples