Courses

This course introduces students to fundamental principles of acoustics that are relevant to the study of human speech sounds. Students gain a basic understanding of properties of speech sound waves and learn to investigate these properties instrumentally using acoustic analysis software. Students gain extensive practice interpreting acoustic displays such as waveform graphs, fundamental frequency graphs, and spectrograms. A major focus of the course is the effective use of these displays as an aid to correctly transcribing speech sounds and understanding their phonetic properties in the context of descriptive phonetic and/or phonological fieldwork. Significant attention is also given to the complex interrelationships among acoustic, articulatory, and perceptual correlates of speech sounds.

Practical methodology for managing, analyzing and describing language data. Working with a native speaker of a non-Indo-European language, students gain experience in the ethics of fieldwork, techniques of data collection and recording, analysis using the scientific method and the use of linguistic software.

This course introduces crucial concepts in anthropology and ethnography to linguists. It focuses on cross-cultural communication with an emphasis on participant observation as an effective methodology for such research. Students collect and analyze data related to topics such as oral traditions, kinship, and social structure. They are introduced to various tools for ethno-semantic analysis, including analysis of cultural themes and worldview, semantic domain analysis, and taxonomic analysis.

The issues in community literacy work that are covered in this course include various program issues such as introducing literacy in an oral community, motivation for literacy, capacity-building and sustainability, training of personnel and evaluation of the program, and using participatory approaches in all aspects of the program.

This course investigates the sociolinguistic and background factors upon which a language development program for speakers of vernacular languages may be based. Students learn to work with local people and agencies in designing and implementing a program to effectively meet the needs of specific language groups.

An introduction to literacy work in ethnolinguistic minority groups. This course includes an overview of the elements of a literacy program, including literacy materials development, pre- and post- literacy considerations, learning and reading theory, and instructional methodologies.

This course covers the process of translating from a source language to a target language. Students will develop skill in understanding a message as originally communicated in one language and cultural setting and in communicating essentially that message in a very different language and culture. Discussion includes source language, target language, and cross-language transfer, with particular attention to the translation of Scripture.