The Study of Language
Readings and discussion regarding language study past and present, including the study of language and its relation to thought; form, meaning, and use of language as examined variously from one time and place to another; role of language study in the discussion of a range of social phenomena and issues.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: major credit will not be granted to Linguistics majors.
Introduction to Language and Communication Disorders
Various contemporary theories of normal and abnormal language acquisition and learning. Topics include neurological, psychological, cultural and pathological factors. Attention to the development of strong academic reading and writing abilities.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: this course is of interest to students in education, behavioural and social sciences, to health professionals and to students intending to pursue subsequent professional training in speech-language pathology or audiology.
Introduction to General Linguistics
Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics; their evidence in language use; classification of human languages; language and society. Analysis of language data. Texts on language from Aristotle to the present.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: this course is relevant to students interested in the structure and meaning of English and other languages, and particularly to those contemplating careers in language teaching, literary studies, translation, computational linguistics, speech-language pathology, and audiology.
American Sign Language I
Basic signing vocabulary and grammar, including a brief history of sign language. Focus on basic finger spelling, ASL terminology, expressive and receptive vocabulary, sentence structure, and conversational signs. Examination of issues in deaf culture. Introduces the 'Direct Experience' method.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
American Sign Language II
Advanced structures, including the manual alphabet, finger spelling, and American Sign Language vocabulary and grammar. Emphasis on mastery of advanced expressive and receptive vocabulary. Ongoing debates in deaf culture.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
Prerequisite: LING 1P00.
Fundamentals of English Grammar
Introductory description of English grammar, with a focus on crucial structures liable to cause difficulties for both teachers and learners.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: Not open to students with credit in LING 2P61.
Note: designed to meet the English language requirement for the Pre-Service program of the Faculty of Education at Brock University. Foci selected for relevance to current or perspective teachers or teaching assistants, foreign language students, and others interested in the grammatical rules of spoken English.
Principles of Reading and Writing for Younger Learners
Concepts of reading and writing research and practice applicable to teen and pre-teen learners, with a focus on issues relevant to Canada's multicultural educational environment.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: Not open to students with credit in LING 4P83.
Phonetics
Further study of human speech sounds, including their articulatory, auditory, and acoustic properties. Laboratory exercises in transcription, production and auditory discrimination.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94 or permission of the Chair.
Phonology and Morphology
Interaction between sound patterns and word structures. Focus on the analysis of data from a wide variety of languages.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94.
Note: LING 2P50 strongly recommended.
Syntax
Syntactic analysis focussing on English. Basic concepts, categories, rules and principles and relevant analytic techniques. Selected frameworks influential in 20th-century linguistics.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94 or permission of the Chair.
Semantics
Sense relations, word meaning, sentence meaning and utterance meaning. Consideration of semantic universals, feature analysis and logical representation of meaning.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94, or permission of the Chair.
Note: LING 2P61 strongly recommended.
Language Disorders in Adults
Introduction to neurolinguistics and human neuroanatomy. Theories and models of brain-language relationships and approaches to assessment and intervention for aphasia and related adult-onset neurogenic disorders of language processing and production.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F91 or PSYC 1F90.
Comparative Romance Linguistics
(also offered as MLLC 2P94)
Romance languages; their structures, related concepts, differences and mutual influences.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of LING 1F94, FREN 1F90, GERM 1F90, ITAL 1F90, SPAN 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.
Language Disorders in Children
Theories and methods of assessment and intervention for language disorders in children and youth.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 2P98 or permission of the Chair.
Introduction to Audiology
Review of anatomy and physiology of hearing. Hearing disorders from preschool to the aging populations. Approaches to prevention, assessment and treatment.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F91 or permission of the Chair.
Child Language Acquisition: Early Stages
(also offered as CHYS 2P98 and PSYC 2P98)
Theories, research and methods in early language development. Linguistic stages in the development of child language at the level of grammar and meaning (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics). Discourse as an indicator of the socialization process. The effect of interaction with care givers. Early bilingualism.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F91 or PSYC 1F90 or permission of the Chair.
Child Language Acquisition: Late Stages
(also offered as CHYS 2P99 and PSYC 2P99)
Later acquired aspects of language, especially syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. Development of ability to use linguistic ambiguity, humour. Reading and writing skills, registers. Abnormal language development.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 2P98 or permission of the Chair.
Students completing this course will forfeit credit in CHST 2P99.
Clinical Phonetics
Techniques for the analysis of the production of speech sounds. The use of transcription skill in the analysis and description of the speech sound of second language speakers, young children and phonologically impaired speakers of first and subsequent languages.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 2P50.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in LING 2P51.
Sociolinguistics
Language in its social context: bilingualism and linguistic variation; social factors which interact with language; cultural implications of language learning and language behaviour.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94 or permission of the Chair.
Gender and Language
(also offered as WISE 3P93)
Survey of major debates concerning language, gender and power in the 20th century.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Pragmatics
Language use examined through comparison of major theoretical frameworks and application of analytic techniques to relevant data. Topics include speech acts, conversational implicature, politeness, and deixis.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94 or permission of the Chair.
Discourse Analysis
Textual and contextual analysis of discourse in terms of language variation, cohesion and coherence, topicality, and schematic knowledge. Application of discourse theories to such domains as literary analysis and language acquisition. Collection, transcription and analysis of data.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 3P94 or permission of the Chair.
Applications of Linguistic Theory
Linguistic theory and its application to language teaching, the study and treatment of communication disorders, and other domains. Topics include language a human ability, language as individual or a social phenomenon, innate or learned linguistic abilities, language and thought and psychologically reality of theoretical concepts.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94.
Anatomy and Physiology of Speech Production
Structural and functional bases of respiration, phonation and articulation for the production of speech and voice. Introduction to physiological measurement and theory of speech breathing and phonation.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
Prerequisite: LING 1F91.
Acoustic and Physiological Phonetics
Acoustic, physiological and perceptual characteristics of speech. Simple and complex waveforms, acoustic phonetic features of vowels, semi-vowels and consonants, source-filter theory, airflow, air pressure, and other physiological measurements of speech and voice production. Theories and models of speech motor control and speech perception.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisites: LING 1F94 and 3P98.
Second Language Acquisition and Learning
(also offered as PSYC 3Q91)
Theories of second- or subsequent-language learning. Topics include psychological aspects of language learning (behaviourism, cognitivism, humanism), language and culture, contrastive analysis, error analysis, interlanguage.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Methodology in Second Language Instruction
(also offered as PSYC 3Q92)
Approaches to teaching and learning and their influence on classroom methods. Overview of methods from the Greeks to the modern era.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: LING 3Q91.
Special Issues in Linguistics
Selected issues in the theory and/or practice of linguistics. Topics according to specific areas of instructional expertise.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
2002-2003: Autism Spectrum Disorders
Historical perspectives, models of collaboration, neurodevelopmental issues, treatment methods, diagnostic criteria, assessment of communication and social skills, intervention strategies, play and behaviour, and sensory and motor issues.
Prerequisite: LING 1F91 or permission of the instructor.
Honours Thesis
Research project carried out with faculty supervision.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours).
Note: students must consult the Chair and an adviser before being admitted to the course.
Evaluation of Speech and Language Disorders
Principles and procedures of clinical evaluation in speech- language pathology from initial referral to report writing. Topics include clinical interviewing, psychometric properties of norm-referenced tests, instrumental and other forms of measurement and ethical and cultural considerations for assessing speech, voice and language disorders across the lifespan.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) Communication Disorders stream majors with approval to year 4 (honours).
Clinical Observation of Communication Disorders
Directed observation in the evaluation and treatment of speech, language, hearing and/or swallowing disorders. Observation experience includes videotape analyses and visits to off-campus clinical observation sites.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week; clinical observations.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) Communication Disorders stream majors with approval to year 4 (honours).
Note: clinical observation placements are normally arranged by the course instructor. Transportation to placement sites is a student responsibility. Proof of vaccination may be required.
Readings in Communication Disorders
Readings and directed discussions in diverse areas of speech-language pathology. Topics include cultural issues in communication disorders, phonological disorders, voice disorders, stuttering and other fluency disorders, hearing loss and neurogenic disorders.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours).
Language Testing
Theory and practice of language testing in research and teaching. Focus on critical analysis and evaluation of psychometric and pragmatic tests through item analysis and/or latent trait measurement.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and TESL certificate students.
Bilingualism
Linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of bilingualism: models of bilingual education, linguistic abilities in bilinguals, constraints on mixing and code-switching, the organization of the bilingual lexicon, language processing in bilinguals, language attrition.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and TESL certificate students.
Topics in Sociolinguistics
Critical examination and application of current sociolinguistic theories. Topics include the analysis of language in relation to ideology, ethnicity, class, gender and power in institutional and other social settings.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours).
Structure of Oral Narrative
(also offered as CHYS 4P60)
Topics include functions of storytelling, structuring of narratives, characteristics of tellers, and the relationship between storytelling and social identity.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to CANA, CHYS (single or combined), LING (single or combined) and COMM (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide. Students must have approval to year 4 (honours).
Prerequisite: LING 1F94 or permission of the Chair.
Supervised Teaching
Class observation, including planning, managing and delivering second language instruction. Seminar discussions on current conceptual knowledge (theoretical) and perceptual knowledge (practical) highlighted with reference to the second language teaching and learning context.
Observations and seminars, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) Teaching English as a Second Language stream majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and TESL certificate students.
Listening and Speaking in a Second Language
Theories of and issues in the development of oral language processing in a second or subsequent language. Implications and applications for selected teaching and learning situations.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and TESL certificate students.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94.
Reading and Writing in a Second Language
Selected theories and models underlying reading and writing ability. Their relationship to the concept of "grammar" and influence on inter-language development. Implications and applications for selected teaching and learning situations.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and TESL certificate students.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94.
Materials and Curriculum Design
Theoretical foundations, development and/or adaptation of second-language syllabi; planning, managing, and delivering second-language instruction. Includes materials assessment, needs analysis and practical classroom experience.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) Teaching English as a Second Language stream majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and TESL certificate students.
Prerequisite: LING 1F94.
Honours Tutorial
Individual topic, directed readings and/or research chosen in consultation with a faculty member who is willing to supervise the student.
Restriction: open to LING (single or combined) majors with a minimum 70 percent major average, approval to year 4 and permission of the Chair.