This course provides an opportunity to learn about language and how it is processed and understood. Understanding language relies on many psychological processes but the way these processes operate involves consideration of perspectives from a variety of fields, including communication, education, linguistics, neurolinguistics, and sociolinguistics. As well, many insights into language understanding arise from work on first and second language acquisition. Researchers who study language use a variety of methodologies, including experimental, quasi-experimental, ethnographic and microethnographic, field studies, observational, case study, computational, and analytical. The study of language is truly multidisciplinary and multi-method.

The course will be conducted as an interactive seminar in which all participants will share the role of discussion leader. The course is divided into 6 units. We will develop framing questions for each unit and use the readings and resource materials to address these. For each unit there are a variety of learning resources. Some units deal with a range of subtopics and extend over multiple class meetings. This allows for flexibility in the pacing and coverage of material. There are also certain themes or key issues in the psychology of language that cut across multiple topics and units. We will revisit these throughout the semester.

The resource materials for the course consist of reprints of articles. These will be available electronically and through the instructor. Although no textbook is required, there are several listed under supplementary reading that you may want to use as additional resource materials. There will be a web location for the course.

For Class Meetings. For each unit there are assigned readings and additional readings that can serve as resources for your thinking and learning about each topic area. Everyone is responsible for the material in the assigned readings. Over the course of the semester each person will be responsible for sharing an additional reading with the group through a summary of the main points and a short discussion of its importance and connection/relevance. This can be one of the "additional readings" on the reading list or it can be one that you come across and think would benefit the group. Please discuss these "personal finds" with me prior to preparing to share it with the group. Discussion leaders for each class meeting will be designated and each person is responsible for that role once during the semester. Discussion leaders (DL) have the primary responsibility for facilitating class discussion. This means that the DL will have read the material especially carefully and spent some additional time thinking about the content, its relationships to other content and issues, and the new learning issues raised. In that way, the DL can "direct" the conversation. But the DL cannot do this alone: Everyone is responsible for coming prepared to discuss the material. To help you do that, you should prepare two questions, insights, or conundrums raised by the readings. You should hand these in after class along with an indication as to whether you think it has been addressed or still needs to be addressed.

For Synthesizing Information. When you read several articles and discuss them it is important to take a step back and address the question, "So what does all this mean?" This question is a very useful way to consolidate and synthesize your thoughts. There are two mechanisms for doing this that we will use in this course. The first is the position paper. You will write two of these to coincide with the completion of units, as indicated on the syllabus. The position papers should indicate your understanding of the important concepts and phenomena discussed in the unit and your ideas about the issues that need to be addressed. These should be about 3 - 4 double spaced, 12 pt. Font, pages. The other mechanism is a take-home exam that you will complete, as indicated on the syllabus.

For Creating Relevance to Your Own Interests. Members of the class come from several disciplines and have a variety of interests. The relevance of course content to these interests can often seem remote. In this class, each student will develop their own learning question to reflect the intersection of their interests and our study of language. You will research your learning question over the course of the semester and the final project for the class will be a paper addressing your learning question. The last two classes of the semester will be devoted to student presentations of their learning question research. The research may be library research but can also include "pilot" data collection or analyses of existing data. Anticipated "length" of these papers is 15 to 20 double-spaced, 12 pt. Font, pages, including reference list.

The last page of your learning question paper should be a one page self-evaluation of your learning during this class. What worked well, what are persistent questions, what you didn't learn that you would have liked to, etc. (Note: This "page" is not included in the length recommendation.)

For purposes of assigning grades, "your responsibilities" are weighted in the following way:

Responsibility % of Final Grade

For Class meetings:

Preparation and participation 10

Sharing additional reading 5

Discussion Leader 5

For Synthesizing Information:

Position Papers (combined) 20

Take Home 35

For Creating Relevance to Your Interests

Learning Question Research 25