COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This will be a reading-intensive course. Students are required to READ the textbook as well as all materials on reserve or on the course website that are assigned in class every week.

There will be FOUR ASSIGNMENTS to test your understanding of the material covered in class and to help you work on aspects of cross-linguistic variation on your own, applying the same reasoning and analytical tools that we’ll be discussing in class. Each homework counts for 10% of your overall grade. So, take them seriously! While I do not mind you discussing assignment questions with your colleagues, bear in mind that the work you turn in has to be yours, and yours alone. Copying someone else’s work will be treated as cheating, will receive no credit, and will be subject the consequences of violating academic integrity, as described in the College’s Academic Honesty Statement given at the bottom of this page.

In addition, studentS will be required to work in pairs on a LANGUAGE ADOPTION PROJECT (LAP) for an unfamiliar or endangered language. Details on this project will be posted here in due time. The LAP will be assigned on Oct 24 and is due on Dec 11 by 5pm. A brief project proposal is also required by Nov 7. A list of suggested languages and resources for the project will be posted here soon. Please note that no two LAP projects can be on the same language. After all, this is a course about “diversity”.

ATTENDANCE and CLASS PARTICIPATION are important to do well in this course. It’s impossible to do well on homework problems or write a good project report without attending classes regularly. And by “impossible” I really mean “impossible”.

Finally, students are required to take TWO TAKE-HOME EXAMS: a midterm and a final. The midterm exam will be assigned on Oct 19 and is due on Oct 26. The final exam, which will be comprehensive, will be assigned on Dec 12 and is due on Dec 19 by 5pm, which is the final exam time slot for this course on the registrar’s exam schedule.

Here's how each course requirement contributes to your overall percentage in the course:

Class attendance and participation (including doing the readings)

5%

4 Assignments

40%

Language Adoption Project (LAP)

15%

Take-home Midterm Exam

20%

Take-home Final Exam

20%

Here's how your letter grade will be assigned:

A+

97% plus

A

93% plus to 97%

A-

90% plus to 93%

B+

87% plus to 90%

B

83% plus to 87%

B-

80% plus to 83%

C+

77% plus to 80%

C

73% plus to 77%

C-

70% plus to 73%

D

60% plus to 70%

F

Less than 60%

Honor code

I will follow the Middlebury College’s Academic Honesty Statement as described here:

http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/acadinfo/honorcode/statement.htm

Please make sure to write the Honor Code Pledge "I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment," on both exams as well as the LAP report (use “We” in this latter case, since you’ll be working in pairs). There’s no need to write the pledge on the assignments since I do not mind your discussing homework problems together. Make sure, however, to turn in your own work. Copying someone else’s work on assignments will still count as cheating, will receive no credit, not to mention the consequences of violating academic integrity.