COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This will be a reading-intensive course. Students are required to READ the textbooks 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.Also, please do turn in the assignment on time. Here's my policy concerning delay in turning in assignments:
5% off if turned in after the deadline on the day it’s due (that means prior to midnight via e-mail only).
10% off if turned in on the next day after the deadline.
20% off if turned in later than that.
Not accepted after I post the solutions (I know this is self-evident, but just in case)
In addition, each student will be required to work on a
LANGUAGE ADOPTION PROJECT (LAP) for an unfamiliar or endangered language, and turn in a 10-page report on this particular language. Details on this project will be posted here in due time. The LAP will be assigned on March 16 and is due on May 10 by 1pm. A brief project proposal is also required by April 6th. 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 EXAMS: a midterm and a final. The midterm exam is tentatively scheduled for March 18th. The final exam, which will be comprehensive, is tentatively scheduled for May 12.
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%
|
|
Midterm Exam
|
20%
|
|
Final Exam
|
20%
|
Here's how your letter grade will be assigned:
|
A
|
95% plus
|
|
A-
|
90% plus to 95%
|
|
B+
|
87% plus to 90%
|
|
B
|
83% plus to 87%
|
|
B-
|
80% plus to 83%
|
|
C+
|
75% plus to 80%
|
|
C
|
70% plus to 75%
|
|
C-
|
65% plus to 70%
|
|
D
|
50% plus to 65%
|
|
F
|
Less than 50%
|
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.
