Instructor: Dr. Robert S. Carlisle
Section: 01; MWF from 9:30-10:50
Office: 201E Faculty Tower
Office Hours: MWF 8:45-9:30 and 11:00 to 12:00
Email Address: rcarlisle@csub.edu

Required Texts
Carlisle, R. S. (1999). Lectures in the Structure of English. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.
Carlisle, R. S. (1999). Exercises in English Phonology and Morphology. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.
Carlisle, R. S. (1999). Exercises in English Syntax. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.

This class is primarily designed to provide students with a broad knowledge of the three major components of the structure of English: phonology, morphology, and syntax. By introducing students with a systematic means for identifying, describing, and categorizing the constituents of sentences and their grammatical functions, the course begins to empower students to conduct independent linguistic analysis.

In addition, a few given grammatical structures will be presented in reference to children and second language learners. Such an approach enables students to view grammar not as an isolated and irrelevant topic, but rather one that enables them to understand the type of linguistic structures that these groups produce and the reasons for their production. Specifically, we will briefly examine the pronunciation of English by native Spanish speakers and the deletion of inflectional morphemes by elementary school children (both native and non-native speakers of English).

We will also examine the relationship between phonemes and graphemes in English to try to determine why some children have so much difficulty learning to spell and read.

Students will find a general list of the topics and the dates that they will be covered in the class schedule.

All students in English 319 must complete an online orientation. Students may begin the online orientation as soon as they have access to WebCt. The orientation will cover the WebCt system, including locating the course, logging in, navigating, sending and receiving messages, and completing course requirements. The orientation does not last long and will make the online experience a lot more enjoyable.

During the orientation the students will learn how to take the pretest, which is also a requirement for completing the class. The pretest is in WebCt and will be available to students from 9:00 a.m. on September 15 to 10:00 p.m. on September 19. The score on the pretest does not count as part of the students' final average in the class, so students should not study for it. The pretest is an assessment tool to measure student achievement over time from an initial score (the pretest score). After the students take the final examination, which is also the posttest, the instructor can then compare the two scores to determine how much students learned during the quarter. Students can expect to do poorly on the pretest. The average score over the last five years is 38.7. In contrast, the average score on the final exam, which covers the same material as the pretest, is 84.7.

As mentioned previously, the course is divided into three major parts: phonology, morphology, and syntax. Students are expected to follow the order of course content and to take the examination for each part only after they have completed all of the readings and exercises for that part. The course consists of two types of exercises; the first exercises are found in the textbooks, Exercises in English Phonology and Morphology and Exercises in English Syntax, and the second group of exercises is online. To do well in the course, students should precisely adhere to the order of course content and follow this procedure.

• Attend lectures.
• Do the relevant exercises in the exercise books.
• Listen to the discussions of the exercises in class.
• Do the online exercises, which are self-scoring.

Because the examinations are online and programed to be released on specific dates and times, I must ask students to take their exams on the scheduled dates (see table below). I have experienced quite a few problems trying to schedule individual examinations.

Students are required to take four exams during the quarter, one exam each on phonology, morphology, and syntax and a comprehensive final. Because all exams are now online, all the questions will be objective. However, in some sections students will have to write in a few specific words.

The final average will be calculated by averaging the grades of the four examinations at noted below. The table below also contains the dates, times, and location of each examination.

As indicated in the table above, each of the examinations will be 25% of the final grade. Exams are given on specific dates and times; students who are enrolled in this section must take the exams in the designated labs above.

All examinations are online in WebCt, and the sub-sections of the examinations cover the same material as do the online exercises. However, whereas students can retake the online exercises as many times as they wish, they do the sub-sections of exams only once. In addition, on all examinations students will see only one item at a time, which they must complete before moving on. Once students have completed an item, the system will not allow them to go back and change the answer. On the day of the exams, students will not have access to the online exercises. Students need to complete the exercises the night before the exam. Each subsection is also timed, but I have given students more than enough time to finish. In fact, a statistical analysis of the exams given over the last several years reveals that the average time that students need to finish is less than half of the time provided. Students who have permission from Students with Disability Services to have time and a half to take an exam already have more than that amount of the time built into the exam. All of these procedures are designed to guarantee the academic integrity of the examinations.

To do well on the examinations, students should complete all the exercises in the books and the online exercises. The exercises are designed so that students will learn the material, and correlational analyses reveal a strong significant relationship between scores on the exercises and those on the examinations. Students who do not do the exercises or who do them poorly earn very low scores on the exams. I strongly suggest that students finish all the exercises with a minimal score of 80% correct responses. Students may take the exercises as many times as they wish until they feel that they have learned the material. The items in all exercises are randomized so that students are assured to have some new items every time that they take an exercise. The exercises also contain comments explaining why answers are correct or incorrect.

On the day of the exam, students must bring their exercise books and demonstrate that they have completed all the exercises.

The instructor will follow the schema below for assigning grades:

The online exercises are located on a CSUB server running WebCt, the web-based teaching software used to design the course. To get into WebCt, students need a userid and a password. The userid for all students will be the same as that of their Runner accounts. The password for all students is the last five digits of their student identification number. However, students can change their own passwords once they get into the system.

I urge students to go to WebCt and attempt to enter WebCt. The instructor will also demonstrate how to enter WebCt during the first day of class.

Communicating with the Instructor

I have scheduled four hours of office hours per week for students, but I realize that many students have problems meeting with their instructors at specific times. Therefore, I actively encourage students to send me  messages if they have questions about the content of the course. The questions should be as specific as possible and relate directly to the material being studied. More general questions should be asked during the class. I can guarantee same day responses to email messages. I prefer that students do not phone me; many do not leave phone numbers; others say them so fast that I cannot hear them; and still others do not have answering machines. Students who phone may not receive an answer for the reasons listed above.

What is Online if Students Miss Classes

Students will find all the lectures in WebCT. In addition, students will find the answers to most of the exercises from the two exercise books online.

If you enjoy this course, the minor in linguistics might be for you.