General Course Information

Instructor: Dr. Robert S. Carlisle
Sections: 90 and 290; March 29, 2010 to June 09, 2010
Email Address: rcarlisle@csub.edu

Required Texts
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyam, N. (2010). An Introduction to Language, (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Students in Bakersfield may purchase textbooks at The Runner Bookstore on the campus of California State University. Students close to Antelope Valley College may buy their textbooks on that campus.

In addition, textbooks can be purchased through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, or Borders.com. If students order books with online bookstores, they may arrive more slowly than if they had ordered through The Runner Bookstore.

This class is primarily designed to provide students with a broad introduction to the science of linguistics; emphasis will be placed on recent developments in linguistic theory. The first half of the course will concentrate on defining language as a human-specific endowment through an examination of such topics as language universals, linguistic creativity, non-human communication, and neurolinguistics. This first section of the course will also cover some types of linguistic knowledge that all speakers of a language must have--knowledge of phonetics, phonology and morphology. The second half of the course will begin by covering two other components of language: syntax and semantcs. The second half of the class will also be more concerned with language in its social context. Topics covered in this section of the course will include language variation, historical linguistics, the development of writing systems, and language in the age of computers.

To work through the class, students need to follow the order of class content.

All students in English 415 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 March 29 to 10:00 p.m. on April 04. 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. Students who do not complete all 25 sections of the pretest will lose access to WebCT, forcing them to drop the class to avoid receiving a failing grade.

English 415 Online is an asynchronous course that allows students to study at their convenience and to work at their own pace provided that all the course work and the final examination are completed by the final day of class. The course is divided into 12 sections, which correspond to the twelve chapters of An Introduction to Language. Each section of the course has a number of online exercises associated with it, and students are expected to work through the course in the order of the sections and to complete all of the online exercises by the given deadlines.

To complete the course, students must fulfill the following three requirements:

The first requirement is the completion of all online exercises. As mentioned previously, the course is divided into 12 sections, which correspond to the twelve chapters of An Introduction to Language. The exercises associated with each section consist of mainly objective questions, though studensts will have to complete some exercises by writing short responses.

The second and third requirements are the two examinations for the course, a midterm and a final. The midterm examination extensivelty covers the first six sections of the course, and the final is comprehensive. Students should read the deadlines for all course requirements to find out the dates that the two examinations may be taken.

Students must take both examinations in a proctored environment. Students in section 290 take their examinations in Room 406 at the CSUB Center on the campus of Antelope Valley College. Students in section 90 take their examinations on the CSUB campus.

Students must take both examinations on the scheduled dates and times, which are listed in the Calendar in WebCT.

The final grade will be calculated according to the following schema.

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. Students may not use books or notes while taking the examination.

Students take the course using WebCT. This system includes a mail message system that allows students to send mail messages to the instructor and to any other student enrolled in the course. Students do not need to learn any email addresses using this system. Make sure that you hit the "submit" button to send the message. If you hit "preview" and forget to submit, the instructor will not receive the message.

The course also has a discussion list which is divided into twelve folders corresponding to the twelve major sections of the course. Students are highly encouraged to subit questions and comments. Other students should then address these questions and comments. Communicate with each other and assist each other; you will find taking the course a much more enjoyable experience if you do. Also, under the discussion list is a folder entitled "Introductions" in which each student should write a brief biographical sketch. Let us know who you are and why you are taking the course.

The course is 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 new runner id number. However, students can change their own passwords once they get into the system.

I have taught Engish 415 about eight times over the last few years and consequently do not have a lot of statistics on the students, other than to know that they make significant gains from the pretest to the posttest, However, data exists for over 80 sections of English 319. English 319 (The Structure of English) has been offered online, as a regular offering on campus, and on instructional television (ITV). The students in all three courses read the same books and essentially take the same examinations. A recent study revealed that the students did equally well in all three presentations; not a single statistical difference obtained among the averages of the three examinations or the final averages for the courses. The table below displays the averages for the three examinations and the final averages.

Important Dates for All Students

April 19, 2010: Last date to withdraw without a "W" being recorded.
May 18, 2010: Last date to withdraw for a serious and compelling reason.

Welcome to the class, and I hope that you enjoy your online experience.

Syllabus for English 415 Online