Course Structure

Course objectives

1. Apply principles of phonology and phonetics to help students develop skills and strategies in identifying the differences between the sound system of English and other languages and to recognize the sound-symbol correspondence with respect to literacy development.

2. Apply the principles of morphology to help students develop skills and strategies to form words in English, describe similarities and differences between the morphology of English and other languages and recognize the role of morphology in literacy.

3. Apply the principles of syntax and semantics to help students develop skills and strategies to understand how structure contributes to meaning and thereby develop strategies to acquire and monitor spoken and written language for a variety of purposes.

4. Demonstrate knowledge of English grammar and the rules of usage in order to help students identify and correct errors.

5. Explain how historical events impacted the grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation of English.

6. Identify pronunciation errors while listening to recordings of non-native speakers.

7. Apply the principles of pragmatics to help students develop skills and strategies to understand language in use.

Course overview

This course is an introduction to Linguistics for ESL instructors. You will learn about the English language as a system in order to better address the needs of non-native English speaking learners. In weekly units, we will explore the basic elements of Linguistics:

• phonology (sounds)

• morphology (word parts)

• syntax (how words, phrases, clauses and sentences are built)

• semantics (word meaning)

• pragmatics (how language is used)

You will learn to apply these linguistic principles to the needs of non-native speakers, with an emphasis on practical teaching strategies.

In addition, each weekly unit will cover a separate element of English grammar with a focus on error correction due to first language interference. If you plan to take the Praxis in order to pursue your K-12 license in ESL, this course will help prepare you for the exam.

Course structure and Moodle layout

Each week will cover a topic in linguistics. You will have written assignments, which you will submit through Google Assignments. You will correct the previous week’s assignment each week as part of your grade. More about self-correcting the weekly assignments here.

Each week we will also cover one topic in grammar. These will be part of your written assignments to turn in by Google Assignments. Some weeks you may also have a self-graded grammar quiz on Moodle for your review. You must complete the quizzes for credit, but not for a grade. You can take the quizzes multiple times for practice.

Most weeks, you will also have short watch-and-respond videos with questions embedded in the videos on linguistics and grammar topics. As with the grammar self-graded quizzes, you complete these for credit but not for a grade. You have multiple attempts to complete the questions; they are just to confirm your understanding. The videos are 5-10 minutes each. The self-graded grammar quizzes and watch-and-respond videos will help prepare you for the mid-term and final exams.

You will have graded forum posts most weeks to engage with the other students in the course. Plan to spend 1-2 hours/week on the forums. I will “helicopter in” and respond to a few of the posts, but I will mainly be in the background. Correctness is not the point, but rather engagement on the issue and with one another. You will receive credit for advancing the conversation. My hope is that we create an asynchronous, lively classroom discussion that energizes your online learning. More about the forums here, including how they are graded. Forum posts are due on Thursdays at 11:59 pm. Replies are due on Sundays by 11:59 pm.

The midterm and final are multiple choice and are untimed and open book.

Planning your time

Undergraduate level (FL 424) and graduate level (FL 524)

Linguistics for ESL Professionals has an undergraduate level (FL 424) and a graduate level (FL 524). The course materials and assignments are the same, except that FL 524 has a research paper assignment. The undergraduate and graduate levels will have separate forum groups and and be working from different Moodle spaces.