About the Course
This course is offered within the English specialty of the LLCW department at William Paterson University, NJ (WPUNJ). It meets several campus requirements for linguistics, tech-intensive courses, or/and free electives within the English major and the linguistics minor. It has been developed by Professor Brian Ó Broin.
How does your smartphone understand you? How is sound encoded in an mp3? Wondering what the heck is going on with that ChatGPT thing? Can language be used by forensic scientists?
You've come to the right place!
In addition to providing an overview of linguistic technology from earliest times through to the meteoric rise of analog and digital linguistic technology in the twentieth century, this technology-intensive course introduces students to the basic concepts and practices of present-day linguistic analysis: how linguists analyze language structure and usage. Meeting ISTE (International Standards for Technology in Education) and National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, the course offers systematic training in adapting electronic technologies to linguistic ends. Students will survey fundamental linguistic categories (e.g. morphemes; phonemes) and techniques, developing their ability to use commonly-available hardware/software to collect, analyze and present linguistic data.
Your Professor
Professor Brian Ó Broin has taught linguistics at the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, and the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He has been teaching at William Paterson University, NJ since 2003. Professor Ó Broin is an internationally recognized authority on Irish Gaelic linguistics. Fluent in several languages, he appears regularly on radio and television. A prizewinning playwright and novelist, his works have been performed on stage in Galway, Ireland, and he himself has appeared on stage at the Irish Repertory Theater, New York.
LAYOUT OF A TYPICAL SEMESTER:
Introductions
The Basics - Grammar and Terminology
MODULE 3
History of Language Technology
MODULE 4
Phonetics and Phonology
MODULE 5
Speech Technology
Essay: “Speech Synthesis.”
Essay: “Speech Recognition.”
MODULE 6
Multilingual Technology
Essay: “Working in a Foreign Language.”
MODULE 7
Language Teaching and Learning
“Tech and Second Language Acquisition.”
“Tech and Applied Linguistics.”
MODULE 8
MIDTERM EXAM
MODULE 10
Computational Linguistics
“The Encoding of Text, and Searchability.”
“How and Why we Search, and Boolean Searches.”
MODULE 11
Communications Technology
“Wired and Wireless Broadcasting.”
MODULE 12
Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics
MODULE 13
Publishing and Technology
“HTML & Internet and Editing with Trinket.”
MODULE 14
Artificial Intelligence
MODULE 15
Forensic Linguistics
MODULE 16
FINAL EXAM (Cumulative)