18.2424, Qs: Need Suggestions for Language Appreciation Course

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-2424. Fri Aug 17 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.2424, Qs: Need Suggestions for Language Appreciation Course

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1)
Date: 17-Aug-2007
From: Herb Luthin < hluthin at clarion.edu >
Subject: Need Suggestions for Language Appreciation Course

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:24:55
From: Herb Luthin [hluthin at clarion.edu]
Subject: Need Suggestions for Language Appreciation Course
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OK, so for years I've had this idea in the back of my mind for a language
version of your basic large-enrollment freshman-level art or music
appreciation courses, but suddenly I find that I have the chance to
actually teach it to 50 students in about two weeks' time (the alternative
was a section of comp).  Below is the kind of pop-culture topic list I had
in mind.  There are more topics than I can get through on one semester,
even just island-hopping from one to another (which is my plan), but I plan
to let the students on the first day of class vote on the set of topics
they would like to explore, including the possibility of suggesting their
own...

My idea is to achieve by light, pointillistic dabs an overall picture of
what the world of language is like.  These are gen-ed freshmen (who will be
enrolled in this late-addition course only because everything else was
filled), so the entertainment value has to be pretty high and the reading
level pretty low.  If anyone has suggestions for readings or materials
(websites, videos, magazine articles, etc) to supplement my lectures on any
of these topics---or other topics, for that matter---I'd be very grateful
for the tips.  (As you can see, I'm leaving the core linguistics subject
areas for my regular Intro to Linguistics course, and avoiding them like
the plague in this course.)  

Many thanks in advance!
--Herb Luthin
   

ENG 101, ''DISCOVERING LANGUAGE''
Animal Communication
    --Can chimpanzees talk?
    --Does Polly really want a cracker?
Birthing New Languages: Pidgins & Creoles
Comic Book Phonology
Flied Lice, Anyone?  Where Accents Come From
How the Heck Many Languages Are There, Anyway?
How to Befriend Your Dictionary
How to Read Hieroglyphics
Language and Public Policy
    --English Only movements
    --The role of language in standardized testing
    --Language and human rights
Language in Advertising
Lost in the Slang-House
    --Cops & Robbers
    --How to Puke in Collegese
Made-Up Languages: Lessons in Elvish, Klingon, and Esperanto
Men Are from Maine, Women Are from Hollywood?
Metaphors We Live By
Mini Field Methods Demonstrations
Moo Goo Gai Pan: Fun With Maps and Menus
Navajo Codetalkers in WWII
Ord-way Ames-gay
Questions Parents Might Have about Language Development
Selected Language Myths
    --Who says 'ain't' is not a word?
    --The 500 Eskimo words for snow
    --The imminent demise of the English language
The Case for Yinz
The Politics of Language
Thinking Outside the Voicebox: Talking Drums, Yodels, and Whistled Speech
Tree of Babel: the Geneology of Human Languages
Universal Translators: Language in Science Fiction
What Is the Meaning of 'Is'?: Language and the Law
Where Languages Go to Die

Prof. Herbert W. Luthin / Department of English
Clarion University / 840 Wood St. / Clarion, PA 16214
Office: 814-393-2738 / Dept.: 814-393-2482 / Fax: 814-393-1642 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics





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