About this course: Everywhere, every day, everybody uses language. There is no human society, no matter how small or how isolated, which does not employ a language that is rich and diverse. This course introduces you to linguistics, featuring interviews with well-known linguists and with speakers of many different languages. Join us to explore the miracles of human language! The Miracles of Human Language introduces you to the many-faceted study of languages, which has amazed humans since the beginning of history. Together with speakers of many other languages around the world, as well as with famous linguists such as Noam Chomsky and Adele Goldberg, you will learn to understand and analyse how your native tongue is at the same time similar and different from many other languages. You will learn the basic concepts of linguistics, get to know some of the key features of big and small languages and get insight into what linguists do. This course gives an introduction into the study of languages, the field of linguistics. With the support of the basic linguistic terminology that is offered in the course, you will soon be able to comment both on variety between languages, as well as on a single language’s internal structure. Anyone who wishes to understand how languages work, and how they can give us insight into the human mind is very welcome to join. The course is useful if you want to get a fairly quick introduction into linguistics, for instance because you are considering studying it further, or because you are interested in a neighbouring discipline such as psychology, computer science or anthropology. Furthermore, the course will help you develop analytical skills. If you are curious to understand how language works and how it gives insight into the human mind, this course is definitely for you!
Who is this class for: This course is free, and will remain free for participants. You can purchase a certificate.
Taught by: Marc van Oostendorp, Prof. Dr
Meertens instituut
| Level | Beginner |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Bulgarian |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Video: Welcome to the Miracles of Human Language!
- Reading: Meet the instructor & his team
- Reading: Welcome to Leiden University
- Reading: Study tips for studying online
- Reading: Being succesful in an international virtual learning community
- Reading: Behaving in an academic way
- Discussion Prompt: Introduce yourself
- Discussion Prompt: Language and identity in groups
- Video: Human Language and Animal Communication Systems
- Video: Human Language Versus Other 'Languages'
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: Language Diversity
- Discussion Prompt: Language diversity is a diversity of minds?
- Video: Language Diversity and Ethnologue
- Discussion Prompt: In what ways are unrelated languages similar?
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: What do Linguists do?
- Video: Interview with Dr. Victoria Nyst
- Reading: Required and optional readings
- Video: Introduction language informants + introducing Han Hu, Speaker of Mandarin Chinese
- Video: Introducing Roberta D'Alessandro, speaker of Abruzzese
- Video: Introducing Khalid Mourigh, speaker of Tarifit Berber
- Video: Introducing Varun DeCastro-Arrazola, speaker of Basque
- Video: Introducing Beste Sevindik, speaker of Turkish
- Video: Introducing Enoch Aboh, speaker of Gungbe
- Video: Conclusion; language and dialect
- Video: Distinguishing consonants
- Video: Production of speech sounds
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: consonants of world languages
- Discussion Prompt: What was your first word?
- Video: Sounds in systems
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: sounds and language change
- Video: Interview with Prof. dr. Claartje Levelt
- Reading: Required and optional readings
- Video: Introduction + Tarifit Berber
- Video: Gungbe
- Video: Turkish
- Video: Abruzzese
- Video: Mandarin Chinese
- Video: Basque
- Video: Conclusion; sounds and gestures
- Video: Words and sentences
- Discussion Prompt: Words, sentences and translation
- Video: Morphology
- Discussion Prompt: On the nature of affixes
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: world of words
- Video: Syntax and word order (a)
- Video: Syntax and word order (b)
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: world of word order
- Video: Interview with Prof. Noam Chomsky
- Reading: Required and optional readings
- Video: Introduction + Basque
- Video: Tarifit Berber
- Video: Gungbe
- Video: Turkish
- Video: Abruzzese
- Video: Mandarin Chinese
- Video: Conclusion; structure beyond sentences
- Video: Layers of meaning
- Video: Semantics
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: color and snow
- Discussion Prompt: Having no fixed description, how do we recognize objects?
- Video: Pragmatics
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: changing the world with sentences
- Discussion Prompt: Unintentionally broken promises and Grice
- Video: Interview with Barend Beekhuizen MA
- Reading: Required and optional readings
- Video: Introduction + Abruzzese
- Video: Tarifit Berber
- Video: Turkish
- Video: Basque
- Video: Mandarin Chinese
- Video: Gungbe
- Video: Conclusion; untranslatable words?
- Reading: Quiz readings
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Aphasia
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: everyday mistakes and the Foreign Accent Syndrome
- Discussion Prompt: Everyday mistakes: blending
- Video: Reading in the brain
- Discussion Prompt: Reading and writing with Aphasia
- Video: Visiting the lab
- Video: Interview with Prof. Dr. Niels Schiller
- Reading: Required and optional readings
- Reading: Crowdfunding credits
- Video: Introduction + Turkish
- Video: Tarifit Berber
- Video: Abruzzese
- Video: Basque
- Video: Conclusion; dyslexia
- Video: Language change and variation
- Discussion Prompt: More on (the nature of) linguistic change
- Discussion Prompt: The case of linguistic variation and Esperanto
- Video: Social stratification
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: social variables
- Video: Politeness
- Video: Discussion with Marten and Inge: examples of Face
- Video: Interview with Prof. Adele Goldberg
- Reading: Required and optional readings
- Video: Introduction + Gungbe
- Video: Tarifit Berber
- Video: Turkish
- Video: Abruzzese
- Video: Mandarin Chinese
- Video: Basque
- Video: Conclusion; how personal are politeness strategies?
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Awesome course!
I have zero background in linguistics, and I found this course interesting and educational. The quizzes however do have some issues such as a couple of wrong or unclear questions as well as arbitrary questions, so be aware that you may have to resort to trial and error in some cases.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It gave me an excellent overview of linguistics as the scientific study of language. The presentation style was really engaging as Maarten interacts with Martin, Inge and guests. The downloadable lecture transcripts were fantastic. That said, I have a few suggestions:
1) Include more free online resources. Most the background reading material were Amazon books, which are expensive if you come from a country with a weak currency. On the practical note, most telelearners like myself don't have time to read an entire book. It would have been far better to include journeys.
2) If students want to do the honours course, allow them to study on a different academic schedule. I found it impossible to complete research assignments and tests at the same.
3) A few assessment questions were poorly phrased and this leads to confusion on the single and multiple select quizzes.
4) Commenting and replying to questions wasn't that interactive. Hoping that somebody would randomly reply or comment to your answer was frustrating. If we were paired up with online study partners, we could discuss topics together.
5)Lastly, fix for typos on course material and tests.
MOOC's are definitely the future of education in an increasing globalized and connected world. Thank you for a great module.
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bk
Week 3 test was quite complicated, so I spent a lot of time, but it was worthy. Thanks for nice videos.