160153 PS Introductory Seminar on Language Acquisition (2025S)
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Th 06.02.2025 08:00 to We 26.02.2025 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Mo 31.03.2025 23:59
Details
max. 40 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Wednesday 05.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 19.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 26.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 02.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 09.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 30.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 07.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 14.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 21.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 28.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 04.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 11.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- N Wednesday 18.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
- Wednesday 25.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29 2.OG
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Humans are born to learn language without any formal teaching or training and, once learned, we use language in every possible situation automatically. But how do we do this? What is the basis of this uniquely human ability?This course will establish the study of language acquisition as an integral part of the theory of the human language ability. During the course you will also learn about the characteristics of the process of language acquisition and how some theories propose to account for them. After a few more general sessions, we will concentrate on language acquisition in the first year of life. You will see that children's knowledge of abstract grammar is surprisingly advanced even before they utter their first word. Then we move onto the acquisition of more complex syntactic phenomena, including a selection of the following (taking into account student interest): the emergence of functional categories, the acquisition of binding, the acquisition of passives, the optional infinitive or the null subject phase, and the acquisition of negation, wh-questions, information structure and quantifiers.
Assessment and permitted materials
Attendance and participation: 20%, Presentation: 20%, Final paper: 60%
Overall, 50% of success in each component merits a passing grade.
Overall, 50% of success in each component merits a passing grade.
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Students are expected to attend class regularly and actively participate in the discussion. There will also be weekly reading assignments to facilitate the discussion, which students are expected to read in advance. Students must give a short presentation on a research paper and submit a final essay. The final essay will be marked according to pre-specified marking criteria, which will be made available on Moodle.
Examination topics
Topics discussed in class, readings
Reading list
To be made available on Moodle.
Association in the course directory
BA-M12
MA1-M3-3
MA1-M3-3
Last modified: We 26.02.2025 09:46