| Course Home Page | Blackboard | Instructor E-mail |
| Course Overview and Objectives | Required Text | Library Resources |
| Participation | Quizzes and Final | Late Assignments |
| Grading | Course Mechanics | Lesson Schedule |
| Honor Code | ||
Course Overview and ObjectivesThis is an introductory course about language—not a specific language, but all languages. What do all languages have in common? In what ways do they differ? Many people think that languages like Japanese and English have almost nothing in common, but this course will show that the opposite is true. We will examine the sounds languages use and how they string their words together to form meaningful sentences. We will see how language is stored in the brain and the disorders that arise when the language centers are damaged. We will also discuss non-human forms of communication, from those of other animals to those of computers. We will look at how a given language, like English, varies depending on where, when, and by whom it is spoken. We will also look at speech's counterpart, writing, and examine how writing developed around the world. Language is something we all possess—it is the way we communicate with those around us—yet it is something people rarely sit down to think about or marvel at. This course will give you the opportunity to explore something we often take for granted. Students are expected to participate in all aspects of the class: to complete all readings, writing assignments, and examinations, and to take part in class discussions via the discussion forum. Required TextAn Introduction to Language, 8th edition, by Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams. The text is available from Friday Center Books & Gifts at The Friday Center. You can order the book online, or you can print out the book order form to fax or mail with payment as indicated on the form. Please be sure to purchase the correct edition. Library ResourcesStudents enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves and e-journals. If you are off-campus, when you click on a restricted library resource (such as e-reserves), you will be prompted to enter your UNC-Chapel Hill Onyen. If you are unable to access the library's licensed resources, please contact the proxy team for further assistance. ParticipationFor any class to function, but particularly for an online class, participation is extremely important. Your participation will be evaluated on the quantity and quality of your comments, as well as responses to your classmates' comments. Briefly, this means your on-time postings to the discussion forum, the feedback you give your classmates there, your involvement in group discussions, and your submission of assignments on time. The discussion forums are administered via a software package called Blackboard. There is a link to Blackboard at the top of each lesson page. You will need to login to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password. See Course Mechanics for information on accessing Blackboard. Quizzes and Final ExamThe quizzes will be administered in Blackboard. Each quiz will be available by 9:00 am on the Wednesday before the quiz is due, and deactivated at the due date and time (the following Monday at 11:00 pm). The final will be available via a link in the Announcements section at the Blackboard site. Late AssignmentsIn general, lessons end on Sunday nights at 11:00 pm and that is when all work for the lesson is due. Work not completed by the due date will incur a late penalty. Late assignments are marked down 10 percent for each week the project is late. For example, if the Lesson 2 assignment is turned in during the Lesson 4 period, 20 percent will be deducted from its grade (10 percent times 2 weeks = 20 percent). I will not accept any assignments that are more than two weeks late. In other words, you would have until the last day of Lesson 5 to turn in the Lesson 3 assignment, but I would not accept it after that—no exceptions. Grading
Course MechanicsBlackboard Course quizzes and discussion forums are accessed through a software program called Blackboard. There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "LING 101" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left taking you to the forums and quizzes. If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:
E-mails regarding the course will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC mail using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” at the Onyen Web site. Please also notify Janice Durham at the Friday Center of the change. If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses “blind carbon copy” to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than forwarding to Hotmail for this course. Submitting Assignments It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to your instructor via e-mail. If your instructor doesn't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered. Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to your instructor, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to your instructor and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course. In addition, never type your assignments directly into Blackboard. This is a sure-fire way to lose your hard work. Instead, use your normal word-processing program, and copy and paste your response into Blackboard when you are ready to submit it. Other QuestionsContact your instructor with questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. There is an e-mail link to your instructor at the top of every lesson page. Please include "LING 101" in the subject line of your e-mail. Contact your Instructional Designer at the Friday Center about problems with this Web site, including bad links. If you have any logistical questions as you work through the course (enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on), contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669). Lesson Schedule
Honor CodeIt is vital that your work is your own. Passing off another's work as your own is not only a violation of the University's Honor Code, it also defeats the purpose of the course. Plagiarism also includes cheating on assignments, quizzes, or the final. Make sure your work is your own. The Honor Court experience is not a pleasant one, for me or for you, so let's avoid it altogether. The University's Honor Code states that "It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity." Lesson 1 |
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