Language Acquisition (EDUC 247, LINGUIST 240)

4 credits · Graduate

A graduate course on how children acquire language, moving from prenatal speech perception through pragmatic competence in the preschool years. Central threads: the psycholinguistic methods that produce the field's evidence base (looking-time paradigms, vocabulary checklists, daylong recordings, corpus analysis) and the cross-linguistic and cross-cultural scope of that evidence, with sustained attention to understudied languages, multilingual children, African American English, and signed languages. Students read primary literature, lead discussion, observe children at Bing Nursery School, and complete a final project (study proposal, methods-driven review, or lab-collaborative pilot). This is a Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center for Public Service.