Welcome to the course!

In this course, we will be exploring the field of psycholinguistics together. This is a discipline that is fundamentally interested in the cognitive processes that allow us humans to acquire, produce and comprehend language. We will cover several topics in each of these areas. Psycholinguistics is, by its nature, an interdisciplinary endeavour, which not only sits on the fence between linguistics and psychology, but also touches other areas in the cognitive sciences. 

Consultation hours: Wed 10:00 - 12:00, D.413, emails with questions in advance appreciated

Class format

Classes are held weekly on Mondays at 10:00 AM in B2.43 (Faculty of Arts).

Our classes will consist of two parts, a lecture and a discussion session.

Each week, we will cover a topic of interest in the field of psycholinguistics. In the lectures, the basic issue, its background, and the research that has tried to address it will be introduced. Following this, you will have the opportunity to ask questions about the lecture content. Each class we'll start with the discussion session part going through the topic from last week. Here, we will focus on delving deeper into the content. We will split into small groups and go through discussion sheets that will be provided for each session. Each week will have a main discussion question that will guide what we'll be talking about. 

For each week, there is a reading list that you are expected to have read before each class. Some weeks, there will be a larger number of studies and I do not expect you to read all of them. However, starred (*) readings are mandatory. That you read the studies assigned is crucial since the discussion will often assume acquaintance with the studies! Also, feel free to find and read some other studies if you want to and share them with others in class!

Assessment

This course is assessed by means of a colloquium (Pass/Fail). This will have two parts:

• An essay answering a question in psycholinguistics, selected from a list
  • 2000 - 2500 words excluding references, hard limit
• a joint class discussion of your essays - this will be our last session

Handing in the essay is a necessary condition for passing the course. Essays that do not adhere to the standards of academic writing and ethics (e.g., plagiarism) or under or over the word limit will not be accepted. Cases of suspected plagiarism will be reported to the University authorities and dealt with.

You will receive written comments on your essays. During the discussion, we will cover your essays as well as the topic at large. This will be an opportunity for you to delve deeper into your topic of choice. The expected standards for passing are described in the document below. You can also find some tips on essay writing as well as an example essay. Please study these documents carefully.

P.S.: If you're wondering what those wonderful blue bird-like creatures in the picture are, then I can tell you these are "wugs"! The wug is the mythical animal that represents psycholinguistics. It comes from an ingenious language acquisition experiment by Gleason (1958) that showed that children have an implicit knowledge of linguistic structure that they can apply to new words!