Basics of Language for Language Learners

The goal of the course is to provide students with important tools to help them become better learners of other languages. Students will become familiar with basic elements of language relating to sounds, words and meaning as a means of enabling them to anticipate and effectively deal with problems in pronunciation, vocabulary building, and sentence formation that often come up in learning another language. They will also learn about the intertwining of culture and language, such as how expressions of politeness, swearing and body language differ across cultures. Differences between learning how an infant learns language and how an adult learns another language will also be discussed in order to highlight how these differences can both facilitate and complicate the learning of another language.