BCSC 259: Syllabus
Fall 2025
Time & Location
Mon/Wed 4:50pm - 6:05pm, Meliora 221
Personnel
Instructor: Chigusa Kurumada
Office Hours: 3:30-4:30 on Weds
Teaching assistants: Alistair Selby
Tiketa Thomas
About This Class
In the beginning, we are little bundles of flesh that cry when we are uncomfortable - and that’s just about the extent of our communicative skills! But within a few short years, typically developing children are fully participating members of the language community. This is remarkable, because human language is an incredibly complex system. In this course, we ask the question: How do we acquire a system of such incredible complexity in such a short period of time? We will consider the steps children take along the path to learning language, including how they learn about sounds, words, higher-level sentence structure, and how to communicate effectively. We will also explore factors within the child and the child’s environment that make this remarkable feat possible.
Learning Objectives
Students in this class will:
- gain knowledge about the importance of language in the overall cognitive development in early developmental stages.
- learn different levels of linguistic representations (e.g., phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics) and how they interact with each other in children’s language development.
- develop basic abilities to conduct a psycholinguistic study by forming a hypothesis, designing a task, and collecting and analyzing data.
Course Materials
For our readings, we will be drawing from a combination of textbook chapters and journal articles posted to Blackboard.
Optional textbook: Hoff, E. (2014). Language Development (5th Edition). Belmont, CA: Cengage.
- You are not required to buy this book. As needed, I will post an electronic copy of relevant chapter on Blackboard.
- There will be a copy of the textbook on Course Reserve in Rush Rhees.
Blackboard: I will be using Blackboard quite a bit this semester. Lectures, required readings, in-class quizzes, homework assignments, your grades for individual assignments will all be there. As such, I expect you to check Blackboard at least once before each class to view important announcements.
Course Requirements
- Three Exams (50% of your total grade): Our exams are open-book: you can bring your textbook, notes, and handouts.
- The exams will be a combination of multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions. Exam questions will be based on readings, lectures, in-class videos, and class assignments.
- Your total grade/score will be the average of the highest scores from 2 of the 3 exams. Each will count as 25%. (This means that if you are unlucky and get a really low score on one of the exams, it will not count!) If you are happy with the first two exams, you can skip the last one.
- There will be NO MAKE-UP EXAMS except for University-sanctioned reasons. If you are unable to take an exam because of a University-sanctioned reason, you must take the exam PRIOR to the scheduled date. This must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance. In case of documented medical or family emergency, a make-up exam will be arranged after the original date.
- Final class project (25% of your grade)
For the class project, you will team up with 1-2 other classmates and conduct an online experiment and data analysis using a crowdsourcing platform. You will summarize your findings in 1) a short written report and 2) a 10 minute presentation.- Final class presentation (15%)
- Final project write up (individual submission) (10%)
- Assignments (25% of your grade): There will be 5 in-class quizzes (1 point * 5 = 5% of your grade), and homework (5 points * 4 = 20% of your grade).
- In-class quizzes are scattered across the semester (dates are listed in the calendar p.5-7 below) and to be completed in the classroom. Quizzes will become available at the beginning of the class. Each quiz has 5 questions and those who provided correct answers for more than 3 questions will get 1 point (= 1% of your total grade).
- Homework assignments must be submitted via Blackboard on the date specified on the calendar (below). Late assignments will be penalized 20% for each day late.
- HW1 & 2: Answering questions about published research articles You will be reading and providing a concise summary of one published article for each HW assignment. This exercise will give you ideas about how a research article is organized, and we will ask you to use the same format in your final project report. Your assignments will be graded by the instructor.
- HW3: CHILDES problem set
In class we learn how to extract frequency and collocation information from a large database. In this HW assignment, we will ask you to actually make queries and extract information to complete a problem set in preparation for your actual final project. - HW4: Final project research proposal
With your group members, you’ll discuss what research topic you want to address in the final project. You will write a brief research proposal stating a goal and a prediction to be tested with some hypothetical data.
- Attendance: Class attendance and participation are highly encouraged! Please come to class well-prepared, having done the assigned readings and any assigned homework. If you miss a class, you are responsible for any and all material discussed during that class - so be sure to get notes from friends, or to arrange a time to meet with me.
It is, however, possible to take this class by viewing recorded videos and competing all the assignments/quizzes/exams and other extra credit assignments. Choose your own adventure (while paying close attention to all the announcements on BB in terms of instructions, due dates, and in-class activities.)
Course Expectations
As my students, I expect that you will complete all assignments and participate in the course through regular attendance and engagement in class discussion. I also expect you to respect yourself and your fellow students by only submitting work that is your own.
As your instructor, you can expect me to provide an engaging classroom environment, to promote a friendly, respectful atmosphere for discussion, and to provide ample opportunities for you to ask questions or receive help if you need it. You can also expect me to be open to your feedback throughout the course.