Schedule

BCSC 259: Lecture Schedule (Subject to change)

Only students who are enrolled in the course may access materials online. You must be logged into Blackboard to download these files.

Date
Topic
Readings
Quizzes/Assignments
PART 1 :: SOUNDS AND WORDS OF LANGUAGE
08/25
Introduction
Logistics and plans for the semester
 
 
08/27
Why study language development?
Hoff Ch. 1
Miller 2003
 
09/01
Labor day, NO CLASS
 
 
09/03
Early speech perception 1
Hoff Ch. 3
Wynn (2018)
Pat Kuhl TED Talk (video)
 
09/08
Early speech perception 2
Hoff Ch. 2
Maye et al (2002)
Quiz 1
09/10
Distributional learning & word segmentation
Saffran et al. (1996)
Saffran (2020)
*Relevant information in Hoff Ch. 3
 
09/15
Phonological development & first words
Hoff Ch. 4
Bergelson (2020)
Deb Roy TED Talk (video)
HW1 available after class time
09/17
Processes of lexical development 1 & How to study for Exam 1
Hoff Ch. 5
Swingley (2022)
HW1 due, 9/19 (Fri), 6:00pm
09/22
Processes of lexical development 2: syntactic bootstrapping
Hoff Ch. 5
Naigles (1990)
Quiz 2
Study-guide ver.1 posted after the class time
09/24
Processes of lexical development 3: Pragmatic inference & In-class review
Hoff Ch. 5
(Grigoroglou & Papafragou, 2022)
Study-guide ver.2 posted after the class time
09/29
Exam 1
(on Blackboard – Please bring your laptop. If you prefer a printed copy of an exam or use other electronic devices for this exam, please contact Dr. Kurumada by 9/24.)
 
 
PART 2 :: STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE & ROLES OF INPUT
10/01
One-word to Multi-word speech
Ch. 6
Tomasello (2000)
HW2 available after class time.
10/06
Grammatical development 1
Ch. 6
Wilson et al., (2018)
HW2 due, 10/6 (Mon), 6:00pm
10/08
Grammatical development 2: Over-regularization and over-generalization
Pinker (1991)
Plunkett (2017)
Quiz 3
10/13
Fall Break, NO CLASS
 
 
10/15
Early communicative development
Hoff Ch. 7
Baldwin (2000)
 
10/20
Language disorders and linguistic development in autistic children
Guest Lecture: Dr. Loisa Bennetto (Psychology)
Hoff Ch. 11
 
10/22
Sociolinguistic variations and individual differences
Hoff Ch. 7
Johnson & White (2019)
Final project survey out after class time
10/27
Pidgins, Creoles, and Inconsistent Input
Hoff Ch. 2 (p. 31-34)
Hudson-Kam & Newport (2005) *Introduction
Quiz 4
Exam study guide ver.1 posted after class time
10/29
Language learning in Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children
Guest Lecture Dr. Zhen Bai (CS) & Dr. Wyatte Hall (URMC);
Hall et al. (2017) Bai et al., (2022)
Final project group assignment
11/03
Asking learnability questions using artificial languages
Hudson-Kam & Newport (2005)
Smith et al. (2016)
Exam study guide ver.2 posted after class time
11/05
Exam 2
(on Blackboard – Please bring your laptop. If you prefer a printed copy of an exam or use other electronic devices for this exam, please contact Dr. Kurumada by 10/30.)
 
 
PART 3 :: LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
11/10
Experiment design & What are CHILDES?
Please download CLAN on your computer before the class time.
HW3 available after class time. Due by 11/12 (Wed), 4:50pm.
11/12
Group work: brainstorming for the final project
 
 
11/17
Bilingualism and Second Language Learning
Hoff Ch. 9
HW4 due by 11/17 (Mon), 4:50pm. After submission, Meet with Dr. Kurumada, Ali, or Tiki to discuss your project ideas
11/19
Brain & Language 1, Approaches to neural bases of language
Hoff Ch.2
Kuhl (2010)
Quiz 5
11/24
Brain & Language 2, Trajectory of language development and brain plasticity
Summary
FerjanRamirez et al., (2017)
Olulade et al., (2020)
Study guide for the optional final exam uploaded after class time
11/26
Thanksgiving, no class
 
 
12/01
Group project presentation 1
 
 
12/03
Group project presentation 2
 
 
12/08
Group project presentation 3
 
Project report due on 12/10 (Wed), 6:00pm
12/14
Exam 3
(This exam is Blackboard-based. You may take it from home. It will become available at the college designated exam time (8:30am EST) and will stay open for 24h.