1. How the exam is structured
The final exam will be administered much like the midterm.
- Availability, deadline, and time limit
- The exam will be available on Sakai at 3:00 pm EST on Th Nov 19 and must be completed by 3:00pm EST on Sa Nov 21
- The exam is written to take about 90 minutes to complete (but you may access it for three hours to consider your answers carefully and check your work)
- Once you begin the exam, it will be available to you for three hours and then it will close
- Even if you save your work and close the T&Q tool, the three-hour clock is still going
- If your work is "saved" but not "submitted" by the deadline, Sakai will auto-submit what you have completed
- Software and technical information
- The exam will be given in the "Tests & Quizzes" tool on Sakai
- You may wish to compose each answer on your own computer first and paste it into Sakai when you are finished
- Do not open multiple Sakai tabs in your browser while working on a T&Q, or you may lose your work
- If you need to use something else on Sakai while you are taking the exam, just save your work, exit from the T&Q tool, do what you need to do, and come back to T&Q when you are ready
- Some questions may require you to upload a file in Sakai T&Q
- Acceptable use of resources during the exam
- All class materials are open-"book" for this exam
- You may use the textbook, the course web site, lecture outline slides & self-paced learning slides, past assignments or exams and their feedback, your notes
- You may use web pages linked from course materials (such as videos)
- Use of other resources is not permitted (unless an exam question specifically directs you
to use something, of course)
- Collaboration with any other people is not allowed during the period when the exam is open
(Th Nov 19 at 3pm – Sa Nov 21 at 3pm)
- Studying and reviewing with classmates before the exam opens is encouraged!
- Use of any non-class resources (other than those directly linked from class outlines or web sites), including books, articles, web sites, videos, etc., is not allowed
- Collaboration with any other people is not allowed during the period when the exam is open
(Th Nov 19 at 3pm – Sa Nov 21 at 3pm)
- You will be asked to attest to the Honor Pledge on the exam
- All class materials are open-"book" for this exam
- How to get help during the exam period if you have clarification questions
or technical issues
- Schedule of instructor availability by email
(for asking questions during exam)
- During these time blocks, the instructor you contact will do their best to respond within about one hour after the email is received
- Outside these time blocks, we may not receive a message from you in time to respond during your three-hour exam window, so please take this into consideration as you make plans for when to start the exam
- You may email any instructor if you have questions, not just your own TA
- Schedule of instructor availability by email
(for asking questions during exam)
2. Course content covered by the exam
The following are suggested review topics to help you organize your studying and preparation. You may wish to review class notes, lecture outline slides and self-paced learning slides and videos, assigned readings, and past assignments and their feedback. Remember that the lecture outlines and self-paced learning slides are a very good reminder of which topics, concepts, and key terms we have focused on the most in our course.
The exam will include:
- short questions to test your knowledge of facts, terms, and concepts
- These could be short explanations, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, etc.
- problem-solving questions to test your ability to apply those concepts
You may be asked to apply what you know to a new or unfamiliar situation.
The final exam is cumulative, so it will include material from the entire course, although the focus will be on the material covered after the midterm. However, much of the second part of the course actually depends on being able to apply the skills and knowledge that you developed during the first part. So reviewing material (and instructor feedback) from the midterm exam will be an important part of reviewing for the final exam.
Material from the first part of the course
- Review guide for midterm exam
- Schedule of Topics (with links to lecture outlines and Learning Activities for each topic)
(1) Semantics
- Word and morpheme meaning
- Understand extension and intension, and how they relate to meaning
- Sentence meaning and truth conditions
- Know how to find the extension and intension of a sentence
- Be able to make a case for whether one sentence entails another
- Be able to determine when we have cases of paraphrase or contradiction
- Meaning in context (pragmatics)
- Be able to determine whether one sentence presupposes another
- Be able to use the Cooperative Principle and the conversational maxims to analyze cases of indirect communication (you will be given the names of the four maxims)
(2) Sociolinguistics/Language variation
- Be able to use your general knowledge of linguistics and mental grammar
to analyze language varieties or describe differences between varieties
- Understand and be able to use the terms language, dialect,
variety
- Know some of the factors that distinguish one variety of a language from another, including regional, generational, and social factors
(3) First and second language acquisition
- Be able to use your general knowledge of linguistics and mental grammar
to analyze phenomena seen in child language (first language, L1) acquisition and second language (L2) acquisition
- Remember that
the normally developing child's process of acquiring a native language
is different from learning a skill
- Be able to discuss the role (or lack thereof) of imitation and caregiver feedback in L1 acquisition
- Be able to discuss the potential role (or lack thereof) of caregiver (infant-directed) speech and general cognitive development in L1 acquisition
- Understand the importance of the question of whether there is a critical period for language development, and be able to discuss and evaluate evidence concerning this question
- Be able to describe pros and cons of the naturalistic
and experimental methods of investigating child language acquisition
- Be able to recognize and analyze L1 acquisition-related phenomena such as:
- child-specific phonological rules
- morphological overgeneralization
- systematic generalizations about syntactic development, especially when particular classes of morphemes are missing from syntactic structures, or when non-adult-like syntactic rules are being applied
- Be familiar with some key concepts in L2 acquisition:
- interlanguage
- transfer
(4) Historical language change
- Be able to use your general knowledge of linguistics and mental grammar
to analyze changes in a language over time — including phonetics/phonology, morphology, and syntax
- Understand and be able to discuss some of the factors responsible for
language change, especially with respect to language acquisition and
language variation:
- systematic sound change
- analogy
- reanalysis