Teaching introductory linguistics to non-linguists

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Emily W. Ellison

Abstract


This paper describes some of the ways that have evolved in my efforts to make the study of language 'tantalizing' and 'intriguing'. In the urban university where I teach, the students in Introductory Linguistics do not wander in with an active interest in the wonder of words; for the most part they come because there is no other course available at a convenient time, and they need to 'pick up' (their metaphor, and an interesting one) three credits while they wait for openings in the Relevant and the Practical (their capitalization). At the same time, they are NOT stupid in the 'real-world' sense, but they have very little academic training and experience. Furthermore, many of them come with rigid values and narrow expectations of what a university education should be, values and expectations which often differ substatially from those held by their instructors, who are often more interested in developing disciplined and speculative thinking.


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