Teaching Introductory Linguistics through Unit Mastery

Abstract

The Linguistics Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is primarily a graduate department; undergraduates may major in linguistics only through the Liberal Studies program which provides specially designed majors for students. We do, however, offer an introductory linguistics course (Linguistics 102 - Introduction to the Study of Language) which attracts a great many students (primarily because it fulfills a core requirement of the college). All full-time faculty members and a few instructors teach at least one semester of 102 each year, which means that there are typically 12 to 15 sections offered each semester. In the late 1970s we found the demand for 102growing, but at the same time we were not entirely satisfied with how well we were teaching the various sections of the course. One experiment was a large team- taught section with the course content split up into modules and evaluations by separate multiple- choice tests over each module. That worked moderately well, but, still casting around for a better way to teach a large number of students effectively, we learned of the unit mastery method first developed here at the University of Hawaii by John G. Carlson and Karl Minke of the Psychology Department. We decided to give it a try. It worked very well.