Meeting notes

LINGUISTIC MEETING NOTES 3-9-09

Colleagues – referencing our meeting,yesterday,

1. Attached is the course grid we viewed.

2. Also attached is UVM’s listing for the Linguistics Minor (w/in Communication Sciences) and a course listing for “Introduction to Linguistics.”

3. For the linguistics library that we discussed, is there value in compiling your requests on the linguistics wiki – for everyone’s use? All I need is an email listing your purchases: title/author.

4. Finally, I will look for a MIIS’ linguistics faculty list and bios (if available). Cheers, ~Kevin

LINGUISTIC MEETING NOTES 12-10-08
File:Linguistic Mtg Memo 12-10-08.pdf

Memorandum
To: Language Department Chairs, et al.
From: Kevin Hurley
Date: 12/10/08
Re: Notes from Linguistics Meeting

Participants: Andrei Barashkov, Sandra Carletti, Claudia Cooper, Armelle Crouzieres-Ingenthron, Florence Feiereisen, Randy Ganiban, Michael Geisler, Kevin Hurley, Nancy O’Connor, Carrie Reed, Patricia Saldarriaga, Allison Stanger, David Stoll, Charlotte Tate

BACKGROUND
The meeting was called to discuss teaching commitments from the language departments, particularly for introductory courses in linguistics.

LANGUAGE, MIND, AND CULTURE SPEAKERS SERIES
The annual series was proposed for Spring ’09. Allison and Charlotte offered the Rohatyn Center’s services in facilitating this series and others, as needed. Florence described an internal speaker series with faculty speaking on linguistics-related topics. The working title is “Language Works: An Invitation to Linguistics.” It was suggested, based on the tentative schedule, that speakers not be scheduled for April because of its high activity.

LINGUISTICS COURSES
The below chart configures proposed courses. The timeframe is for introductory courses 2009-’10 in preparation for a linguistics minor in 2010-’11. The immediate challenge is developing introductory courses with departmental commitments for future.

Chinese 200-Level in English “Chinese Socio-Linguistics” (Hang) Little capacity.
Classics 200-Level in English: classics oriented or Indo-European (Syfoeras)
French 200-Level in English: translation theory and practice* Little capacity or linguistics expertise
German ? 200-Level in German: “Structure of German” (Feiereisen)
Italian 100-Level in English: “Romance Languages” (Barashkov)
Japanese -   Little capacity. N. Ogawa could teach linguistics
Sociology & Anthropology 300-Level in English: “Language and Power” (Sheridan - biannual) Possible hire of a socio-linguist who could teach an intro. course
Spanish & Portuguese 300-Level in English: language teaching & acquisition (Martinez-Lage)* Little capacity – a linguist will be hired for internal teaching in Spanish
Teacher Education Psycholinguistics Discourse Analysis
Psychology ? ?
Religion/Arabic 100-Level in English "Diversity of Human Language" (Soltan)
Religion/Arabic 100-Level in English "Introduction to Linguistics" (Soltan)
Russian ? ? *Tentative pending developments

COMMENT
Claudia emphasized the integration of teacher education with language students interested in applied linguistics.In a discussion of the minor requirements, Sandra suggested at least one semester with a linguistics course in language. Nancy also suggested inclusion of translation courses in the minor.Patricia described the challenges for the Spanish/Portuguese faculty in teaching in English outside the department with current demands. The department intends to hire a linguist this year who would be able to offer courses in language. There is a possibility of negotiating between a linguistics course in English and other outside commitments such as the First-Year Seminar.The MIIS role was briefly discussed with Florence asking about the possibility of online courses with MIIS. Kevin suggested that joint teaching or faculty exchanges with MIIS might expand options. Michael thought that budget concerns would limit the latter option.The Anthropology-Sociology department has offered linguistics courses and could do so, in future, biannually (Sheridan, 300-Level). David reported that Anthro-Socio requested a linguistic anthropologist but had been denied by the EAC. If a hiring is successful, the faculty member could offer an introductory socio-linguistics course.

OTHER
A wiki for linguistics has been created (Kevin) and anyone interested is invited to join the discussion and to comment on memos and materials such as this one.For those interested in learning about wiki’s, LIS has offered to do the introductory session (45 mins.; min. 3 individuals) for those interested in the linguistic wiki. Send Kevin an email.

https://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/wiki/Linguistics/Main_Page

ACTIONS

• Michael will discuss with Renée Jourdenais, Dean Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics, MIIS potential teaching and course contributions.
• Next meeting to-be-schedule 2009