LING 580 C: Problems in Linguistics

LING 580C: Problems in Linguistics

Daylong Speech Recordings in Language Development Research

Instructor: Naja Ferjan Ramírez

Office hours: Tu 9:30-10:20 GUG 415 B or by appointment, email naja@uw.edu

Meeting Time & Location: Tuesday, 2:30-4:50 pm PST, TBA (in person only)

Contact: naja@uw.edu

Accurate documentation of natural language environments enables us to effectively hypothesize mechanisms for language learning and processing, and to test whether our theories about language development scale up to everyday use. Technologies such as LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) provide an unobtrusive long-form recording method supplemented by automated speech analyses, and have become one of the main approaches for measuring children’s language input and production. This course will examine how we can collect, annotate, store, and analyze data such that we can optimally produce informative work in the present while also benefiting future research. Students will read, discuss, and critically evaluate research papers that utilize daylong recordings across different settings. Final projects will involve proposing a research study, or making substantial progress on an existing project that uses daylong recordings. 

The following topics will be explored (schedule subject to change):

Week 1: Organizational meeting; Presenters selected for each week; Introduction to daylong recordings

Week 2: Collecting and analyzing daylong recordings: General pipeline; advantages; limitations; ethics

Week 3: Accuracy of automatic segmentation; pros and cons of automatic and manual annotation

Week 4: Daylong recordings in variable family structures

Week 5: Daylong recordings in non-Western cultures

Week 6: Final Project Outlines

Week 7: Daylong recordings in bilingual/multilingual samples

Week 8: Daylong recordings in clinical populations: CLASS MEETS ON ZOOM

Week 9: Daylong recordings in intervention research

Week 10: Daylong recordings and the brain

The course will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, relating linguistics to cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, speech and hearing sciences, and education. Basic knowledge of linguistics is assumed. Undergraduate students can register with instructor’s permission.

Learning objectives:

• Critically evaluate and present original research data, as well as theoretical perspectives. Prepare and lead academic discussion.
• Relate linguistics to other disciplines, such as cognitive science, computer science, psychology, neuroscience, and education. Identify tangible connections to real world problems.
• Write a research proposal or make substantial progress in writing an existing research paper

Readings:

            Readings will consist of journal articles (original research papers or review papers, or technical reports/guidebooks). Some research papers have been uploaded to the course Canvas site within the weekly modules, but those are just ideas to get you started. For each week, the presenters will select the final readings, which will be uploaded to Canvas a week ahead of time. 

Student Responsibilities and Expectations:

This course is based on active learning principles. Research on learning in higher education consistently demonstrates that students learn more when they have opportunities to actively engage in course content (Baepler & Walker 2014, Brooks 2012, 2011). These authors demonstrate that participation in an Active Learning Classroom contributed significantly to student learning outcomes and to students’ positive perceptions of their learning experiences. To understand what this means and how it will work, please read the “Requirements” and “Evaluation” sections below.

Requirements:

• Participation: 30%

For each class you can earn up to 5 points for in class participation. To receive full participation credit, I expect you to:

- Complete all assigned readings ahead of time;

- Participate! For full credit, I expect you to make rich and significant contributions to our classroom discussion and activities (5 points per class). This means demonstrating an understanding of the readings, referencing the texts (rather than solely discussing personal experiences), building on others’ comments and asking insightful questions that further the conversation. Please note that you will not earn full credit if you dominate the discussion and prevent other voices from being heard. I understand that issues may come up during the quarter. Thus, the lowest participation grade for one class will be dropped.

• In-class presentation / discussion: 40%

In Week 1, each student will sign up to be the discussion leader for 2-3 classes, depending on enrollment. There will be 1-3 presenters assigned to each week, depending on enrollment. Presenters should prepare the discussion-based presentation together, and all of them need to be familiar with the content of the readings. I also encourage you to present the main points and challenges, but your primary job is to guide your classmates’ discussion, not lecture. You are welcome to structure your presentation / discussion in any way that you believe is most conducive to learning, and use any (or no) technologies. The presenters should finalize the choice of research papers to be read and discussed by the class ONE WEEK in advance of the scheduled presentation /discussion. That is, if you are scheduled to present on Tuesday of Week 4, your paper choices should be finalized and announced to your classmates in class on Tuesday of Week 3.

Below is the grading rubric that I will use to assess each of your in-class presentations/discussions (please note the last point – this is your chance to reflect on your own presentation practices).

• Final project*: 30% (10% for Week 6 outline and in-class presentation, 20% for final paper).

*Students taking this course for 2 credits do not have to complete this assignment. They should still attend Week 6 presentations. Their grade will be based on their in-class presentation (50%) and participation (50%))*

As a final project for this class, you will propose a research study using daylong recordings. The proposal can be a follow-up study to a question or issue discussed in class, or you can come up with a completely new question. You may try to come up with a project that you can actually conduct in the future, and/or you can ask me for availability of real data if you are interested. Details about the final project will be discussed in class in Week 1. You may use the guidelines below as a reference, and to make sure you stay on track. Please feel free to ask me questions about the final project in class at any time, or over email.

• Topic identification: Select your topic and ask me for approval between Weeks 1 and 5. You may do this verbally in class, over email, or you can schedule a Zoom meeting with me. While this is a rather informal step, please do complete it in order to prevent selecting an inappropriate topic, which will put you behind the schedule, in addition to lowering your Outline grade.
• Outline your project and present your outline in class in Week 6. After I give you approval for your topic, please write up a 1-2 page (single spaced, 12 point standard font and standard margins) Outline of your project. This outline should include the following items (not necessarily in this order): present your question(s); brief (1 paragraph) outline of background research, citing at least 3 studies; briefly propose an experiment to test your question(s); outline your hypothesis; briefly outline your experimental method; briefly outline your expected outcomes; briefly outline any problems you may run into; list of references at the end. Please email your outline to by me 8 am on Monday of Week 6. I will make sure that everybody has a copy of everybody’s outline for the class. Below is the grading rubric for the outline:

• Your final write-up: This should be a 6-10 page (double spaced, 12 point standard font and standard margins) research proposal where you elaborate on each of the Outline points). You should email this document to me by MARCH 14 2023 at 11:59 pm PST. Your final write up should show an in-depth understanding of the question / problem, should cite at least 8 relevant research papers (not review or theoretical papers – you can have these as well, but in addition to at least 8 original studies), and should propose a feasible experimental study. In addition to covering the points listed in the Outline, you should also include a short section describing how you incorporated the class feedback that you received in Week 6. Below is the grading rubric for the final paper:

Grading: The following UW grading scale will be used (www.washington.edu/students/gencat/front/Grading_Sys.html)

  Percent = Grade

    ≥ 95%   =    4.0           88  =    3.3          81  =    2.6           74  =    1.9              67  =    1.2

94     =    3.9           87  =    3.2          80  =    2.5           73  =    1.8              66  =    1.1

93     =    3.8           86  =    3.1          79  =    2.4           72  =    1.7              65  =    1.0

92     =    3.7           85  =    3.0          78  =    2.3           71  =    1.6              64  =    0.9 

91     =    3.6           84  =    2.9           77  =    2.2           70  =    1.5              63  =    0.8          

90     =    3.5           83  =    2.8           76  =    2.1           69  =    1.4          60-62   =    0.7

89     =    3.4           82  =    2.7          75  =    2.0           68  =    1.3             < 60   =    0.0

Policies: 

Classroom behavior/Academic integrity and conduct: In order for us to work together in creating an environment conducive to learning, anyone who disrupts class or who prevents others from learning will be asked to stop their behavior or leave. Please respect your fellow students. Activities such as talking with a friend during lectures, looking at your phone, sleeping/snoring, packing up early, coming in late, or leaving early are considered discourteous and are examples of disruptive behaviors.

Students are expected to conduct themselves with the highest standards of academic ethics, honesty and integrity. Academic misconduct includes (but is not limited to) plagiarism, harassment, cheating, falsification, or disruptive behavior and will not be tolerated. It is your responsibility to read and understand the University’s expectations in this regard (http://www.washington.edu/cssc/for-students/student-code-of-conduct/). Any student found to be in violation of proper academic conduct will be reported to the Advisory Committee on Student Conduct for a hearing. 

Hand in your own work: I highly encourage you to work together with your classmates. However, you must use your own words when you produce the work that you hand in. This is true for all the materials that you will hand in. If you have worked on an assignment in a pair or in a group, include a note about this in your write up. (Example: I worked with John Smith and Maria Muñoz on this discussion guide. We discussed the readings, but then each of us wrote our own discussion points).

Special accommodations: To request academic accommodations due to a disability (e.g., a note taker, extra time on exams etc.),please contact Disabled Resources for Students (DRS), 011 Mary Gates, 543-8924(V), 543-8925 (TTY), uwdrs@uw.edu. If you have a letter or email from DRS indicating that you have a disability which requires special academic accommodations, please come to see me at your earliest convenience so the proper accommodations can be discussed and met.

Religious accommodations: Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).”