LING310-20S2 (C) Semester Two 2020

Linguistic Research and New Zealand English

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 13 July 2020
End Date: Sunday, 8 November 2020
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 24 July 2020
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 25 September 2020

Description

Research on New Zealand English has taught us a lot about how language varies and changes. In this course, you will carry out your own research project on New Zealand English, using our internationally renowned language databases, or by collecting your own data using a questionnaire or language experiment. You will do real research, in a collaborative research lab environment. The best projects are submitted to academic journals for possible publication.

The entire history of New Zealand English can be tracked in the Origin of New Zealand English
(ONZE) corpus. Using this extensive collection of spoken language, we can compare the accents of
the very earliest New Zealand born settlers to those of contemporary speakers, to examine how New
Zealand English has changed. This allows us to answer questions not only about New Zealand
English but also about language change in general.

This is a research course. It has a practical focus which will provide hands-on experience in the
analysis of New Zealand English. Students are trained how to think like a researcher, how to
formulate hypotheses, and how to test them, often with the ONZE data. You will have the
opportunity to conduct original research on language variation and/or change in New Zealand. This
course is excellent preparation for applications to summer scholarships in linguistics, and for
anyone wishing to work as a research assistant for the NZILBB. The transferable skills you learn on
this course are also excellent training for a wide range of careers, both in Linguistics and in other
fields.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will:
1. be able to demonstrate their understanding of how New Zealand English varies and changes
over time
2. be able to display complex data in tabular and graphical form,
3. be able to critically evaluate rival hypotheses regarding language variation and change,
4. be able to effectively communicate complex research results

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Prerequisites

Any 15 points at 200 level from LING.

Restrictions

Course Coordinator

Jennifer Hay

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Learn discussion 25 Jul 2020 5% x 2
Lab Report 25 Aug 2020 20%
Journal Club Presentation 20% September 14 - 25th.
Coding 25 Sep 2020 15%
Research Paper 30 Oct 2020 40%

Textbooks / Resources

There is no required textbook for this course. Essential readings will be assigned each week and
posted on Learn but students working at this level are expected to supplement this with their own
reading.

Course links

Library portal
The course outline is available on LEARN (only for students enrolled in this course).
LEARN

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,553.00

International fee $6,750.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All LING310 Occurrences

  • LING310-20S2 (C) Semester Two 2020
  • LING310-20S2 (D) Semester Two 2020 (Distance)
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