Contact Information
General Course Information
Topic calendar
Textbooks
Course Resources
Class Blackboard Page
Extra-credit policy

Where and When?

TuTh 2:00-3:15 in rm DEG 306

Required	Optional
Harley, T. A. (2008). Psychology of Language: From data to theory, 3 rd Edition. Psychology Press. (required) Student Website: www.psypress.com/harley	American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6thEdition.).Washington, DC: Author. (recommended).

Additional related readings

Course Description & Objectives.

Basic theories and findings in the study of the psychological processes of language use, with a focus on the comprehension, production, acquisition, and representation of language.

Psycholinguistics is an area of specialization in cognitive psychology that focuses on the psychological components of the language processor. This course provides an introduction to Psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics is the field that studies the information processing mechanisms that govern the use of language in comprehension and production, acquisition, and representation. A common misconception is that one learns about the specifics of particular languages in a course on psycholinguistics; for example, how Russian uses different case-endings than German. Instead, this course emphasizes the commonalities that underlie human languages everywhere, and we will focus on what these commonalities tell us about the basic nature of the human language-making capacity. I hope you will find the material to be both interesting and challenging. The main course objectives include:

• Understand current theories of human language use.
• Understand many of the current methodologies used to study language.
• Understand how language processing relates to other fields of psychology.

Course Requirements.

Each student will be evaluated based on several exercises, quizzes, & exams. The grading is broken down below.
Exams (65%) - There will be four exams. Each is cumulative (with emphasis on the most recent material). Each exam will be worth 15% of your final grade, with the exception of the final exam.  The final exam will be worth 20%.

Exercises & Quizzes(35%)

On-line Blackboard Quizzes (10%) - there will be a number of on-line quizzes based on the textbook readings (I may opt for in class quizzes depending on whether I can get them set up in Blackboard or not).
Homeworks (25%) - there will be a number of homework assignments, I will drop the your lowest and average your scores on the rest.

Extra-credit policy

Students taking the course for graduate credit are expected to do some additional work. This work consists of additional readings and the production of short reaction papers in response to the readings. Generally there will be two readings each week. The readings are listed here.

Class Policies

Active participation is the central requirement for the class. Students will be expected to participate in a variety of ways, including several written and oral presentations and discussions. If you are going to miss a class, then you will miss an opportunity for participation. So it is critically important that you notify me AS SOON AS YOU KNOW that you'll be absent and WHY. Call, e-mail, or talk to me in person. Opportunity to make-up the missed work requires prior notification of the absence and an excused absence (that is one that you instructor accepts as reasonable and legitimate). How and when the work will be made up will be determined by the instructor.

To ensure a smooth flow of discussions, the following policies are established: Students are encouraged to listen with an open mind, respect the contributions of others, and avoid personal attacks. Students will often be faced with alternative viewpoints from the professor or their peers. Thus, students should be prepared to defend their own positions with empirical data, obtained from the assigned readings, and reasoned argument.

You are expected to do your own work. Plagiarism and cheating of any sort will not be tolerated. Either behavior will result in a grade of 'F'. Note that plagiarism includes situations where you meet with other students for group discussions and are asked write a summary. Unless otherwise instructed, this means that each participant in the group must write their own summary. Making up false excuses for absences will also be considered cheating and may result in a grade of 'F' for missed work.

And finally, if you have any questions regarding anything in the syllabus and or the course in general, please feel free to ask. Talk to me in class, via phone, or e-mail. Don't just assume that you know (or should know) the answer, I may not have been clear enough or may have forgotten to mention something.

The Office of Disability Concerns

Illinois State University is an institution and a faculty concerned with helping all of our students feel welcome, and with helping all students learn and develop to their full potential. Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TDD).

Additional relevant (and suggested for those interested) books