Free Online Foreign Languages & Linguistics Courses
Ever wished you could speak Japanese? Or wanted to visit Germany or France and talk to the people who live there? Learning a language is easy online, and with these classes it doesn't even have to cost you a penny. Alternatively, if syntax and semantics are your passion, there are linguistics courses here that will enable you to take the English language apart and remake it. Welcome to the world of language arts!
A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society - MIT
This course introduces students to Indian Culture through films, short-stories, novels, essays, and newspaper articles. The course examines some major social and political controversies of contemporary India through discussions centered on India's history, politics and religion. The focus is on issues such as ethnic tension and terrorism, poverty and inequality, caste conflict, the "missing women," and the effects of globalization on popular and folk cultures. Particular emphasis is on the IT revolution, outsourcing, the "new global India," and the enormous regional and sub-cultural differences.
Abnormal Language - MIT
Introduction to the linguistic study of language pathology, concentrating on experimental approaches and theoretical explanations. Discussion of Specific Language Impairment, autism, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, normal aging, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, hemispherectomy and aphasia. Focuses on the comparison of linguistic abilities among these syndromes, while drawing clear comparisons with first and second language acquisition. Topics include the lexicon, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Relates the lost linguistic abilities in these syndromes to properties of the brain.
Advanced Japanese I - MIT
This course covers lessons 22 through 27 of Japanese: The Spoken Language by Eleanor H. Jordan with Mari Noda. The goal of the course is to continue to build oral proficiency by expanding your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Class hours will be devoted to developing speaking skills in a variety of circumstances; making requests, invitations, apologies, suggestions, dealing with problems, expressing your opinions, etc. Grammatical and social appropriateness on your utterances will be stressed. Keep in mind that daily tape-work is essential.
Advanced Japanese II - MIT
This course covers Lessons 27 through 30 of Japanese: The Spoken Language by Eleanor H. Jordan with Mari Noda. The goal of the course is to continue expanding grammar and vocabulary by further developing four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The goal is to acquire the ability to use Japanese appropriately with increasing spontaneity emphasized, and to be prepared to become an independent learner to the point where you are capable of handling authentic Japanese by yourself, without fear or hesitation.
Advanced Phonology - MIT
This course focuses on phonological phenomena that are sensitive to morphological structure, including base-reduplicant identity, cyclicity, level ordering, derived environment effects, opaque rule interactions, and morpheme structure constraints. In the recent OT literature, it has been claimed that all of these phenomena can be analyzed with a single theoretical device: correspondence constraints, which regulate the similarity of lexically related forms (such as input and output, base and derivative, base and reduplicant).
Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition: Perspectives on Technology and Culture - MIT
En este curso el estudiante perfeccionará su comunicación oral y escrita mediante el estudio y la discusión de temas relacionados al impacto social y cultural de la ciencia y la tecnología en ciertas sociedades hispanas. Algunos de los temas que se considerarán son los efectos de los cambios tecnológicos en la estructura familiar y comunitaria, en las relaciones entre los sexos, en la identidad personal y cultural, en el mundo natural y en los sistemas de valores, la religión, la educación y el trabajo.
Advanced Speaking and Critical Listening Skills - MIT
This course is for advanced students who wish to build confidence and skills in spoken English. It focuses on the appropriate oral presentation of material in a variety of professional contexts: group discussions, classroom explanations and interactions, and theses/research proposals. It is valuable for those who intend to teach or lecture in English and includes language laboratory assignments. The goal of the workshop is to develop effective speaking and listening skills for academic and professional contexts.
Advanced Syntax - MIT
This course is a continuation of 24.951. This semester the course topics of interest include movement, phrase structure, and the architecture of the grammar.
Advanced Topics: Plotting Terror in European Culture - MIT
This interdisciplinary course surveys modern European culture to disclose the alignment of literature, opposition, and revolution. Reaching back to the foundational representations of anarchism in nineteenth-century Europe (Kleist, Conrad) the curriculum extends through the literary and media representations of militant organizations in the 1970s and 80s (Italy's Red Brigade, Germany's Red Army Faction, and the Real Irish Republican Army). The course concludes with a critical examination of the ways that certain segments of European popular media have returned to the "radical chic" that many perceive to have exhausted itself more than two decades ago.
Advanced Workshop in Writing for Science and Engineering - MIT
Analysis and practice of various forms of scientific and technical writing, from memos to journal articles. Strategies for conveying technical information to specialist and non-specialist audiences. Comparable to 21W.780 but methods designed to deal with special problems of advanced ELS or bilingual students. The goal of the workshop is to develop effective writing skills for academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics and assignments vary from semester to semester.
Advanced Workshop in Writing for Social Sciences and Architecture (ELS) - MIT
This workshop is designed to help you write clearly, accurately and effectively in both an academic and a professional environment. In class, we analyze various forms of writing and address problems common to advanced speakers of English. We will often read one another's work.
After Columbus - MIT
Sometime after 1492, the concept of the New World or America came into being, and this concept appeared differently - as an experience or an idea - for different people and in different places. This semester, we will read three groups of texts: first, participant accounts of contact between native Americans and French or English speaking Europeans, both in North America and in the Caribbean and Brazil; second, transformations of these documents into literary works by contemporaries; third, modern texts which take these earlier materials as a point of departure for rethinking the experience and aftermath of contact. Some of the earlier authors we will read are Michel Montaigne, William Shakespeare, Jean de Léry, Daniel Defoe and Mary Rowlandson; more recent authors include Derek Walcott, and J. M. Coetzee.
Argument Structure and Syntax - MIT
This course is a detailed investigation of the major issues and problems in the study of lexical argument structure and how it determines syntactic structure. Its empirical scope is along three dimensions: typology, lexical class, and theoretical framework. The range of linguistic types include English, Japanese, Navajo, and Warlpiri. Lexical classes include those of Levin's English Verb Classes and others producing emerging work on diverse languages. The theoretical emphasis of this course is on structural relations among elements of argument structure.
Beginning Japanese II - MIT
This course covers Lessons 7-12A of JSL (Japanese: the Spoken Language, Part 1, by Eleanor H. Jorden with Mari Noda, Yale University Press, 1987), enhancing the basic skills for conversation, reading and writing. The class emphasizes the development of communicative skills (i.e., your actual use of Japanese in contexts). By the end of this semester, students are expected to carry on a daily conversation with Japanese people.This course will stress active command of Japanese, not passive knowledge.
Beginning Latin: Grammar - Utah State
Latin is an ancient Indo-European language that was spoken in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. The conquests of Rome spread the language throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. It existed in two forms: Classical Latin, used in poetry and formal prose, and Vulgar Latin, spoken by the people. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Roman Catholic Church Latin became the ecclesiastical language of the Roman Catholic Church and the lingua franca of educated classes in the West.
Business English: Making Decisions - The Open University
Do you want to relocate to the UK? This unit will help you with the language difficulties that can arise while providing assistance with the practicalities of the decision-making processes involved and the consultation that is necessary to ensure employees are kept informed.
Business English: Presenting Decisions - The Open University
Do you want to relocate to the UK? This unit will help you with the language difficulties that can arise while providing assistance with the practicalities of moving your company and its relocating its employees. You will also learn how other companies have approached this task.
Business English: Researching a New Location - The Open University
Do you want to relocate to the UK? This unit will help you with the language difficulties that can arise while providing assistance with the practicalities of taking the decision to relocate. You will also examine the factors that influence that decision including its impact on all those connected with the company from employees to suppliers and customers.
CALFNES Spanish - Utah State
Hector Mendiola, a retired pediatrician from Mexico City, who was living in Utah, noticed that many of the children of migrant workers were illiterate in their native tongue and so he developed, along with Fred Berthong, a local community volunteer, a computer assisted program to help Hispanic youth who were illiterate in their native language to learn to read and write in Spanish.The CALFNES program (Computer Assisted Language For Non English Speakers), which they created, is now in the public school system.
Chinese I (Regular) - MIT
This subject is the first semester of two that form an introduction to modern standard Chinese, commonly called Mandarin. Though not everyone taking this course will be an absolute beginner, the course presupposes no prior background in the language.
Chinese I (Streamlined) - MIT
This course, along with 21F.108/158 offered in the spring, form the elementary level of the streamlined sequence, which is for students who have some basic conversational skills gained, typically, from growing up in a Chinese speaking environment, but lack a corresponding level of literacy. The focus of the course is on learning standard everyday usage, on reading in both traditional and simplified characters, and on writing.
Chinese II (Regular) - MIT
This subject is the second semester of two that form an introduction to modern standard Chinese, commonly called Mandarin. Though not everyone taking this course will be an absolute beginner, the course presupposes only 21F.101/151, the beginning course in the sequence.
Chinese II (Streamlined) - MIT
This course, along with 21F.107 / 21F.157 Chinese I (Streamlined) offered in the previous fall, form the elementary level of the streamlined sequence, which is intended for students who, when they began the sequence at beginning level, had basic conversational skills (gained, typically, from growing up in a Chinese speaking environment), but lacked a corresponding level of literacy. The focus of the course is on learning standard usage of expressions for everyday use, on reading in both traditional and simplified characters, and on writing.
Chinese III (Regular) - MIT
This is the third of the four courses (Chinese I through IV) in MIT's regular (non-streamlined) Chinese curriculum. The four make use of the textbook, Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin (unpublished, but available online), to which are added various supporting materials as needs arise. The foundation level covers core grammar, linguistic culture, basic conversation, the principles of the writing system, and elementary reading.
Chinese III (Regular) - MIT
This course is designed to consolidate the foundation built in Elementary Chinese and continue developing students skills in aural comprehension, reading, and writing. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to speak Chinese with some fluency on basic conversational topics, achieve a basic level of reading competence within simplified and traditional characters learned plus common compounds, and be able to write short compositions.
Chinese III (Streamlined) - MIT
This course is the intermediate level of the streamlined curriculum, which is intended for students who, when they began streamlined I, had some background in the language, whether it be comprehension with limited speaking ability or quite fluent speaking ability. The focus of the course is on standard pronunciation and usage, on reading in both complex and simplified characters, and on writing. It is presupposed that students in Chinese III have already learned the pinyin system of representing pronunciation sufficiently well to be able to read texts in pinyin accurately.
Chinese IV (Regular) - MIT
This is the continuing instruction in spoken and written Chinese, with particular emphasis on consolidating basic conversational skills and improving reading confidence and depth. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to speak Chinese with some fluency on basic conversational topics, achieve a basic level of reading competence within simplified and traditional characters learned plus common compounds, and be able to write short compositions.
Chinese IV (Regular) - MIT
This is the last of the four courses (Chinese I through IV) that make up the foundation level (four semesters over two years in the normal curriculum) of MIT's regular (non-streamlined) Chinese program. Chinese IV is designed to consolidate conversational usage and grammatical and cultural knowledge encountered in the earlier courses, and to expand reading and listening abilities.
Chinese IV (Streamlined) - MIT
This is the second semester of the intermediate level sequence intended for students whose conversational ability exceeds their reading and writing skills. Focus is on reading and writing, as well as broadening conversational skills and control of standard pronunciation, for students with background in conversational Chinese. Lab work is required. On completing this course, students should be able to speak the language with standard pronunciation, to converse with some fluency on everyday topics, as well as on some specialized topics, to read edited, as well as authentic texts, in simplified or traditional characters with suitable fluency, and to be able to write composition on certain topics.
Chinese V (Regular): Chinese Cultures Society - MIT
This course is the continuation of 21F104/108. It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at in the Boston area. Some of special features of Chinese society, its culture, its customs and habits, its history, and the psychology of its people are be introduced. The class consists of reading, discussion, composition, network exploration, and conversational practice. The course is conducted in Mandarin.
Chinese VI (Regular): Discovering Chinese Cultures and Societies - MIT
This course is the continuation of 21F105. It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining traditional textbook material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at MIT and in the Boston area. Some special features of Chinese society, its culture, its customs and habits, its history, and the psychology of its people are introduced. The class consists of reading, discussion, composition, network exploration, and conversational practice. The course is conducted in Mandarin.
Chinese VI (Streamlined) - MIT
This course is a sequel to 21F.113 Chinese V (Streamlined). It is designed to further help students develop sophisticated conversational, reading and writing skills by combining authentic reading and audio-visual material with their own explorations of Chinese speaking societies, using the human, literary, and electronic resources available at MIT, in the Boston area and on the web. Some special features of Chinese societies, cultures and customs will be introduced. The class consists of readings, discussion, student presentations and network exploration. The course is conducted in Mandarin.
Communicating Across Cultures - MIT
It has become commonplace knowledge that globalization is one of the major forces shaping our world. "Communicating Across Cultures" is designed to help you meet the challenges of living in a world in which, increasingly, you will be asked to interact with people who may not be like you in fundamental ways. Its primary goals are to help you become more sensitive to intercultural communication differences, and to provide you with the knowledge and skills that will help you interact successfully with people from cultures other than your own.
Cultural Performances of Asia - MIT
This course examines cultural performances of Asia, including both traditional and contemporary forms, in a variety of genres. Students will explore the communicative power of performances with attention to the ways performers, media, cultural settings, and audiences interact. The representation of cultural difference is considered and how it is altered through processes of globalization. Performances are viewed live when possible, but the course also relies on video, audio, and online materials as necessary. There are no prerequisites for this course and it is taught in English.
East Asian Cultures: From Zen to Pop - MIT
The course examines various aspects of culture in both premodern and modern East Asia, ranging from literature, art, performance, and cuisine to contemporary pop culture (film, manga, anime, etc.).
English Grammar in Context - The Open University
The use of grammar is more complex than it appears. This unit looks at the way grammar can be used as a tool for adapting our communications (both written and spoken) in ways which present us and our message in different lights.
European Thought and Culture - MIT
This subject surveys main currents of European cultural and intellectual history in the modern period. Such a foundation course is central to the humanities in Europe. The curriculum introduces a set of ideas and arguments that have played a formative role in European cultural history, and acquaints them with some exemplars of critical thought. Among the topics to be considered: the critique of religion, the promise of independence, the advance of capitalism, the temptations of Marxism, the origins of totalitarianism, and the dialects of enlightenment.
Exploring the English Language - The Open University
How has the English language changed over the course of the last 500 years? What are the social and political contexts that have affected how these changes have come about? This unit will consider the development of the English language from the 15th to the 19th century.
Expository Writing for Bilingual Students - MIT
The purpose of this course is to develop your writing skills so that you can feel confident writing the essays, term papers, reports, and exams you will have to produce during your career here at MIT. We will read and analyze samples of expository writing, do some work on vocabulary development, and concentrate on developing your ability to write clear, accurate, sophisticated prose. We will also deal with the grammar and mechanical problems you may have trouble with.
EXT CS CALFNES Spanish - Utah State
Hector Mendiola, a retired pediatrician from Mexico City, who was living in Utah, noticed that many of the children of migrant workers were illiterate in their native tongue and so he developed, along with Fred Berthong, a local community volunteer, a computer assisted program to help Hispanic youth who were illiterate in their native language to learn to read and write in Spanish. The CALFNES program (Computer Assisted Language For Non English Speakers), which they created, is now in the public school system.
Finding Information in Modern Languages - The Open University
This unit will help you to identify and use information in Modern Languages, whether for your work, study or personal purposes. Experiment with some of the key resources in this subject area, and learn about the skills which will enable you to plan searches for information, so you can find what you are looking for more easily. Discover the meaning of information quality, and learn how to evaluate the information you come across.
French - Carnegie Melton
French Online is an interactive video-based course intended for use by university students and independent learners on the Internet. (See Conditions of Use.) The first-semester course is divided into five thematic modules, with three lessons of one week duration within each module, for a total duration of fifteen weeks. These modules can be lengthened by classroom teachers or independent learners, but not easily shortened, given the amount of material covered.
French I - MIT
21F.301/351 offers an introduction to the French language and culture with an emphasis on the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical concepts through active communication. The course is conducted entirely in French, and students interact in French with their classmates from the very beginning. They also receive exposure to the language via a variety of authentic sources such as the Internet, audio, video and printed materials which help them develop cultural awareness as well as linguistic proficiency.
French II - MIT
21F.302/352 is the second part of an introductory course to the French language and culture with an emphasis on the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical concepts through active communication. The course is conducted entirely in French and students interact in French with their classmates from the very beginning. They also receive exposure to the language via a variety of authentic sources such as the Internet, audio, video and printed materials which help them develop cultural awareness as well as linguistic proficiency.
French: En Ville - The Open University
This unit helps you to acquire the basic language to find your way around a French town. You will learn how to understand and give directions, ask about accommodation, book a hotel room at the tourist information office and get information about what to see and do in the local area. You will visit some museums in Avignon and buy a film for your camera. This unit also deals with telling the time and making liaisons in speech. By the end of the unit, you will feel more confident understanding and giving information about towns, seeking clarification and dealing with numbers.
French: Le quatorze juillet - The Open University
This is the second unit taken from Ouverture, a language course that concentrates on French as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into French society and culture through authentic printed, audio and video materials. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily and effectively in French. This unit focuses on the French national holiday of 14 July which commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison (la prise de la Bastille) in 1789.
French: Overture - The Open University
This unit is taken from Ouverture, a language course that concentrates on French as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into French society and culture through authentic printed, audio and video materials. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily and effectively in French. This unit focuses on the French on holiday.
German Culture and Media in Society - MIT
The topic for Fall 2006 is short film and radio plays. This course investigates current trends and topics in German literary, theater, film, television, radio, and other media arts productions. Students analyze media texts in the context of their production, reception, and distribution as well as the public debates initiated by these works. The topic for Fall 2006 is German Short Film, a popular format that represents most recent trends in film production, and German Radio Art, a striving genre that includes experimental radio plays, sound art, and audio installations. Special attention will be given to the representation of German minorities, contrasted by their own artistic expressions reflecting changes in identity and a new political voice.
German I - MIT
This course gives an introduction to German language and culture. The focus is on acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical concepts through active communication. Audio, video, and printed materials provide direct exposure to authentic German language and culture. A self-paced language lab program is fully coordinated with the textbook/workbook. The first semester covers the development of effective basic communication skills.
German II - MIT
In this course students are exposed to history and culture of German-speaking countries through audio, video, and Web materials. It focuses on the expansion of basic communication skills and further development of linguistic competency, and includes the review and completion of basic grammar, building of vocabulary, and practice in writing short essays. Students will also read short literary texts.
German III - MIT
This course expands skills in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Students develop analytic and interpretative skills through the reading of a full-length drama as well as short prose and poetry (Biermann, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, Tawada and others) and through media selections on contemporary issues in German-speaking cultures. Coursework includes discussions and compositions based on these texts, and review of grammar and development of vocabulary-building strategies. It is recommended for students with two years of high school German.
German IV - MIT
This course focuses on development of interpretive skills, using literary texts (B. Brecht, S. Zweig) and contemporary media texts (film, TV broadcasts, Web materials). The emphasis is on discussion and exploration of cultural topics in their current social, political, and historical context via hypermedia documentaries. It also covers further refinement of oral and written expression and expansion of communicative competence in practical everyday situations.
German: Lebensumstande - The Open University
This unit is taken from Lebensumstände, a language course that concentrates on German as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into German society and culture through authentic printed, audio and video materials. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily and effectively in German. This unit focuses on German family, particularly on the role of parents.
German: Regionen, Traditionen und Geschichte - MIT
If you already have a good working knowledge of the German language, this unit will help to improve your language skills, knowledge of German-speaking societies and intercultural competence. It will also develop your critical and analytical skills as you study the geography and dialects of the regions of Germany.
Germany and its European Context - MIT
This course focuses on main currents in contemporary German literary and visual culture. Taking Nietzsche's thought as a point of departure, students will survey the dialectics of tradition and modernity in both Germany and other European countries, particularly the UK, France, Denmark, and Poland. Primary works are drawn from literature, cinema, art, and performance, including works by Peter Sloterdijk, Thomas Vinterberg, and Michel Houellebecq.
Grammar in a Less Familiar Language - MIT
This course is designed to allow participants to engage in the exploration of the grammatical structure of a language that is unknown to them (and typically to the instructors as well). In some ways it simulates traditional field methods research. In terms of format, we work in both group and individual meetings with the consultant. Each student identifies some grammatical construction (e.g. wh questions, agreement, palatalization, interrogative intonation) to focus their research: they elicit and share data and write a report on the material gathered that is to be turned in at the end of the term.
High Intermediate Academic Communication - MIT
The goal of this course is to review grammar and develop vocabulary building strategies to refine oral and written expression. Speaking and writing assignments are designed to expand communicative competence. Assignments are based on models and materials drawn from contemporary media (newspapers and magazines, television, Web). The models, materials, topics and assignments vary from semester to semester.
Intermediate Japanese I - MIT
This course covers JSL (Japanese: the Spoken Language, Part 1, by Eleanor H. Jorden with Mari Noda, Yale University Press, 1987) Lessons 12 through 17, providing opportunities to acquire basic skills for conversation, reading, and writing. The program emphasizes ACTIVE command of Japanese, not passive knowledge. The goal is not simply to study the grammar and vocabulary, but to improve the ability to use Japanese accurately and appropriately with fluency, building on the basic skills gained in Japanese I and II. Students learn approximately 80 Kanji characters in this course.
International Women’s Voices - MIT
International Women’s Voices has several objectives. It introduces students to a variety of works by contemporary women writers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The emphasis is on non-western writers. The readings are chosen to encourage students to think about how each author’s work reflects a distinct cultural heritage and to what extent, if any, we can identify a female voice that transcends national cultures. Students examine the patterns of socialization of women in patriarchal cultures, and how, in the imaginary world, authors resolve or understand the relationship of the characters to love, work, identity, sex roles, marriage, and politics.
Introduction to Ancient Greek - Yale
This is an introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievements from the Bronze Age to the end of the classical period. Students read original sources in translation as well as the works of modern scholars
Introduction to Asian American Studies, Literature Culture and Historical Experience - MIT
An interdisciplinary subject that draws on literature, history, anthropology, film, and cultural studies to examine the experiences of Asian Americans in U.S. society. Examines the role the historical experiences played in the formation of Asian American ethnicity, and explores how these experiences informed Asian American literature and culture. Addresses key societal issues such as racial stereotyping, media racism, affirmative action issues, the glass ceiling, the "model minority" syndrome, and anti-Asian harassment or violence. Taught in English.
Introduction to Contemporary Hispanic Literature - MIT
This course studies representative twentieth and twenty-first-century texts and films from Hispanic America and Spain. Emphasis is on developing strategies for analyzing the genres of the novel, the short story, the poem, the fictional film, and the theatrical script. Thematic emphasis is on the Spanish Civil War, changing attitudes toward gender, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and the history of race in the Americas.
Introduction to European and Latin American Fiction - MIT
This subject serves as a broad introduction to the field of European and Latin American fiction. It is taught in an historical manner—beginning with the first picaresque novel, Lazarillo de Tormes, and ending with contemporary European fiction. It is designed to help students acquire a general understanding of major fictional modes-from 18th century epistolary fiction, Liaisons dangereuses, to 20th century avant-garde fiction: Cosmicomicsi and Aura. Attention is paid not only to the literary movements these works represent, but also to the subtle interplay of history, geography, language and cultural norms that gave rise to specific literary forms.
Introduction to French Culture - MIT
Ce cours est une introduction à la culture et la société françaises depuis la Révolution, mais surtout à partir du Second Empire. Nous tacherons de cerner ce qui définit la singularité francaise dans une perspective historique. Nous commencerons avec la notion "d'exception francaise" et de ce qui la constitue depuis la Révolution (La République, L'Universalisme, La Laicité, etc.) Nous explorerons l'impact de l'industrialisation, ainsi que la tension entre la France pays de la modernité dans les arts et la technologie et la France nostalgique de sa grandeur passée. A travers des textes, des images, des articles de journaux, des films, nous tenteront de faire le lien entre cette histoire et les débats contemporrains sur l'identité Française.
Introduction to Latin American Studies - MIT
This course is designed as an introduction to Latin American politics and society for undergraduates at MIT. No background on the region is required. Overall workload (reading, writing, class participation, and examinations) is similar to that of other HASS-D courses.
Introduction to Linguistics - MIT
This core-curriculum linguistics class will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Topics include the intricate system that governs language, how it is acquired, the similarities and differences among languages, and how spoken (and signed) language relates to written language, among others.
Introduction to Phonology - MIT
The year-long Introduction to Phonology reviews at the graduate level fundamental notions of phonological analysis and introduces students to current debates, research and analytical techniques. The Fall term reviews issues pertaining to the nature of markedness and phonological representations - features, prosodies, syllables and stress - while the second term deals with the relation between the phonological component and the lexicon, morphology and syntax. The second term course will also treat in more detail certain phonological phenomena.
Introduction to Spanish Culture - MIT
This course has several purposes. The major concern will be the examination of Spanish culture including Spain's history, architecture, art, literature and film, to determine if there is a uniquely Spanish manner of seeing and understanding the world - one which emerges as clearly distinct from our own and that of other Western European nations.
Introduction to Syntax - MIT
This course is concerned with the concepts and principles which have been of central significance in the recent development of syntactic theory, with special focus on the "Government and Binding" (GB) / "Principles and Parameters" (P&P) / "Minimalist Program" (MP) approach. It is the first of a series of two courses (24.951 is taught during the Fall and 24.952 is taught in the Spring). This course deals mostly with phrase structure, argument structure and its syntactic expression, including "A-movement". The goal of the course is to understand why certain problems have been treated in certain ways. Thus, on many occasions a variety of approaches will be discussed, and the (recent) historical development of these approaches are emphasized.
Japanese Literature and Cinema - MIT
This course includes surveys for both cinematic and literary representations of diverse eras and aspects of Japanese culture such as the classical era, the samurai age, wartime Japan and the atomic bombings, social change in the postwar period, and the appropriation of foreign cultural themes, with an emphasis on the modern period. The directors include Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Teshigahara. The authors include Kobo Abe and Yukio Mishima. The films are shown with subtitles in English. The course is taught in English.
Japanese Popular Culture - MIT
This course examines Japanese popular culture as a way of understanding the changing character of media, capitalism, fan communities and culture. Topics include manga (comic books), hip-hop and other popular music in Japan, anime (Japanese animated films) and feature films, sports (sumo, soccer, baseball), and online communication. Emphasis will be on contemporary popular culture and theories of gender, sexuality, race, and the workings of power in global culture industries.
Laboratory on the Physiology, Acoustics and Perception of Speech - MIT
The course focuses on experimental investigations of speech processes. Topics include: measurement of articulatory movements, measurements of pressures and airflows in speech production, computer-aided waveform analysis and spectral analysis of speech, synthesis of speech, perception and discrimination of speechlike sounds, speech prosody, models for speech recognition, speech disorders, and other topics.
Language Acquisition - MIT
Covers the major results in the study of first language acquisition concentrating on the development of linguistic structure, including sentence structure and morphology. Universal aspects of development are discussed, as well as a variety of cross-linguistic phenomena. Theories of language learning are considered, including parameter-setting and maturation.
Language Acquisition I - MIT
Lectures, reading, and discussion of current theory and data concerning the psychology and biology of language acquisition. Emphasizes learning of syntax and morphology, together with some discussion of phonology, and especially research relating grammatical theory and learnability theory to empirical studies of children.
Language Structure II: Syntax - MIT
This course will acquaint you with some of the important results and ideas of the last half - century of research in syntax. We will explore a large number of issues and a large amount of data so that you can learn something of what this field is all about. Most of all, the course tries to show why the study of syntax is exciting, and why its results are important to researchers in other language sciences. The class assumes some familiarity with basic concepts of theoretical linguistics, of the sort you could acquire in 24.900.
Language and its Structure III: Semantics and Pragmatics - MIT
This course gives an introduction to the science of linguistic meaning. There are two branches to this discipline: semantics, the study of conventional, "compositional meaning", and pragmatics, the study of interactional meaning. There are other contributaries: philosophy, logic, syntax, and psychology. We will try to give you an understanding of the concepts of semantics and pragmatics and of some of the technical tools that we use.
Language Processing - MIT
This course is a seminar in real-time language comprehension. It considers models of sentence and discourse comprehension from the linguistic, psychology, and artificial intelligence literature, including symbolic and connectionist models. Topics include ambiguity resolution and linguistic complexity; the use of lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, contextual and prosodic information in language comprehension; the relationship between the computational resources available in working memory and the language processing mechanism; and the psychological reality of linguistic representations.
Beginning Latin: Grammar - Utah State
Latin is an ancient Indo-European language that was spoken in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. The conquests of Rome spread the language throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. It existed in two forms: Classical Latin, used in poetry and formal prose, and Vulgar Latin, spoken by the people. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Roman Catholic Church Latin became the ecclesiastical language of the Roman Catholic Church and the lingua franca of educated classes in the West
Linguistic Phonetics - MIT
This course is a study of speech sounds: how we produce and perceive them and their acoustic properties. It explores the influence of the production and perception systems on phonological patterns and sound change. Acoustic analysis and experimental techniques are also discussed.
Linguistic Theory and the Japanese Language - MIT
This course is a detailed examination of the grammar of Japanese and its structure which is significantly different from English, with special emphasis on problems of interest in the study of linguistic universals. Data from a broad group of languages is studied for comparison with Japanese. This course assumes familiarity with linguistic theory.
Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation - MIT
This course is designed for high-intermediate ESL students who need to develop better listening comprehension and oral skills, which will primarily be achieved by detailed instructions on pronunciation. Our focus will be on (1) producing accurate and intelligible English, (2) becoming more comfortable listening to rapidly spoken English, and (3) learning common expressions, gambits, and idioms used in both formal and informal contexts.
Media, Education and the Marketplace - MIT
This instance of "Media, Education, and the Marketplace" focuses on the rise of information and communications technologies (ICTs) during the age of globalization, specifically examining its effect and potential in developing nations across the world.
Oral Communication in Spanish - MIT
A second-year intermediate course that includes vocabulary enhancement and limited review of selected points of grammar. Focuses on listening comprehension and speaking, with group activities, discussions and individual oral reports based on readings, films, music and art.
Out of Ground Zero: Catastrophe and Memory - MIT
Within twenty-four hours of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 politicians, artists, and cultural critics had begun to ask how to memorialize the deaths of thousands of people. This question persists today, but it can also be countered with another: is building a monument the best way to commemorate that moment in history? What might other discourses, media, and art forms offer in such a project of collective memory? How can these cultural formations help us to assess the immediate reaction to the attack?
Pragmatics in Linguistic Theory - MIT
The course introduces formal theories of context-dependency, presupposition, implicature, context-change, focus and topic. Special emphasis is on the division of labor between semantics and pragmatics. It also covers applications to the analysis of quantification, definiteness, presupposition projection, conditionals and modality, anaphora, questions and answers.
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics - MIT
This course covers central topics in language processing, including: the structure of language; sentence, discourse, and morphological processing; storage and access of words in the mental dictionary; speech processing; the relationship between the computational resources available in working memory and the language processing mechanism; and ambiguity resolution. The course also considers computational modeling, including connectionist models; the relationship between language and thought; and issues in language acquisition including critical period phenomena, the acquisition of speech, and the acquisition of words.
Quantitative Literacy
Race and Gender in Asian America - MIT
In this seminar we will examine various issues related to the intersection of race and gender in Asian America, starting with the nineteenth century, but focusing on contemporary issues. Topics to be covered may include racial and gender discourse, the stereotyping of Asian American women and men in the media, Asian American masculinity, Asian American feminisms and their relation to mainstream American feminism, the debate between feminism and ethnic nationalism, gay and lesbian identity, class and labor issues, domestic violence, interracial dating and marriage, and multiracial identity.
Smashing the Iron Bowl: Chinese East Asia - MIT
This subject examines the experiences of ordinary Chinese people as they lived through the tumultuous changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We look at personal narratives, primary sources, films alongside a textbook to think about how individual and family lives connect with the broader processes of change in modern China. In the readings and discussions, you should focus on how major political events have an impact on the characters' daily lives, and how the decisions they make cause large-scale social transformation.
Spanish I - MIT
Spanish I is very different from other classes at MIT. The central component of the text and workbook is a series of 26 half-hour video episodes. The videos allow students to learn authentic Spanish and experience its cultural diversity while following a good story full of surprises and human emotions.
Spanish II - MIT
Spanish II continues to develop students' listening, speaking, reading and writing skills using the second part of the video-based program, Destinos, begun in Spanish I. Destinos is a soap opera that allows students to learn Spanish and experience its cultural diversity while following a good story full of surprises and human emotions. Spanish II also includes additional materials, such as Spanish films and other media, various types of reading selections and online resources.
Spanish IV - MIT
Spanish IV aims at developing and improving student's oral and written communication through the continued study of the language, literature and culture of Spain, Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States. It also seeks to improve students' ability to read and appreciate literary and non-literary texts in Spanish, deepening this way students' awareness and understanding of the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. The course is organized by themes based on contemporary social, political and cultural issues of Spanish-speaking societies.
Spanish Conversation and Composition - MIT
Each student participates in three group projects (PDF), delivered orally with web presentations supplemented by written reports. These projects (PDF) involve online research about the history, literature, art and music of Spanish-speaking countries, volunteer work in the community with Hispanic children and adults, and the creation of videotaped interviews. We watch current films from Spain and Latin America, and read short stories and plays. There are also group simulation activities (based on ethical or hypothetical scenarios) and visits from Spanish-speaking MIT faculty and students.
Spanish for Bilingual Students - MIT
Spanish for Bilingual Students is an intermediate course designed principally for heritage learners, but which includes other students interested in specific content areas, such as US Latino immigration, identity, ethnicity, education and representation in the media. Linguistic goals include vocabulary acquisition, improvement in writing, and enhancement of formal communicative skills.
Spanish III - MIT
This course is the first intermediate-level course in Spanish, with a focus on grammar review, additional vocabulary, writing of essays in Spanish and enhancement of cultural awareness. Group activities and projects, and conversation are emphasized. There are detailed simulation activities, readings about literature and art from Latin America and Spain, activities with music videos and interviews, and viewings of recent films such as El espinazo del diablo, Juana la loca, and María llena eres de gracia.
Spanish: Con mis proprias manos - The Open University
This unit is designed to develop your knowledge and understanding of Spanish-speaking societies and cultures and extend the practical skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. You will examine the world of Spanish and Latin-American art and explore the difference between art and craft.
Spanish: Espacio publicos - The Open University
This unit is taken from Portales, a language course that concentrates on Spanish as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into Hispanic societies and cultures through authentic printed and audio materials. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily and effectively in Spanish. This unit focuses on public spaces and how to get by in a Hispanic city.
Spanish: La historia piedra a piedra - The Open University
If you already have a working knowledge of the Spanish language this unit will help to improve you ability to describe places, events and routines in the past. By using Medieval Spain as the setting you will learn crucial grammatical points regarding the preterite and imperfect tenses.
Spanish: Perspectives Portenas - The Open University
This unit uses a documentary about artists in Buenos Aires, to help you to develop your listening skills. By assessing various parts of the documentary you will be able to extend your comprehension of spoken Spanish.
Special Topics in Linguistics: Genericity - MIT
This course will investigate the semantics of generic sentences, i.e., sentences that are used to talk about habits, tendencies, dispositions, or kinds. For instance: 1. Dogs are good pets. 2. The giant panda is an endangered species. 3. A soccer player makes lots of money. 4. Mary smokes after dinner. 5. This machine crushes oranges. This is a half-semester course.
Speech Communication - MIT
6.541J surveys the structural properties of natural languages, with special emphasis on the sound pattern. Topics covered include: representation of the lexicon; physiology of speech production; articulatory phonetics; acoustical theory of speech production; acoustical and articulatory descriptions of phonetic features and of prosodic aspects of speech; perception of speech; models of lexical access and of speech production and planning; and applications to recognition and generation of speech by machine, and to the study of speech disorders.
Syntactic Models - MIT
This course presents a comparison of different proposed architectures for the syntax module of grammar. The subject traces several themes across a wide variety of approaches, with emphasis on testable differences among models. Models discussed include ancient and medieval proposals, structuralism, early generative grammar, generative semantics, government-binding theory/minimalism, LFG, HPSG, TAG, functionalist perspectives and others.
The Lexicon and its Features - MIT
This course provides an overview of the distinctive features which distinguish sound categories of languages of the world. Theories which relate these categories to their acoustic and articulatory correlates, both universally and in particular languages, are covered. Models of word recognition by listeners, features, and phonological structure are also discussed. In addition, the course offers a variety of perspectives on these issues, drawn from Electrical Engineering, Linguistics and Cognitive Science.
The Linguistic Study of Bilingualism - MIT
This course describes development of bilingualism in human history (from Lucy to present day). It focuses on linguistic aspects of bilingualism; models of bilingualism and language acquisition; competence versus performance; effects of bilingualism on other domains of human cognition; brain imaging studies; early versus late bilingualism; opportunities to observe and conduct original research; and implications for educational policies among others. The course is taught in English.
Topics in Culture and Globalization - MIT
The concept of globalization fosters the understanding of the interconnectedness of cultures and societies geographically wide apart; America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Subject scans existing debates over globalization around the world. This course explores how globalization impacts everyday life in the First and Third World; how globalization leads to a common cosmopolitan culture; the emergence of a global youth culture; and religious, social, and political movements that challenge globalization. Materials examined include pop music, advertisements, film posters, and political cartoons.
Topics in Indian Popular Culture: Spectacle Masala and Genre - MIT
This course aims to provide an overview of Indian popular culture over the last two decades, through a variety of material such as popular fiction, music, television and Bombay cinema. The class will explore major themes and their representations in relation to current social and political issues. In particular, students will examine the elements of the formulaic "masala movie", music and melodrama, the ideas of nostalgia and incumbent change in youth culture, as well as shifting questions of gender and sexuality in popular fiction. During the course, students will look at some journalistic writing, advertising clips and political cartoons to understand the relation between the popular culture and the social imagery of a nation. This course is taught in English.
Topics in Linguistic Theory: Laboratory Phonology - MIT
The goal of this course is to prepare you to engage in experimental investigations of questions related to linguistic theory, focusing on phonetics and phonology.
Topics in Linguistics Theory - MIT
I realize that "Modes of Assertion" is a rather cryptic title for the course. What we will explore are ways of modulating the force of an assertion. This will engage us in formal semantics and pragmatics, the theory of speech acts and performative utterances, and quite a bit of empirical work on a not-too-well understood complex of data. We will look at constructions not just in English but also German (with its famous discourse particles like ja) and Quechua and Tibetan (with their systems of evidentiality-marking, as recently studied in dissertations from Stanford and UCLA).
Topics in Linguistics: Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities - MIT
The Creole languages spoken in the Caribbean are linguistic by-products of the historical events triggered by colonization and the slave trade in Africa and the "New World". In a nutshell, these languages are the results of language acquisition in the specific social settings defined by the history of contact between African and European peoples in 17th-/18th-century Caribbean colonies.
Topics in Phonology - MIT
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of modeling phonology, with an empirical focus on modeling the discovery of static phonotactics, the discovery of alternations, learning in the midst of variation and exceptions, and the discovery of gradient patterns. This course is also intended to provide hands-on experience with various aspects of using and developing models, including preparing training data, running simulations, and interpreting their results.
Topics in Semantics - MIT
This seminar will investigate the expression of gradability, comparison and degree in natural language. The course will address the following major issues, though we may also include other topics according to the interests and direction of the class: The underlying semantic representation of expressions of degree and the linguistic significance of scalar representations; The logical form of comparative constructions, and the implications of comparatives for other aspects of the grammar; The semantics of degree and the role of scalar representations in grammatical categories other than gradable adjectives.
Topics in South Asian Literature and Culture - MIT
his subject aims to provide an overview of contemporary texts in regional languages in South Asian Literature and Cinema. We will cover major authors and film makers, writing from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Within India, we will look at authors and directors working in different regional languages and as we examine their different socio-cultural, political and historical contexts we will attempt to understand what it means to study them under the all-unifying category of "South Asian Literature and Culture". Some of the major issues we shall explore include caste, gender, globalization and social change.
Topics in the Avant Garde in Literature and Cinema - MIT
21F.031 examines the terms "avant garde" and "Kulturindustrie" in French and German culture of the early twentieth century. Considering the origins of these concepts in surrealist and dadaist literature, art, and cinema, the course then expands to engage parallel formations across Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Emphasis is on the specific historical conditions that enabled these interventions.
Traditional Chinese Literature: Poetry, Fiction and Drama - MIT
This course is an introduction to some of the major genres of traditional Chinese poetry, fiction, and drama. Intended to give students a basic understanding of the central features of traditional Chinese literary genres, as well as to introduce students to the classic works of the Chinese literary tradition. Works read include Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, Dream of the Red Chamber, and the poetry of the major Tang dynasty poets. Literature read in translation. Taught in English.
Twentieth and Twentyfirst Century Spanish American Literature - MIT
Este semestre la materia combina obras ya canonizadas de finales del siglo XIX y del XX con algunas obras de reciente aparición. De los géneros literarios, vemos poesía, el cuento corto, la novela y la autobiografía. También vemos una película de tema ficticio y dos documentales. El estudiante que se interese por hacerlo puede usar los materiales en la Reserva y en la red para familiarizarse con la historia literaria y cinematográfica de este período.
Visual Histories: German cinema 1945 to Present - MIT
This course is an invitation to German film-making since the end of the Second World War. We investigate how German cinema captured the atmosphere of the immediate post-war years and discuss extensively major works of the "New German Cinema" of the Sixties and Seventies. We also look at examples of East Germany's film production and finally observe the very different roads German cinema has been taking from the 1990's into the present.
Visualizing Cultures - MIT
In this new course, students will study how images have been used to shape the identity of peoples and cultures. A prototype digital project looking at American and Japanese graphics depicting the opening of Japan to the outside world in the 1850s will be used as a case study to introduce the conceptual and practical issues involved in "visualizing cultures". The major course requirement will be creation and presentation of a project involving visualized cultures.
Working in a Global Economy - MIT
The course introduces the main debates about the "new" global economy and their implications for practice and policy. Experts from academia and business will share their findings about, and direct experiences with, different aspects of globalization.