Professor
Ethan Poole
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I took this class as a GE, but now I think I wanna get into linguistics more! Professor Poole was super clear in lectures (his slides were amazing), and there were no weird curve balls in the homeworks or on the exams. He does examples in class and gives a lot of extra practice material, which appears in a very similar format on the hws/exams. He was also very approachable in terms of asking questions, which was nice as well. Would definitely recommend this class and the professor!
Winter 2021 - I took this class as a GE, but now I think I wanna get into linguistics more! Professor Poole was super clear in lectures (his slides were amazing), and there were no weird curve balls in the homeworks or on the exams. He does examples in class and gives a lot of extra practice material, which appears in a very similar format on the hws/exams. He was also very approachable in terms of asking questions, which was nice as well. Would definitely recommend this class and the professor!
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - Ethan is an amazing instructor for Ling 120B. He designs the course so you feel like you are "discovering" syntax, exploring possible frameworks and selecting the "optimal" one based on real evidence. I've found that this approach allows students to gain a truly strong understanding of the abstract theoretical concepts covered in the class. Additionally, he goes out of his way to be understanding during difficult times and offer help when needed. If you have to take Ling 120B, take it with Ethan!
Spring 2024 - Ethan is an amazing instructor for Ling 120B. He designs the course so you feel like you are "discovering" syntax, exploring possible frameworks and selecting the "optimal" one based on real evidence. I've found that this approach allows students to gain a truly strong understanding of the abstract theoretical concepts covered in the class. Additionally, he goes out of his way to be understanding during difficult times and offer help when needed. If you have to take Ling 120B, take it with Ethan!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Grateful to have had Ethan for LING120C, and learned a lot in his class. Lectures are structured in a "follow along" way with handouts for almost every class. Although some parts of lecture are reading/copying from this worksheet, the fill-in-the-blank/complete derivation sections are super helpful and are great resources for completing homework and studying. There are weekly homework assignments based on the previous weeks lecture material, and Ethan/TAs are very helpful in clearing up any ambiguities and offering small hints. Homework is worth 60% of your grade but can be easy points with your lecture worksheets for reference and optional homework partner. The exams are open note (see how the worksheets can be helpful) and open book; I found the exams to be extremely fair with one or two challenge portions to test if you can apply the material. The midterm and final exam are each worth 20% of your grade. Overall, I would definitely recommend taking a course with Ethan due to the fact that he puts in the time to structure the material in a clear and digestible fashion.
Fall 2018 - Grateful to have had Ethan for LING120C, and learned a lot in his class. Lectures are structured in a "follow along" way with handouts for almost every class. Although some parts of lecture are reading/copying from this worksheet, the fill-in-the-blank/complete derivation sections are super helpful and are great resources for completing homework and studying. There are weekly homework assignments based on the previous weeks lecture material, and Ethan/TAs are very helpful in clearing up any ambiguities and offering small hints. Homework is worth 60% of your grade but can be easy points with your lecture worksheets for reference and optional homework partner. The exams are open note (see how the worksheets can be helpful) and open book; I found the exams to be extremely fair with one or two challenge portions to test if you can apply the material. The midterm and final exam are each worth 20% of your grade. Overall, I would definitely recommend taking a course with Ethan due to the fact that he puts in the time to structure the material in a clear and digestible fashion.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - For people expecting a more linguistics type class with some interesting computational elements and cool coding projects, this is not it. You will use Haskell the entire class, so prior knowledge of functional programming (CS131) is a HUGE advantage. It also spends quite a bit of time on Finite State Automaton and context free grammars, so taking CS181 before would probably help too. Grade is made up of 70% homework, 20% final coding project and 10% pop quizzes. This class is not easy and homework may leave you frustrated, do not take this lightly.
Spring 2019 - For people expecting a more linguistics type class with some interesting computational elements and cool coding projects, this is not it. You will use Haskell the entire class, so prior knowledge of functional programming (CS131) is a HUGE advantage. It also spends quite a bit of time on Finite State Automaton and context free grammars, so taking CS181 before would probably help too. Grade is made up of 70% homework, 20% final coding project and 10% pop quizzes. This class is not easy and homework may leave you frustrated, do not take this lightly.