I absolutely loved this class, and it gave me a great interest for linguistics! As most people have mentioned, Silvestri does not directly teach this class. Instead, there are pre-recorded lecture videos by Harrold Torrence. You definitely don't want to fall behind or wait until the last minute to watch the lectures because they are usually pretty long and packed with a ton of information. You need to know pretty much all of that information to do well on the midterm and final. The exams were not open notes, and we did have to have our cameras on while taking them, so make sure you really know your stuff. Learning IPA was probably the most difficult part, but by taking just a few hours to study (I used Quizlet), I was able to get a really good grasp on it. The content was super interesting which made the course extremely worth it to me. Basically, I think you get out of this class what you put into it. If you keep up with the lectures, attend discussion sections, go to your TA with questions (especially for your analysis papers), and make a solid effort, you will do well!

Grading:
2 analysis papers - 15% each
homework - 25%
midterm - 20%
final - 25%

Class:
Super fun and interesting class (if linguistics is interesting to you). The class was asynchronous for me, so it was 2-3 hours of pre-recorded lectures. My discussion section was online, so that meant I could go to any discussion section, which was really nice and flexible. The video lectures were from another lecturer, not this professor. Torrence (the lecturer) is super entertaining and easy to understand. I also loved how much this class attempts to change how people view other languages and dialects. It’s a super refreshing and enlightening perspective on language that I was grateful to experience. I would recommend this class to everyone, though if you know anything about this class, it’s that it’s super hard to get into. If you are an incoming freshman, they save spots in this class during orientation, so have a few devices ready if you want to get this one. If you’re not a incoming freshman, you have to have one of the earliest enrollment times.

Papers:
Both papers were honestly so fun to write. They are graded really easily. The rubric is essentially in the instructions; just make sure to read through them and make sure you hit everything it says so include in your paper. The papers are both informal and interesting!

Exams:
Exams are done through Respondus proctoring. It was fine except it doesn’t tell us if we get flagged for anything. The professor is really understanding though when it comes to flags and such. For my test it kicked me out and I had to continue the test from where I left it, and I emailed the professor and she didn’t mind. The test itself is fair. It’s all multiple choice, so even if you have some trouble with phonetics and IPA, process of elimination is a life saver (esp w those vowels cause remembering those can be difficult). The questions rarely (if not ever) rely on the textbook alone. They are lecture heavy—also be sure to read the required readings (not including textbook) if they are given. Both are 50 questions; midterm is 1.5 hours and final is 3 hours, but you’ll probably need 1 hour each.

Homework:
There are 6 homework quizzes. They are super easy and open book (sometimes they are on other sites but be wary that the test questions are very similar, so try to do these honestly to get a good understanding of how you will do on the exams). They are graded on accuracy.

Textbook:
The textbook can be found online. Even if you can’t find the same version (which you will be able to), the professor accepts other editions. They are also not as important to the course as lectures and provided readings and case studies.

This class is unique in that Professor Silvestri isn't really our instructor. All of the instructional material came from pre-recorded lectures (mostly from Harold Torrence) and from TAs.

As an asynchronous class, you have to put in the work to keep up with the lectures. The additional material (textbook, readings, documentaries) were largely unnecessary, as the lectures are mostly comprehensive. (that being said, definitely give the textbook a skim for terms not in the lecture that could pop up in an exam). The lectures themselves were really good -- Professor Torrence is a fun and engaging lecturer and the visuals are easily to follow. The final few lectures by Professor Schuh were also super interesting and fun. The recorded lectures are nice to speed up, pause, and rewind as necessary.

Overall, the course material is pretty easy to grasp. It's fascinating stuff and I wanted to keep learning. Learning IPA and phonology was probably the trickiest part, but it's just memorization. Syntax and morphology can also get you if you don't practice before the exam. The other theoretical stuff is easy to comprehend if you just take good notes. I particularly enjoyed the portions of the class that dealt with social/historical implications of linguistic concepts.

Your grade is largely dependent on the midterm and final, but those were (in my opinion) a lot easier than they were made out to be. Just take good notes and study the tricky stuff in advance, and you should be fine. The homework is open book and super easy, and the two papers are easy and pretty fun to write.

Overall, nice intro to linguistics! Hard to review Prof. Silvestri, as she was largely just the administrator for the course, but the material and work was fun and interesting throughout.

This class was pretty average. It was asynchronous, so it felt like more work than it was-- lectures ranged from 2-3 hours per week, so I'd recommend setting a strict schedule on when you'll watch them and keep yourself accountable since its easy to fall behind. The workload was a little unnecessary, as I skipped most of the screenings and textbook readings and did fine. Definitely would have been fine without buying the textbook. The case studies were interesting but only 1-2 questions about them were on the midterm and final. Basically, you could probably get away with just watching the lectures, taking good notes, and maybe skimming the case studies. There were 2 analysis papers, both were a very easy A and really fun to write. Weekly homework quizzes that were a little long but not terrible. The phonetics unit was annoying since it briefly mentioned transcription but all of a sudden you were tasked with translating words into IPA. In all, I'd probably take this class again as certain points were very interesting and it was a pretty easy A. Just make sure you stay on top of it.

This class was pretty easy, there are 8 homework quizzes online that are open note that I think really help make sure that you understand all the material. The midterm and final are all multiple choice and there was definitely more than enough time to complete it, and I thought they were fairly easy as long as you studied. My discussion was online and you could join any of them, but honestly I didnt find them too helpful so I didn't go to them. There are also two papers that are super easy and kinda fun to write. Overall would recommend this class, it's pretty easy just make sure to stay on top of the work bc it sucked to try to cram multiple hour long lectures

For me to be successful in this class I really only watched the lectures (on 2x speed) and showed up to section meetings. I never did any of the textbook readings, additional case study readings, or watched any of the required videos. The two analysis papers are extremely easy and the rubric literally tells you what to write. As long as you include everything the rubric says, you are guaranteed full credit. The first midterm was pretty chill, and I only had difficulty with the phonetics and learning IPA symbols. There were a few questions that I didn't know how to answer because I never touched the readings, but as long as you pay attention to lectures you can afford to miss a few questions. The final was a bit rougher than the midterm; however, I did not study for it which probably was not the smartest idea. I didn't do the 2 extra credit experiments, but I highly recommend for you to do them. They could make or break whether you are between an A- and an A because this Professor will not round your grade up.

Ok so before I took this class most of the reviews on here talked about how this class was a really good GE and an easy A. However after having actually taken the class I do slightly disagree. So, because this class was asynch I will say the workload is very light because there's almost never homework and you could speed the lectures up. The only issue that I have with the class was the difficulty of the tests. In order to get a good grade on the midterm and the final a lot is required of you, and you have to memorize alot of new information. This is an issue for me because I took this class as a GE and I ended up putting more work into memorizing the IPA than my premajor classes. However, there are other places to make up points if you dont do so well on the tests, because the 2 papers are very easy, but I was still surprised by the difficulty of the exams.

I took this class in my first quarter and the entire course was asynchronous except for the discussion sections which were online. In regards to the lectures, all of them were pre-recorded and were anywhere from 2-3.5 hours to get through each week. It usually took me a longer time as I took notes and continued to pause the video so if you're like me, it may take 3-5 hours depending on the subject for the week. On top of that, we have readings to get through from the textbook which go from about 15-25 pages a week. While the workload sometimes may feel like a lot, much of what we read in the textbook go over the lectures or simply add a bit more information. As far as this quarter, you can attend any of the discussion sessions even if that wasn't the one you chose. Discussion sections were mostly slide based and went over what we should have learned for the week. They were helpful in just providing examples on what we learned. As far as assignments we had, there were about 6 homework quizzes we needed to do (based on number correct, not completion) but if you did the work for the week, you should be fine. They're simple and were a good portion of our grade. There were two essays we had to do, about 1200-1400 words each, which had to do with comparing two languages and different features (I believe they were 15% each). They were pretty enjoyable actually, definitely not hard and so long as you follow the guidelines you will get full credit. Now to the midterm and final: Both combined were about 45-50% of our grade. Each test had 50 multiple choice questions each and for the midterm we had 1.5 hours to complete it and for the final we had 3 hours. You absolutely do not need all the time in my opinion, especially with the final, but it's good to have extra wiggle room. The content wasn't too hard at all, so long as you kept up and understand the material. I found the subject quite fascinating and actually learned a lot of valuable information. There were some trickier subjects such as phonetics but it's definitely manageable and once you get it, you'll be okay. I didn't have much interaction with Professor Giuseppina, but from email interactions she was very helpful and definitely showed care for the students! If you need a sign to take this class, THIS IS IT! It's an interesting subject to learn about, the work and tests are fairly simple, and it's asynchronous!

I loved this class, would 10/10 recommend as a GE. The material and lectures were engaging, professor was sweet and helpful, and online lecture videos were well prepared. Probably depends on your interest in linguistics, but I found the course to be intriguing and thought provoking, definitely learned a lot!

The workload is very manageable. The class provides a broad overview on different areas of linguistics, so some weeks were more interesting than others. There are two papers, which are pretty simple. The exams cover more material than I expected but they aren't too difficult.