Professor Schumann is very engaging and always loves to get his students involved with the material he is teaching. Because this class is about second language acquisition it is really easy to relate with the students. As for the class, lectures are pretty easy to understand and it's really not difficult. I took APPLING C155, which Schumann teaches, 2 quarters before taking this class (APPLING 102W) so I already knew everything he was lecturing on. He teaches the exact same things as C155 and uses pretty much all of the same handouts except that this class is about writing on your experience and integrating what you learned into your writing. Despite Professor Schumann being an easy professor, the grading is based on your TA. My TA graded more fairly compared to the other TA's but he did not help with improving my revisions. His comments were vague and were not detailed. I received more comments from the peer reviews than my TA. On almost all my final drafts I received no comments although he . Even when I made the changes, and more, to what he pointed out, my essay grade did not change or it only went up 1% on the final draft. There are 3 essays total (each essay requires a rough draft and a final draft) and the grading is:
10% rough drafts, 20% final drafts, 10% participation (attendance, participating in section, peer reviews). Also, attendance is taken in class and in section so be sure to go! The TA's change it up by either passing around the sign in sheet at the beginning of class, halfway through, or near the end of class. Because people started leaving class during the break the TA's would check off the names on the sign in sheet to only give credit to those that stay until the end. Overall, the material was relatively easy but the grading depended on your TA. I received an A- at the end of the quarter. I recommend taking both APPLING 102W and C155 (Ling 20 prerequisite).