I loved this class. Two favorite things about it: the grading structure and the professor. To preface, I barely remembered anything from Ling 102, having taken it over a year ago, so I was kinda worried about this class going into it. However, Zukoff's lectures are very clear and easy to follow, as he provides lecture handouts and does practice examples in class to get you familiar with the material. Lectures are not recorded, and they are not mandatory. If you have to miss a few classes you'll be fine, but attending certainly is helpful. There are also in-class quizzes once a week which can only boost and never hurt your grade.

Not gonna lie, I was completely lost on the first two assignments, so much so that I didn't even complete them. The biggest help in catching up was reading the textbook! It's very helpful with connecting all the dots from lecture and help you fully understand the concepts and what to look for when looking at data. The homeworks consist of write-ups where you apply the concepts you learn in class to analyze a dataset. For me, this write-up format took some time to get used to, and I really struggled with them in the beginning. But, as you progress throughout the quarter, you get more and more comfortable applying the skills you learn, and the assignments become less daunting. (Also I don't recommend skipping the first two assignments, as the following ones only get more complex as more material is covered.)

One of the reasons I liked this class so much is because the grading is skills-based. You basically have a list of phonology-related skills that you have to demonstrate on homeworks, but the good thing is that if you miss some skills on one homework (or miss an assignment completely), you have the opportunity to show them in the next homework (or on quizzes or exams). I felt that this was very encouraging of a "growth-mindset". Because of this grading system, I did not feel discouraged about having a slow start to the quarter and was still able to catch up in. In comparison to other classes, where if you miss an assignment or get a lot of problems wrong, you don't really have any way to make it up (i.e., you get a 0 or low grade), in this class, your grade can only go up, which is quite motivating, allowing you to keep trying until you get the skill. In my opinion, this wasn't exactly a class that you could breeze through, but if you put in the time and effort you'll be fine!

Zukoff himself is very kind and helpful; he seems like a genuinely good person. This class was during the TA strike, and he handled it well, making sure not to leave the students in the dark regarding how it will impact grading / the class. Another aspect of the class is that he doesn't introduce new material during week 10, but instead uses it as a review period. I think this is great! Also, if you're able to accumulate and demonstrate enough skills throughout the quarter, and are satisfied with your current grade, you're able to completely skip the final, which most students, I would guess, did. It really relieved a lot of pressure during finals week. Also, Yang was my TA and she was great! Very kind, left helpful feedback on assignments, and always willing to help.

Overall, great class!

TL;DR: Great professor with an encouraging grading system. Would recommend!

Sam is the best professor I have ever had from the linguistics department. He is a great lecturer and provides very clear notes and questions for each lecture. He reads from the lecture notes and then. does exercises with the class to help you understand the concept he is teaching. Participation doesn't matter and I have missed a few lectures and was able to catch up with the notes, BUT I highly recommend going to lectures because they are super engaging and Sam teaches phonology very well. The homeworks were pretty hard honestly, but the class is skills-based so if you do well on the quizzes and got the necessary skills, you can afford to do not so great on the homeworks.

The class is skills-based, which means your grade cannot drop lower than 50 percent and you can get skills by demonstrating proficiency and advanced proficiency on various phonological skills. You can get advanced proficiency from harder phonological problems on quizzes, homeworks, and tests. For the tests, there is one midterm and one final, both were in-person and you get a full page cheatsheet. There is about one homework a week and one quiz every monday. For this class, the quizzes were in-person, 15 minutes and you had to answer small phonological problems matching various skills, you also got a small notecard cheatsheet. If you miss a quiz or homework, don't worry because Sam provided ample opportunities to get all of the skills you need to do well in the class.

Trust me, I am not the best student regarding participation and keeping up with classes, but I have felt very comfortable with the pace and learning experience Sam provided in Ling 119A. If you can ever take Sam, do it! He is the absolute GOAT of linguistics.