Steven Pinker - Psychologist, Cognitive Scientist, and Linguist at Harvard University
How did humans acquire language? In this lecture, best-selling author Steven Pinker introduces you to linguistics, the evolution of spoken language, and the debate over the existence of an innate universal grammar. He also explores why language is such a fundamental part of social relationships, human biology, and human evolution. Finally, Pinker touches on the wide variety of applications for linguistics, from improving how we teach reading and writing to how we interpret law, politics, and literature.
Course Description
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.
This Advanced Spanish Language and Culture course is a rigorous course taught exclusively in Spanish that requires students to improve their proficiency across the three modes of communication: Interpretive, Interpersonal and Presentational. The course focuses on the integration of authentic resources including online print, audio, and audiovisual resources, as well as traditional print resources that include literature, essays, and magazine and newspaper articles with the goal of providing a rich, diverse learning experience. Students communicate using rich, advanced vocabulary and linguistic structures as they build proficiency in all modes of communication toward the advanced level. Class is conducted completely in Spanish and includes frequent writing and integration of skills with a rigorous review of grammatical structures. Advanced organizational and analytical strategies are taught. An array of resources is used as necessary to facilitate the learning process.