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Giuseppina Silvestri
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Based on 49 Users
This is an easy class if you know another language in addition to English. We have near weekly multiple choice homework assignments, two 1200-word writing assignments comparing two languages (hence you need knowledge of a non-English language. The writing assignments have very clear instructions so it's very easy to meet the word count), and a midterm and final, both multiple choice.
If you take good notes on the lectures and understand all the homework, you will ace this class. Reading the textbook is not needed.
I loved every aspect of this Class.
I did not know much about Linguistics and, at the end, I can tell I learned so much and all seems quite interesting and relevant.
Great experience for a GE.
This was a really interesting and somewhat easy class though the professor doesn't actually give the lectures. She posts recorded ones given by other professors (totaling to a few hours per week) and also shares related materials and case studies. There's homework almost every week, two essays with a required word count, a midterm, and a final. For the essays, you might need to put spaces between characters to increase your word count because entire sentences in some languages may only count as one word. They're graded pretty easily, and she provides a sample essay and a rubric. The homework and final had a few mistakes where some answers were repeated, and I don't know how she handled that. She didn't allow late homework submissions, but the homework is available for a week. It was on CCLE, so you could go back after the deadline and see what you got wrong. The midterm and final were proctored on Respondus, and you could use scratch paper. Some important tables were given to you, and most of the questions focused on heavily covered topics. But some asked about very specific, barely covered topics, or the answer was verbatim to something very specific in a lecture. You don't need to read the textbook or go to discussion, but those could clarify some things.
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!
I loved taking this class with Giuseppina. She was engaging, excited, and passionate about the topic. When I took the class, it was her first quarter teaching at UCLA, so at times it seemed like she was still finding her stride. That said, she was wonderful. She valued her student learning very clearly. The tests were fairly easy, with a lot of the material being put in a sort of "appendix" for students at the back of the test for reference. I only went to office hours once, but she answered my question completely. She assigns a decent amount of readings, but they do help with the classwork. The homework was due weekly and was generally easy.
This was one of the toughest, disorganized courses I took in the ling department thus far. The readings were dense and not debriefed, leaving lots behind on topics. Lectures were scattered and often lacked background information. The exams were tough; 2-3 essays closed-book. There was also a final project where the professor pairs you up with another student in the class to do a research paper, with a presentation included. I stopped going halfway through the quarter because the lecture did not help, and it was frankly a waste of my time.
The grading rubric in this class was very fair. However, due to Covid-19, I slacked off more than I should have. However, even with the amount of cramming, I did for the class. I was able to pull off a B-. Make sure to participate in the discussions and live lectures to get those extra points. It could probably help round your grade up.
(online because of covid)
Although this class was a bit more work than I had originally anticipated, I really did enjoy the content. In the online format, most lectures are prerecorded by week, around 1-3 hours, sometimes an extra reading or film, and then there was one required live lecture and required discussion each week (I usually just joined the zoom and then did other work--they never covered any testable topics that hadn't already been mentioned in recorded lectures or the textbook).
The workload was manageable: weekly-ish homeworks (less than that, really. iirc there were only 6 or 7), a midterm, two papers (which were actually pretty fun to write; they were pretty informal), and a final.
The midterm and final are on respondus!!!
I only took this class as a GE but I would say it's pretty good as far as GEs go. One thing I would caution is that because most homeworks are on quizlet, and live lecture never covers any required material, it is easy to fall behind on recorded lectures if you are not disciplined. Stay up-to-speed with all of the weekly material, because it can pile up quicker than you realize!
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.
This is an easy class if you know another language in addition to English. We have near weekly multiple choice homework assignments, two 1200-word writing assignments comparing two languages (hence you need knowledge of a non-English language. The writing assignments have very clear instructions so it's very easy to meet the word count), and a midterm and final, both multiple choice.
If you take good notes on the lectures and understand all the homework, you will ace this class. Reading the textbook is not needed.
I loved every aspect of this Class.
I did not know much about Linguistics and, at the end, I can tell I learned so much and all seems quite interesting and relevant.
Great experience for a GE.
This was a really interesting and somewhat easy class though the professor doesn't actually give the lectures. She posts recorded ones given by other professors (totaling to a few hours per week) and also shares related materials and case studies. There's homework almost every week, two essays with a required word count, a midterm, and a final. For the essays, you might need to put spaces between characters to increase your word count because entire sentences in some languages may only count as one word. They're graded pretty easily, and she provides a sample essay and a rubric. The homework and final had a few mistakes where some answers were repeated, and I don't know how she handled that. She didn't allow late homework submissions, but the homework is available for a week. It was on CCLE, so you could go back after the deadline and see what you got wrong. The midterm and final were proctored on Respondus, and you could use scratch paper. Some important tables were given to you, and most of the questions focused on heavily covered topics. But some asked about very specific, barely covered topics, or the answer was verbatim to something very specific in a lecture. You don't need to read the textbook or go to discussion, but those could clarify some things.
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!
I loved taking this class with Giuseppina. She was engaging, excited, and passionate about the topic. When I took the class, it was her first quarter teaching at UCLA, so at times it seemed like she was still finding her stride. That said, she was wonderful. She valued her student learning very clearly. The tests were fairly easy, with a lot of the material being put in a sort of "appendix" for students at the back of the test for reference. I only went to office hours once, but she answered my question completely. She assigns a decent amount of readings, but they do help with the classwork. The homework was due weekly and was generally easy.
This was one of the toughest, disorganized courses I took in the ling department thus far. The readings were dense and not debriefed, leaving lots behind on topics. Lectures were scattered and often lacked background information. The exams were tough; 2-3 essays closed-book. There was also a final project where the professor pairs you up with another student in the class to do a research paper, with a presentation included. I stopped going halfway through the quarter because the lecture did not help, and it was frankly a waste of my time.
The grading rubric in this class was very fair. However, due to Covid-19, I slacked off more than I should have. However, even with the amount of cramming, I did for the class. I was able to pull off a B-. Make sure to participate in the discussions and live lectures to get those extra points. It could probably help round your grade up.
(online because of covid)
Although this class was a bit more work than I had originally anticipated, I really did enjoy the content. In the online format, most lectures are prerecorded by week, around 1-3 hours, sometimes an extra reading or film, and then there was one required live lecture and required discussion each week (I usually just joined the zoom and then did other work--they never covered any testable topics that hadn't already been mentioned in recorded lectures or the textbook).
The workload was manageable: weekly-ish homeworks (less than that, really. iirc there were only 6 or 7), a midterm, two papers (which were actually pretty fun to write; they were pretty informal), and a final.
The midterm and final are on respondus!!!
I only took this class as a GE but I would say it's pretty good as far as GEs go. One thing I would caution is that because most homeworks are on quizlet, and live lecture never covers any required material, it is easy to fall behind on recorded lectures if you are not disciplined. Stay up-to-speed with all of the weekly material, because it can pile up quicker than you realize!
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.