LNGS 2240

Not a lot of work, but all of your grade comes from three finals. You have to attend lectures to get the notes, but Elson is a notoriously bad lecturer, particularly in his old age. He goes on rants and tangents that can last upwards of 30 minutes, but you can always tune those out. I received the same grade on all three tests, though I put in different amounts of effort for each, but maybe that was a problem with my perception and not a reflection of his grading style. Regardless, the class was a frustrating experience in general and I'd recommend taking another class.

This class was VERY boring but it is an easy A or high B. He is a very old fashioned professor and does not believe in technology. In order to get the notes the only way to get it is to actually go to class. The exams in the class were the only grade and they were all take home exams in a blue book. There is readings that he assigns but I was perfectly fine without them. I recommend not buying any of the textbooks, you will be fine without them. It was really hard to take this class in the morning, so if you are not a morning person and this class is offered in the morning, if I were you, I would not take it. The overall content of the class was not very interesting and it was not the content that I was expecting. He spends a lot of time criticizing the textbooks instead of actually teaching which was some what frustrating, but you can easily tune him out.

Class: Mostly the professor lecturing from handouts he created, or going over the reading. Participation in class is mostly gauged by whether or not he knows your name, but the class is relatively small and it's easy to participate. He does NOT tolerate any computers or phones in the class, to the point that he threatened us with two failing grades in our attendance and participation categories. The lecture doesn't really add much, but it's imperative that you're present when you go over IPA. The first part of the class is a review of Intro to Linguistics. You will need both books to complete the tests.
Work: The majority of your grade is from 3 tests. 2 of them are midterms and the final counts twice. That being said, he is very understanding when it comes to grades, and if you get an A on the final its very likely you'll get an A for the test section. He wants to see "improvement" in your grade to show that you're learning. The tests are closed-book take home tests that you have a week to complete.
Teacher: Mark Elson is a character. He's about 75 years old, but he's very knowledgeable about Linguistics. There were a couple of times in the class when I felt prejudiced against, mainly because I'm a native Southerner and Elson is from Northern New Jersey. There is definitely effort on his part to be neutral, but he's not always successful. He tends to go on tangents, but he gives you a study guide for the tests and our final study guide was the exact same as our final.

I recommend this class to anyone with an interest in the Southern dialects and linguistics. A background in Linguistics is very helpful to this class, but it's not necessary.
#tCFfall2021

This class was a waste of time. We had to memorize material that Elson couldn't remember himself. I went into it thinking it'd be really interesting, but all it is is a bunch of theories that can't be proved. Also, there's about a 6-week lead-in to the actual course material which was a bit tedious.

Took this class on a whim, definitely learned more than I thought I would. Before you actually learn about southern english, you have to learn basic linguistics and phonetic type stuff (takes maybe 3 weeks to finish that). Readings were very easy. Elson is interesting lecturer (you can tell he really loves languages). TURN YOU CELL PHONE OFF. For real, dont put it on vibrate or silent, just turn it off. He gets very pissed if a cell phone goes off and will knock that person down a grade if it happens. As for TA, Erin was really chill and made discussion class very relaxing, but sadly she has moved on to another college. So, I can't comment on the new TA.

This class definitely got me interested in Linguistics, but not enough to major in it or anything.

This class is definitely more than anecdotal comments on Southern accents, and provides an interesting taste of an introduction to linguistic transcription and sociolinguistic thought. Sociological factors and theories on the history of the dialect is a good bit of the course. Southerners and non-southerners alike would enjoy this class (the professor is actually from New York).