DC
Sep 23, 2017
Extremely informational, well presented, with questions that stimulate reflection. The optional reading material is food for thought. I hope to see more courses from the same professor and University.
SS
Nov 29, 2021
I've taken a number of online courses on linguistics now, and this one was by and far the best. The material covered is indepth and engaging, and the professor's enthusiam makes the videos a delight.
By Margaret T
•Mar 20, 2022
H
By Lorena R d l M
•Mar 23, 2020
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By Adrian D C
•Jan 20, 2025
A good course with many interesting and unique insights into the field of Linguistics. The language informants was a good idea. As hearing and seeing how different languages and cultures differ and are similar is a very nice addition to the course. The lecturer is clearly very passionate about the subject and this helps the motivation of the learners. However, this course misses the 5 stars for the following reasons: Firstly, the quizzes/assignments are very specific in their questions on things that were very briefly mentioned in the lectures and by the language informants. Reducing the requirement of completion from the current 80% minimum to, say, 70% would allow for a general understanding of concepts and not specific questions on ideas and sounds that are very briefly mentioned. I would find myself writing down several of the correct answers to questions somewhere so I could use them on my 3rd try at some of the quizzes. Also, many of the readings are not available anymore and therefore the questions relating to these are very hard. Secondly, this may seem like an introductory course, but I think that the time it takes to complete and the level of the questions asked does not relate much to this definition of introductory. A different name to the course may better reflect the detail that some readings, questions from quizzes and linguistic analysis of different languages require. Finally, I believe the course was created around 2015. It would be great to get updates on some of the research that was being discussed now that the course is close to its 10-year anniversary.
By Christopher B
•Aug 14, 2017
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It gave me an excellent overview of linguistics as the scientific study of language. The presentation style was really engaging as Maarten interacts with Martin, Inge and guests. The downloadable lecture transcripts were fantastic. That said, I have a few suggestions:
1) Include more free online resources. Most the background reading material were Amazon books, which are expensive if you come from a country with a weak currency. On the practical note, most telelearners like myself don't have time to read an entire book. It would have been far better to include journeys.
2) If students want to do the honours course, allow them to study on a different academic schedule. I found it impossible to complete research assignments and tests at the same.
3) A few assessment questions were poorly phrased and this leads to confusion on the single and multiple select quizzes.
4) Commenting and replying to questions wasn't that interactive. Hoping that somebody would randomly reply or comment to your answer was frustrating. If we were paired up with online study partners, we could discuss topics together.
5)Lastly, fix for typos on course material and tests.
MOOC's are definitely the future of education in an increasing globalized and connected world. Thank you for a great module.
By Ralitsa N
•Oct 14, 2018
The course is interesting and offers a theoretical basis together with real language examples, that is a good combination when trying to put some of the theory in practice. The interviews with researchers also offer different perspective into interesting topics. What I consider not quite well accomplished are the tests: some offer incorrect answers to questions that already have been pointed out, as mentioned by the staff, in previous editions. Not having them corrected rests credibility to the entire course material. The final test includes some questions that although having relationship with a particular module, are hardly something relevant to take away from this course (e.g. in what sentence did a language informant repeat a nasal sound as a result of a speech error). If we consider tests as a learning tool, as they should be, the way they are designed should be more careful and meaningful to the learner. Despite the parts that to me need improvement, I want to thank to everybody involved in preparing and offering this MOOC, as I know from personal experience how challenging this can be.
By Muhip T
•May 30, 2020
More comprehensive than I thought. Starts with a good introduction and goes through different areas of linguistics: phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics, biological aspects etc. Although some videos have some mistakes in them, course material is high quality. Lectures and interviews are professional and language informants have been chosen well (thanks and congratulations to each informant!)
I gave 4 stars because I felt that the quizzes and the final exam were a bit too detailed for an online course. It would be worse if they were too easy, but I think this difficulty is still a bit over the top (although I passed almost all of them at first attempt)
I definitely like when courses force attendants to go on the forum, write their ideas and respond to others. This mandatory interaction definitely works and the forum is full of brilliant comments and good discussions.
To sum up: difficult exams but the course has been prepared very professionally and whoever wants to have a basic understanding of the study of linguistics would gain a lot from this.
By Andrew D
•May 11, 2020
Great course and a fantastic introduction to linguistics. The Professor's passion for the subject is infectious, and he and the assistants present information very clearly. The interviews also allow the participant an insight into current developments in the field.
The discussion forum was a particularly good touch. It was interesting to see a lot of different perspectives and interpretations. This was the most rewarding in the pragmatics section, with the differing interpretations about whether a student in the scenario presented had violated any of Grice's maxims.
Areas for improvement:
- Some of the quiz questions felt very ambiguous; like there could be more than one correct answer. This led to some annoying dropped marks.
- The honours assignment instructions were quite unclear (this came up in the forums also).
- Missing content like subtitles from the language informant videos.
Overall, would thoroughly recommend this course, both for beginners and for those with some or even much linguistic knowledge.
By Laurel L
•Sep 9, 2023
This was definitely one of the more informative and comprehensive courses I've taken on Coursera so far. The professor was enthusiastic about the material and provided a lot of useful information. I enjoyed the discussions and feel I gained a lot of knowledge. My main complaint is in relation to the quizzes. I echo what others have said about them: many of them were intensely frustrating. Some of the question did not pertain to the subject matter at all (such as being able to read a family tree chart) and some required you to interpret rare languages that few have ever heard of. Unlike other courses I've taken on Coursera, I found myself having to take the quizzes for this course several times to pass, despite taking notes and reading all the required supplemental articles (except the ones for which the links no longer work). Overall, if this topic interests you, there's a lot of good information here. But be expected to be incredibly frustrated by the quizzes.
By Francesca P
•May 24, 2020
I really enjoyed this course and I feel lucky for having the chance to learn new things about Linguistics with a prestigious university such as Leiden. The only thing that doesn't make me give five stars is that in some points the course was not perfectly clear: in the second week I got information about the way we were supposed to pass the quiz through the forum and when I asked a question on the forum no one ever answered to me. I understand this may be because not everyone feels to get involved in the discussions, but I feel that there should be someone from the organisation side actually checking if everything is going smooth or not. Another thing I didn't find very well made was in week 6 the article on Lebov: because the article was no longer available, you were supposed to see a hour long video to get the information for the quiz. Anyway, a part from these little feedback, I enjoyed the course and I feel that I have more background information now.
By Pathematica
•Jul 22, 2021
I took ths course out of interest rather than to make progress in a career. It provides an interesting survey of several topics in linguistics, which assists in choosing other material for further private study. Given the shortness of the course, some of the material is relatively superficial but that is unavoidable in these circumstances. Professor van Oostendorp is enthusiastic and entertaining as well as informative. He has recruited two students to assist in presenting the material, both of whom are engaging and useful additions. They provide a natural way to foster dialogues with the professor, presumably in an attempt to capture a sense of the importance of discussion and debate (rather than mere didactism) in academic study and they succeed magnificently in this task. In particular, they pose well-considered and well-phrased questions whose answers prompt epiphanies in understanding.
By Jacqui A
•Sep 8, 2019
I have enjoyed this course although being a somewhat deaf beginner I found the modules on the sounds of, and the mechanics of making, consonants along with the videos of the informants, somewhat frustrating.
. Plus I really struggled with Module 6 and Politeness Theory and am not totally sure that it actually added anything to the course, at least for me.
I read a number of reviews before I started this course, in which people were complaining about the quizzes and although some of the questions were relatively easy, they were not all just about ticking boxes, but actually reading and understanding the intent of the questions. I was a beginner with little previous studied knowledge of the subject.
The Professor was enthusiastic and engaging.
Thank you
By DieDiachFort! D
•Jul 19, 2021
Probably the #1 online course for anyone looking to understand the basics of linguistics. Dr. Oostendorp explains many of the topics very well, and his 2 student guests asked a lot of thought-provoking questions during the discussion lectures. Also, I feel like the weekly assessments were difficult enough to promote strong recall and understanding of the week's information, but also not disproportionately hard. On a personal note, this course let me look at all the subfields within linguistics and decide what I was most interested in so I could find further resources and continue enjoying learning. However, I'm only giving a 4 star(probably closer to a 4.5) since i feel like certain topics could've been talked about more, like syntax and syntax trees.
By Ana S T P
•Nov 6, 2016
I liked the couse a lot, but I think the quizzes are very tricky and there are questions that you have to deduce more than to know. This is OK as part of learning, but it turns a little difficult when English is not your first language. Also, there were some errors in the quizzes, especially in week 3 and 4. It's very interesting to listen to the informants, but I find difficult to answer the questions about them. I'm not familiar with those languages and it's very hard, and I think that's not the point of the course, like to know how to say "grandma" in Abruzzese or how many ways there are to say "son" in Chinese. So, it may be taken into consideration. Anyways, I really liked the course and I hope it can grow for the best. Thank you!
By Theron L
•Jan 29, 2024
The professor feels like a patient and welcoming person to all his students. He makes topics understandable with visual metaphors. I made notes so I was able to keep track of important definitions for the quizzes. About the quizzes, the required readings provided lots of insight that may not seem relevant to the topic. I like the idea of the informants giving a worldly perspective on linguistics. I took this course to explore a potential career field for university and I have made my opinions based on what I learned so I got what I wanted. The only thing the course is lacking is the materials given do not always load or are unavailable making quiz questions pertaining to it a lucky guess.
By Rosangela O
•Mar 20, 2021
This is the first course I did with Coursera, and I chose it for curiosity and for general interest in languages. Also, it is still COVID-19 pandemic time, and I want to do something besides working from home.
I did enjoy the course. I completed it, but I am not doing the final assignment and the peer review.
I had fun taking the test more than once to pass the course, but it bothered me not to finding the right answer for the questions, even if I tried different options. I would like to have access to the right answer to understand why I did not get it right.
I appreciated to have the transcript of each course as well.
Thanks
Thanks,
By Koko P
•Jan 30, 2023
The course is a good introduction to linguistics, but I found the quiz questions random and often difficult to understand because of poor phrasing. There doesn't seem to be any monitoring of the discussions by anybody associated with Leiden University anymore, so questions and issues go unanswered. This is unfortunately the nature of this platform, I suppose. Despite that frustration, I found the course interesting, informative, and manageable. The module on neuro- and psycholinguistics was extremely well done and exciting. I would recommend the course for anybody who is interested in exploring linguistics.
By Julie J
•Feb 20, 2018
I really enjoyed the content of this course. It really was a fascinating introduction and I feel I have learnt so much. It has made me hungry to learn more in some ways but less in others (as I found some parts quite technical and tricky but felt proud when I finally worked out the answers!). The Professor is very personable and the lectures are well presented. I did not personally have time to do the Peer assessments but would have liked to. Thank you to all involved. i chose this course as it interested me but it was by chance from Leiden university which is where I live. I felt more connected somehow.
By Joyce v H
•Feb 1, 2021
This was a very informative introduction into linguistics. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, but the topics where are relevant and challenging. Because of the limited time a course offers, I do think the course lacks some coherence between topics.
I would've liked more exercises of analyzing language of the informants. That was good practice and I learned a lot from it.
I also would like to do the peer assignments, but I missed some more interaction between other participants to do so.
All things considered this was time well spent and I would love to learn more about linguistics after this.
By Mirko M
•Jun 12, 2018
Professor van Oostendorp was a big plus and asset to this course. I would have really liked to have him as a professor at the Uni. I'm not giving 5 stars because I believe the estimated workload (in terms of time) for the mandatory reading material is at times vastly underestimated (like with the article on typology in module 1 and the audio lecture in module 6, for instance). Additionally, the way the forum is now, it is basically impossible to keep track of your own contributions and others' replies, which fatally undermines interaction between course participants.
By Grace T
•Aug 2, 2022
I found the information and structure of this course to be very entertaining and engaging! The only problem is with the quizzes, though this is partly due to the way Coursera formats them. I had to retake most of them multiple times, either because their were actual problems with the answer (and as the forums will tell you they have not been fixed for years) or because they are worded sometimes quite tricky. Otherwise, I learned a ton and feel I have a much stronger base on the subject than before hand. Concepts are taught in memorable ways.
By Laurent G
•Jan 19, 2018
I think this course was very interesting, and quite frankly it would deserve a 4.5 stars rating. My only (light) remark would be that I would have hoped more details on the research studies the teacher presents. It's only at the very end, in the society and linguistics part that we get to see some detailed results from an academic study. Also, I would have liked more on historical linguistics, but I know that was not part of the initial curriculum. Overall, kudos to Leiden University's linguistic team, this was a great course.
By Emil M
•Aug 8, 2016
The course is a lightweight introduction to Linguistics. If you are absolutely new to linguistics, it will provide you with enough information for further research and self-development. There are some really interesting facts provided by the required reading of the course.
What I mostly liked about the course is the list of additional literature. What I mostly didn't like are quizzes - I little bit too reliant on the question formulation. The only quiz that I really liked was about syntactic analysis of informants' sentences.
By Olivia F
•Jan 17, 2025
This is a great introduction to an interesting topic. I would recommend it! I removed one star because I couldn't access all the resources/ texts online easily, though enough were available to make the course worthwhile. I would also have appreciated the option after accepting my grade of being able to go through the exam and look at the explanations for each answer. It's irritating to have made a mistake and not be able to understand why in every case. Overall a great experience, thank you!
By M C
•Aug 7, 2020
I appreciate that the videos were intentionally taken at close range and they have transcriptions that I can read when I am losing my focus. I learned so much from this course and it has inspired me to further analyze and understand my own languages and my own culture. The quizzes are challenging but that is how to make tests! I am inspired to formulate quizzes about my mother tongue following Coursera's pattern. Thank you!
By Simon C
•Sep 25, 2020
I really enjoyed the course and learnt a lot; I particular appreciated it as it helped me understand more of the issues I faced when learning languages. I particular enjoyed the prcatical aspect, not the theorectical so much: I was completely baffled by the section on "face" and would have appreciated a fuller explanation & more examples. The course videos were well made and engaging.
Thank you for a great course!