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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics by Universiteit Leiden

4.7
stars
2,440 ratings

About the Course

Everywhere, every day, everybody uses language. There is no human society, no matter how small or how isolated, which does not employ a language that is rich and diverse. This course introduces you to linguistics, featuring interviews with well-known linguists and with speakers of many different languages. Join us to explore the miracles of human language! The Miracles of Human Language introduces you to the many-faceted study of languages, which has amazed humans since the beginning of history. Together with speakers of many other languages around the world, as well as with famous linguists such as Noam Chomsky and Adele Goldberg, you will learn to understand and analyse how your native tongue is at the same time similar and different from many other languages. You will learn the basic concepts of linguistics, get to know some of the key features of big and small languages and get insight into what linguists do. This course gives an introduction into the study of languages, the field of linguistics. With the support of the basic linguistic terminology that is offered in the course, you will soon be able to comment both on variety between languages, as well as on a single language’s internal structure. Anyone who wishes to understand how languages work, and how they can give us insight into the human mind is very welcome to join. The course is useful if you want to get a fairly quick introduction into linguistics, for instance because you are considering studying it further, or because you are interested in a neighbouring discipline such as psychology, computer science or anthropology. Furthermore, the course will help you develop analytical skills. If you are curious to understand how language works and how it gives insight into the human mind, this course is definitely for you!...

Top reviews

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.

NI

Mar 10, 2021

The course was well-organised and very interesting. It covered the different aspects of linguistics wonderfully and prompted me to delve further into specific fields of linguistics such as phonetics.

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576 - 600 of 744 Reviews for Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics

By Connor L

Jul 22, 2022

super good

By Juliana

Jan 1, 2017

Thank you!

By Miguel Á

Jul 16, 2024

Very Good

By Etienne K D

Jul 15, 2024

Excellent

By KADDOUR A

Jul 28, 2022

EXCELLENT

By John W

Aug 8, 2021

Loved it!

By daniel d

Mar 4, 2020

Excellent

By petya

Dec 17, 2018

brilliant

By adriano m

Nov 22, 2017

very good

By Géraldine G

Jul 28, 2017

Excellent

By Daniel V

May 26, 2017

muy bueno

By Nicolas M

Jan 11, 2023

Thanks!!

By Pham V C

Jun 15, 2020

Good !

By Theodoro C F

Oct 9, 2017

Great!

By Ken

Aug 7, 2017

非常好的课程

By Ái V

Sep 24, 2024

GREAT

By Nguyen Q T K H

Mar 10, 2022

nice

By Le T T H (

Jul 4, 2020

good

By Quan T P

Jun 15, 2020

good

By Yao M

Sep 24, 2019

Fun!

By Tran T H N

Mar 11, 2021

no

By Margaret T

Mar 20, 2022

H

By Lorena R d l M

Mar 23, 2020

.

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.