LINGUIST List 3.272

Thu 19 Mar 1992

Disc: Teaching Linguistics

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1. Mark H Aronoff, Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS
2. Vicki Fromkin, Re: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS
3. , Texts

Message 1: Re: 3.257 Spanish el/la, Teaching Linguistics, OVS

 State University of New York at Stony Brook
 Stony Brook, NY 11794-4376

 Mark H Aronoff
 Wonderland
 Linguistics
 632-7775
 18-Mar-1992 09:52am EST

I would like to second those who have pointed out that linguistics must get
(back) into the schools. There is now a LSA committee whose job it is to
foster such efforts. Anyone who can help us in our work is encouraged to
contact me (the committee chair). I would especially like to hear about
ongoing or planned projects in the schools.

Message 2: Re: 3.262 Text, Idioms, OVS

Re. Larry Hutchinson's remarks on Intro Texrts. Would not argue
with anyone who prefers O'Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Aronoff (in fact we
note how much of Fromkin and Rodman has been emulated including the
very formats of our tables as well as the table of contents) or any
other text. Rodman and I don't see our text as directed to the same
students anyway -- but I can tell you that there are lots of Deans
and Provosts not only at UCLA but throughout the US who seem to
like F & R a lot. I admoit that my ego is fed greatly bythe fact that
people like Antonio Damasio, head of Neurology at U of Iowa Med School,
the nobellist Francis Crick, and Joe Bogen, the splitter of the first
human brain, refer to F&R as their main linguistic source (even though I
tell them there's not all that much linguistics in it). Oh well --
what is most important is that our 'friends' outside the field read
something and I rejoice when I hear they read O'G, D & A, or F & R, or
any of the many many books out there which can help to dispell the
many myths and wrong views about language and our discipline, and show
them how exciting and interesting and vital our field is. VAF of F&R

Like Justine, I teach an introductory ( mine a 12-week) course on French
linguistics. I concentrate on the acoustic and articulatory basis of French
(it's good for second-year courses and sorts the sheep out!). I
have found the following both accessible to keen students and a good
starting-point for my supplementary hand-outs. I hope these details will help
(forgive the absence of diacritics):
 J. Gardes-Tamine, La Grammaire (Paris:Colin)
 C. Germain & R. Leblanc, Introduction a la linguistique generale (Presses
 universitaires de Montreal).
Students also find B.Tranel The Sounds of French (Cambridge University Press)
very useful.
And I wish that L. Armstrong, The Phonetics of French, though old in date, were
not out of print (back in the Autumn, perhaps). Bill Bennett.