Opening Minds or Changing Them? Some Observations on Teaching Introductory Linguistics

Abstract

troductory courses in linguistics. Linguistics is taken by a variety of students, many of whom are in their first two years of study, while others vary in their status as students and in their academic experience. Teachers of linguistics have an opportunity to help students better understand phenomenon of language-something that is with them every day of their lives. They also can assist students in clarifying definitions and facts about and speakers that might be misguided, confused, or just plain wrong. A recent article underscores importance of this endeavor, calling introductory course in linguistics the primary antidote that academic linguists can offer to commonly held, yet basically wrong-headed, views about language (Spring et al., 2000, p. 110). But is there such a thing as right and wrong when talking about language? As someone who has taught hundreds of students in introductory linguistics courses, I can answer yes, there are some indisputable facts about human language, many of which are well understood by people who are not linguists. However, there are other concepts and explanations that are important to whole enterprise of linguistics that are neither clearcut nor widely disseminated among general