Setting Goals

Reading what others have shared about their constructed language courses in higher ed, I noticed that a learning goal for many of the courses was tied to linguistic terminology and practices; courses provide students opportunities to learn and apply morphosyntax terminology, or to develop effective language documentation practices. These goals map intuitively onto a course in conlangs.

I knew I wanted to teach a course on constructed languages, but, I needed to think a little more carefully about identifying the course goals. There isn’t a linguistics program at my institution, so there isn’t a clear benefit to asking students to learn a bunch of technical terminology or disciplinary practices when there aren’t clear pathways to upper-level courses where they will use them. Nor is there an intro-level course that provides a baseline of shared knowledge for incoming students.

Obviously, there is going to be some focus on language features and metalinguistic description–that’s part of the fun of the whole thing, but I determined that the most productive focus of this course would be a critical discussion of the role language plays in the construction of social and individual identity.

Here’s the resulting syllabus language for my course learning goals and objectives:

Constructing a language is an act of creativity, but conlangs can never be as complex as natural languages. Which aspects of language do conlangs illuminate, and which do they flatten? How do they critique or reinforce ideologies of oppression? We will approach these questions from linguistic, literary, cognitive, and sociological perspectives.

Course Objectives (what we are going to do)

• Develop academic writing skills through two extended writing assignments (5-7 page papers) and a revised portfolio
• Situate questions raised by fictional conlangs within academic and popular discourse while developing appropriate critical and linguistic vocabulary
• Critique commonly encountered positions and arguments about language and identify the assumptions and biases at play
• Evaluate our own knowledge and research practices as we explore an interdisciplinary topic that spans popular and academic sources