Professor Hayes is very organized. He teaches really systematically and very clearly. The class is basically structured around a textbook that he writes by himself, and he gives out the pdf for it so it's free! The workload is not bad: a weekly homework, a midterm, and a final. For me the main reason why I like this class and Professor Hayes a lot is how easy it is to follow since it's so organized, and you know what to expect every week.

The class as a whole is not that hard, but if you are looking for an easy GE then maybe this is not the class for you. As long as you do the exercises and the homework, you should be able to do the midterm and the final just fine.

Overall, great class and great professor! I especially recommend it to people who are doing any Linguistic-related major or minor.

I thought this class was great, coming from a background of already knowing some linguistics. The problem sets were informative and fun but not too long, the tests adquately represented the homeworks and lectures, and the whole class was extremely well organized and progressed well through the different subjects of linguistics. There were lots of concrete examples given that helped see real-world applications of the subject matter. On top of all of that, Professor Hayes is wonderfully engaging and energetic, in addition to being quite funny. I would recommend this class if you have an interest in really learning what a variety of linguistic fields are like.

Very effective and his lecture is fun if you really love linguistics. For those who don't like linguistics, you may find this class interesting and much easier than linguistic 1, since you only need to understand the homework and there is nothing to memorize. All date will be given during the test. Do go to the lecture since attendance makes up a lot. Each class you will be assigned a little quiz and you will be given full credited no matter you do it correctly or not. And the entire class is curved, so about 70 out of 200 will get grade A- or higher. TAs are almost full-time, and their discussions are the only ones that keep me from sleeping. Overall, you can enjoy the class and learn a lot.

Prof. Hayes is a very effective and inspiring lecturer. He keeps his website updated and organized(even his personal lecture note in case we need clarification). His assignments are usually clear and full of notes to eliminate any ambiguity.

As a professor he is enthusiastic and charismatic. He also is a highly intelligent scholar who makes sure his every word is loaded with sense and logic. Talking to Prof. Hayes is undoubtedly one of the best professor interaction you can get at ucla - he listens intensively and answers in a well-organized manner, and most of the time with some extra mind-stimulating questions for students to further ponder on.

As far as the class goes - it is a lot of information in a short period of time. You'll find yourself with lots of fun and applicable new ideas at the end of the quarter. That is to say, if you want an easy A, take Ling1 instead; if you want a meaning GE experience and think you might enjoy linguistics, definitely take this class.

The class was difficult, mostly due to the subject matter and the amount covered. Homework is pretty tough as well and Finals was a killer. But overall, I learned a lot from this class. I find it useful to attend all his lectures since his explanations are pretty clear. Some of his examples get pretty weird but most times it's quite entertaining. Reading his notes made a lot of sense afterwards if you've listened to his lecture.
Grading is fair. He curves the class, so most people end up with a B+ average. Overall a good basic linguistics class especially if you're a Ling major, but if you're just looking for an easy pre-req class, probably not for you.

his class really wasn't that easy. you actually had to spend time doing the homeworks and studying for the exam. his midterm was really straightforward and about 15 people got over 100% but the final was almost impossible for the 3 hours. if you're looking for an easy A, this really isn't the class.