Professor Sportiche was a fairly clear lecturer, but he was incredibly unapproachable. He just really did not want to talk to us, I guess. Half of the grade was based on homework, which was sometimes confusing especially if your TA wasn't very helpful. I had Philip who wasn't the best TA, so I attended section with Anita instead who was a lot better. I didn't find the exam or course too hard, and I actually liked the subject so much that I added a Linguistics major. But I heard a lot of other students had trouble with the class, so you may want to avoid Sportiche if you're looking for an easy GE.

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not sure if this advice is helpful anymore – i took this class ages ago now and in person of course – but for homeworks, FIND OUT WHO THE MOST HELPFUL TA IS AND GO TO THEIR OFFICE HOURS! while you're there, work on the homework with your classmates

This class is definitely a commitment, but you end up learning a lot. With long and somewhat boring lectures and a final that counts for a huge portion of your grade, it was a little intimidating. I recommend you only take this class if you have to for a major pre-req or if you are really interesting in linguistics, because there are probably easier GEs out there. But I have a lot of respect for Dr. Sportiche because he was very accommodating during covid and changed the entire format of the final to make it easier for students. The final exam has some questions straight from the homework which is nice. The class overall requires a moderate amount of time, but the time you do spend on it should be pretty focused. A lot of the material is very tedious--much more so than it should be-- but looking back I'm glad I learned it.

This class was 45% final exam, 45% homework assignments and 10% final paper. Prof Sportiche's lectures were pretty clear and included some interesting examples. It can be a bit long-winded and he doesn't post slides, but he does post notes that summarize the lectures in case you miss something. At the start of the quarter he was definitely kind of stand-offish about answering emails. But it's pretty easy to communicate with the TAs.

Section isn't mandatory and you can attend any section you like. Each one is basically just a TA answering questions/summarizing the past week of lectures and reading. It's helpful but not essential to attend.

The homework is based on lecture and reading material. You definitely do need the book but there are free PDFs online. It was a little hard to grasp all of the ideas in the HW but there is extra credit available on all of them and the lowest score is dropped.

The final paper was about comparing two languages and the TAs weren't that strict about grading. I thought it wasn't too hard but it could be more of a struggle if you're not particularly familiar with more than 1 language.

The final exam was open-note multiple choice and proctored via Zoom (no lockdown browser) after we emailed Prof. Sportiche with many complaints about the Respondus browser. I think if you understand each homework assignment as you go you should be fine for the final and for the class overall.

I wish I could have enjoyed this class, but the difficulty was exacerbated by it being winter quarter and online. I'm sure it's not that difficult in person and with another professor, but I literally just could not deal. The content itself would have been interesting if I wasn't halfway depressed January thru March. Lectures were boring (I didn't watch anything after week 4), the provided lecture notes were really really long, and section was absolutely worthless because participation wasn't mandatory and nobody ever had their cameras on or asked questions. Allowing students to attend any section ended up backfiring like that. So yeah, I ended up teaching myself through youtube videos, which is definitely possible as I (somehow) got an A. The final and essay weren't that difficult tbh. The homework wasn't bad but you really have to understand the content, otherwise you'll have to spend a couple hours searching for answers in the lecture notes or textbook. The textbook, The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, was actually really enjoyable, I will say that. But that was the only part of the class I liked.

This class was way more work than I was expecting for a GE. There was a ridiculous amount of content covered and the professor did not care about you or your learning at all. There were 7 homeworks that were worth 45% of your grade, highly recommed going to TA office hours because that's the only way you'll get 100% on them. You absolutely need to get a good grade on the homework because the final is worth 45%. After a lot of emails and petitions, he finally made the final open note. The final wasn't too hard but defintely would not have been doable without having notes available. Sportiche was jsut not a good professor, he was aggressive in his emails and detached from his students. I really think he didn't care about how we did in his class. His lectures were extremely boring and you couldn't ask questions either so there was really no point in going to live lecture. I had Matthew as my TA and he was my saving grace, finding a good TA is imperative to succeeding in this class. All I can say is that I am happy this class is over, don't take it with Sportiche, there's tons of better professors that teach Ling 1.

I know people trash on Sportiche but he's not a bad guy. People are just mad that you have to put in more than minimal effort for a GE. The homework is just reading comprehension and application of what he teaches in lecture from the week before. You just read from the textbook, go to class and go to section. Section attendance was not mandatory and you could also go to whichever TA's section you wanted to. Final paper was breezy and honestly fun and a great way to reflect on what we learned. People said Sportiche is inaccessible, but I would have to disagree–he made our final exam open-note after we asked him to be more accommodating. It's not inspiring, nor particularly interesting to the general population, but you can tell Sportiche really loves it. Not a bad GE.

This class was not the easy A that it's made out to be. The Homeworks are super important for your grade, and it's almost impossible to do well on them without having a good TA. If you can get Katie as your TA, as she was super helpful and understanding. The class was interesting, but I just couldn't engage in lectures. Super good GE if you're Cognitive Science because you get GE credit and don't have to take Chemistry or Physics. Overall not super hard, but the material is dry and you have to really get 100%'s on the homework.

This class was not that hard, but in turn, it was very boring. Maybe if you are interested in linguistics you would love it. I did not. Discussion sections have worksheets that aren't that difficult. Other than that, no midterm. The final was okay, but we took it in the midst of the beginning of COVID-19 so we were allowed to have notes. Lectures are long and you have to go, or you won't get the material needed. Also, read the book, it helps.

If you signed up thinking the course would focus a lot on how language is picked up by humans, this isn't the course for you. The professor focuses a lot on grammar and the actual practicalities as to how we use words and conjugate them, categorize them, and so on.
It was a somewhat interesting course at times, but overall seemed monotonous and repetitive. If it wasn't repetitive, it was because we were bombarded with a lot of new terms and concepts at once. If it weren't for my TA (shoutout Katie) or my PLF, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have even passed the course.
The professor is not really engaging; he can be funny at times and overall he's a very sweet man. Most people in class were online shopping, texting, or doing some other thing during lecture because it was pretty boring.
The professor doesn't doesn't take attendance, but because of that he doesn't upload the slides or bruin cast (which is a huge pain; I rather him take attendance and post the material). He posts weekly lecture reviews, and I highly recommend you stay on top of those for this course if you take it.
I would recommend also buying the textbook (there's free PDF versions online) because a lot of what's in it is on the homework assignments and even on the test.