Sportiche posts extremely detailed lecture notes on CCLE during the middle of each week. These lecture notes contain almost everything you need to know to complete the homework and score an A on his exams. Although he requires reading from the textbook, I stopped reading after week 2 and instead paid close attention to the lecture notes. Sometimes the homework asked about info that was exclusively found in the textbook, but Sportiche outlines the reading at the end of each week's lecture notes so that you can simply go back to the book and search for the relevant info rather than read entire chapters.
He assigns weekly homework packets that take about 1-2 hours to complete. There is one final paper that is relatively simple to write, worth 10% of your grade.
I recommend taking detailed notes from Sportiche's lecture notes so that you don't have to put too much effort into paying attention during lecture/reading the textbook, and also collaborating with others during TA office hours so that you can get full points on the assignments. The TAs I encountered were very helpful and gave detailed instructions on how to go about the homework.
Sportiche is a syntactician, so much of the curriculum will be geared towards that. He also likes to be somewhat tricky with some of his questions on the HW and on his exams, so be mindful of that! Otherwise I highly recommend this class with this professor. Sportiche is always well-prepared, well-organized, and very well-versed in the subject. Don't read - pay attention to the lecture notes and you should be good!

All the reviews are very representative of the class. Getting 100% in the HW category is very helpful considering it is 45% of total grade. However, while this makes the class seem easy the HW was extremely difficult for me to do on my own. I would go to my TA's office hours for clarification/help on concepts asked in the HW and often would often leave more confused. They would often take me hours to complete. I would highly suggest working with other classmates as they helped me get 100% in my HW category!! Towards the end of the quarter I started going to another TA's office hours and he was actually helpful! So if you are unlucky like me and get a bad TA I would highly recommend going to another TA's office hours. Also, professor Sportiche was super helpful in his office hours. I was usually the only student there and he actually tried to get to know me, asking where I was from, about my major, etc. Unlike, many of the professors here he actually cares about students even if he doesn't seem the friendliest in lecture.
Like many of my classmates, I was unsure what the course Linguistics 1 entailed or what even linguistics was. I was surprised to discover that the course that it is largely based on grammar rules. This is why I think the course concepts were especially challenging for me to understand. Coming into the class, I did not have a strong linguistic/grammar background. This course is very technical and also annoying because you are required to understand pointless topics that you will never use again unless you are a linguistics major.
Lecture: I would highly recommend attending every lecture! although he does post the lecture notes which is nice when studying for finals. during lecture though it was very hard for me to retain any information taught as the professor goes extremely fast and his slides include a ton of content. I would frantically try to type down all the notes which I do not recommend doing as he posts the lecture notes. He even says his lectures are just meant for listening. I would recommend writing down what he says in lecture and not word for word what is on the slide.
during the class, if you were to ask me to recommend this class I would say NOOO.
however, after taking the final I think it is a doable GE just not as easy compared to the other GE's I was taking at the time. This was my hardest class during my quarter.
While its GREAT there is no final, this made preparing for the final very stressful as I did not know what to expect or what it would be tested on. I did all the required reading however I am unsure if all the hours I devoted towards reading the book was beneficial considering there are no clicker quizzes. Although, there was specific questions from the book in the final. The majority of the final consisted exact questions from the HW and the concepts tested in the HW minus the extra credit. Also he does offer extra credit on the HW to help you get 100% of HW however you cannot get over 100% on the HW.
Therefore, I thought the final was doable and very fair. However, I did devote two weeks preparing for it. I mainly reviewed HW and lecture notes.
My final grade was an A. I got 100% for HW and A on the final paper (super easy don't even worry, I got -.5 on it) and I got an 86% on the final.
Overall I am super happy to be done with this class but I would suggest it to people or have a strong background or grasp on linguistics and grammar.
sorry so long hope this helps!

Selling required book "The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker for $10
Text **********

This class was overall a doable GE. I got 100% on all the HW. Getting 100 on the homework is pretty important because then it gives you some wiggle room for the final. I got 19.5/20 on the paper but got a B/B- in the final. For me, the final wasn’t really easy by any means. I guessed on quite a few. However, I didn’t pay much attention in class and didn’t actually study til a week before the final. I probably could’ve gotten an A easily if I studied after each lecture every week. Book isn’t super important and the movies aren’t important at all really. I don’t regret taking this class but I say if you are just lookin to knock out some GEs and have the choice between this class and a class like FRCH 41 or ASTRO 3 just take that because I’ve heard those are easier GEs.

Professor Sportiche is very knowledgeable in linguistics, and it definitely shows in his lectures. There were so many cool experiments and concepts that we overlook in everyday language, and the class really opened my eyes to linguistics. He even dropped in some really funny slides from time to time that make great snap material. Even though linguistics wasn't too hard for me personally, I can definitely see how the notations in things like syntax trees can be really complicated to grasp, so that's why it's super super important to go to Sportiche's office hours whenever you don't get something. He's extremely nice and welcoming, and he's willing to keep explaining a concept until you understand it. Also do yourself a favor and review the more complicated topics right after he lectures them; it's easier to decode the weird stuff when certain phrases are fresh in your head.

Sportiche also gives hella extra credit, but it doesn't stack. So for instance, if you get a perfect 16/16 on a homework packet but also get 2 points from the extra credit question, the highest you can get is a 16/16. Same goes with the essay, which has 1 extra credit point. With that being said, you should really have no excuse to not get 100% on all the homework. Even though the homework took a bit of thinking to do accurately, it wasn't insanely hard by any means; you just really have to make sure you start it early, ask help when needed, and WORK WITH OTHER PEOPLE. Sportiche even says you should work with others, and I can't tell you how many times I've been saved because some of my classmates corrected my errors on homework. A lot of the answers are directly on his lecture notes (on CCLE) too.

My TA wasn't the best at explaining things, but it paid off in the end to go to his discussion because all of the topics he explained in discussion were on the final. My TA might have been an easier grader than the others though (Hiro Katsuda, awesome guy).

The essay was very straightforward; as long as you took a language in high school or learned another language from some other source, you should be fine. There were so many guidelines/potential ideas in the instructions that could be used if you learned Spanish in high school, so I used most of the ideas and got a 20/20. There's also a sample essay in the SAC test bank that helped me get through the essay.

The final wasn't hard at all. 90 questions, but I finished in an hour and a half spent another hour checking my answers. Biggest thing is to review lecture notes and homework. You really don't have to read the book for the final because most of the examples from the book on the test will be taught in lecture or will appear in the lecture notes. Some questions are also directly from the homework, so you can save yourself some time and memorize the answers to those. I'd say that every concept was tested equally except for language diversity; this was the only topic I didn't really study and only basic stuff about it showed up on the final. Know all the results to the experiments by heart because those will show up. I got a 92 on the final for reference.

I will say though that Sportiche can have a boring voice, and I remember falling asleep many times in his class. It also gets really really complicated when you hit pragmatics (which is like week 9), but don't overthink it that much because only basic examples will show up on the final.

Overall an awesome class and I have no regrets at all taking it :)

The lectures are super unengaging. I probably did not go to about half of the lectures, even when the material started getting rough. That being said, if you're able to stay awake you should definitely attend lecture especially starting around week 6 and on.

Your TA is SUPER important. I had a great TA so I learned everything I needed to from my discussions + on my own when I did the homework. Homework is super important. Try to get an A on all of your assignments. (For some reference, I got As on the HW, A- on the paper, and a B- on the final. Got an A- overall)

Book is unnecessary. Everything you need to know should be covered in lecture notes/discussion.

Read the reviews and saw that others said it was easy. Homework is 45% which is good, but the homeworks are extremely difficult because the TA's expect lots of detail and in a few of the assignments my discussion class average was 9 or 10/16. Final basically requires you to pay attention carefully when you read because there were direct facts from the book that weren't explicitly listed on any posted or in class lecture notes. Always attend discussion sections, it's where you learn the most.

Selling textbook PDF -- $10 -- (Fromkin/Rodman/Hyams, An Introduction to Language, Ninth Edition). Text **********.

Also selling: Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

This class was neither easy nor interesting. The only thing I got out of this class is that I do not like linguistics at all. It is so technical and confusing, even if you do the reading the class material is difficult to grasp.
Sportiche is generally helpful however. He is accessible and answers questions that TAs fail to have any idea about. He explains things well, but I found the material pointless in the end. If you do not like paying attention to detail, do not take this class.
TAs really do matter. I listened in discussion but then left more confused. He tried helping me and a group on a question for the assignment, and then a week later we got our packets back and got the question he helped on wrong. I stopped listening to him and started doing better. He drew all those stupid word trees on the board and then after class told us that he had to erase it because "people will think I am a terrorist".... because word trees are on the whiteboard?
Anyway, he later gave me a D on the final essay even though I did everything it asked and included diagrams and analysis. (If Hendrik Kim is a TA option switch out quick.)

Sportiche explains the material well. His lectures are useful, but he also uploads slides, so you don't always have to go to class. The homeworks are simple enough, the material isn't hard to understand if you're a native English speaker. I thought the material was pretty interesting too. You learn about how the mind functions regarding language. I'd still recommend going to lectures, but definitely go to discussion, it'll make hw a lot easier. TLDR: fun enough class, would take again