Professor
John Clayton
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - I'm a cognitive science major who decided to take this class because I couldn't get the intro linguistics course I wanted, but I knew that I still wanted to take a class about linguistics, so I settled for M4. I am so glad that I decided to take this course. Dr. Clayton is a great lecturer, and incredibly accommodating of the needs of his students. He uploads his slides after every class, which has been incredibly helpful considering that I have had to miss a handful of lectures this quarter. I have learned so much about historical linguistics, evolutionary linguistics, evolutionary biology, psycholinguistics: etc. The material taught in the course is very interdisciplinary, and all of it is fascinating! There are two readings due every week that tend to be a bit long, but you can skim over them for the most part since Dr. Clayton does a great job of talking about the subjects that they touch on during lecture. I would recommend doing most of the readings, though, since they are usually quite interesting (they can be redundant at times, but I digress). Midterm was take-home, final is also going to be take-home. You also have to do a presentation at the end of the quarter about a topic in linguistics that you find interesting, but it is fairly low-stakes, from my understanding. TL;DR: This is a low-stress, fun GE, and you will learn a lot about many different linguistic subtopics. Take this class!
Spring 2024 - I'm a cognitive science major who decided to take this class because I couldn't get the intro linguistics course I wanted, but I knew that I still wanted to take a class about linguistics, so I settled for M4. I am so glad that I decided to take this course. Dr. Clayton is a great lecturer, and incredibly accommodating of the needs of his students. He uploads his slides after every class, which has been incredibly helpful considering that I have had to miss a handful of lectures this quarter. I have learned so much about historical linguistics, evolutionary linguistics, evolutionary biology, psycholinguistics: etc. The material taught in the course is very interdisciplinary, and all of it is fascinating! There are two readings due every week that tend to be a bit long, but you can skim over them for the most part since Dr. Clayton does a great job of talking about the subjects that they touch on during lecture. I would recommend doing most of the readings, though, since they are usually quite interesting (they can be redundant at times, but I digress). Midterm was take-home, final is also going to be take-home. You also have to do a presentation at the end of the quarter about a topic in linguistics that you find interesting, but it is fairly low-stakes, from my understanding. TL;DR: This is a low-stress, fun GE, and you will learn a lot about many different linguistic subtopics. Take this class!
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Easy GE. The midterm is simple as long as you pay attention to the slides and the activities during discussion; it consisted of 4 definitions, a couple MCQ, and then 1 SAQ. Midterm is not cumulative and only about the first half of the quarter. The final was tested on the second half of the quarter and really similar to the midterm, in addition to being takehome! Overall class was relatively simple with assignments being weekly readings and BL quizzes. However, some concepts were a little hard to understand and there is a group project at the end of the quarter where you work in groups to explore a concept learned in class more in depth; you are supposed to highlight new findings and a hypothesis that is new to students. Would recommend as a lighter load GE, especially if you are interested in linguistics. It
Spring 2025 - Easy GE. The midterm is simple as long as you pay attention to the slides and the activities during discussion; it consisted of 4 definitions, a couple MCQ, and then 1 SAQ. Midterm is not cumulative and only about the first half of the quarter. The final was tested on the second half of the quarter and really similar to the midterm, in addition to being takehome! Overall class was relatively simple with assignments being weekly readings and BL quizzes. However, some concepts were a little hard to understand and there is a group project at the end of the quarter where you work in groups to explore a concept learned in class more in depth; you are supposed to highlight new findings and a hypothesis that is new to students. Would recommend as a lighter load GE, especially if you are interested in linguistics. It
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2026 - I absolutely adored Professor Clayton. He's funny, helpful, and friendly. The class is rather small and so the lectures feel very personal. It also helped that they were very engaging, as he constantly makes jokes, throws in fun facts, and asks questions to make sure the students are following along. There were two midterms and a take-home final (really more of a long, untimed assignment), in addition to weekly homeworks that weren't too bad as long as you have his slides and/or the textbook open to help if you get confused. There were regular readings, sometimes weekly, sometimes 2 per week, and while he covers most of that stuff in lecture, there are little things that you will need to know, so I'd recommend at least a quick readthrough to make sure you get the basic points of the reading. Overall, though, the class is very manageable and very enjoyable. I highly recommend it if you have an interest in the subject matter.
Winter 2026 - I absolutely adored Professor Clayton. He's funny, helpful, and friendly. The class is rather small and so the lectures feel very personal. It also helped that they were very engaging, as he constantly makes jokes, throws in fun facts, and asks questions to make sure the students are following along. There were two midterms and a take-home final (really more of a long, untimed assignment), in addition to weekly homeworks that weren't too bad as long as you have his slides and/or the textbook open to help if you get confused. There were regular readings, sometimes weekly, sometimes 2 per week, and while he covers most of that stuff in lecture, there are little things that you will need to know, so I'd recommend at least a quick readthrough to make sure you get the basic points of the reading. Overall, though, the class is very manageable and very enjoyable. I highly recommend it if you have an interest in the subject matter.
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