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

I took this class as a GE and although I never expected to take a linguistics class and enjoy it, I can say that I did enjoy this class. This class introduces you to linguistics from different perspectives, and through its inclusion of biology and evolutionary bases, I found myself interested in the class much more than I expected. The class has weekly quizzes (which I usually got at least one wrong) and a midterm and take-home final. I did really well on the midterm and final, and did any extra credit opportunities offered which allowed me to get an A+. I'm glad that I took the class, as it introduced me to linguistics and was enjoyable overall.

Professor Clayton was a very well-spoken professor. He cared about student's learning and valued understanding of the subject above all else. He never failed to make students feel welcome and comfortable. I would definitely take another course he taught simply because he is an amazing professor who is great at communication and funny. I hope this evaluation shows his irreplaceable value as a professor at UCLA.

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!