One of the best professors on campus. Her class is interesting and the material is the type of thing you will take with you for life!

Don't let her seemingly unorganized teaching style deter you from taking the class--she does a great job exposing students to what the field of Linguistic Anthropology has to offer...I left the class more interested in the field of Linguistic Anthropology than before I took it.
The material is quite interesting. As long as you do the readings (especially the articles) and fill out the studyguides she gives, you'll ace the final. She really sets everything up so that you can slam-dunk the tests. Very concerned about student learning, good about making herself available in office hours. And a very sweet person :)

Goodwin is an excellent professor. Although it counts as both linguistics and anthro, there isn't any disadvantage to students who haven't taken linguistics classes. It is a methods course, but the readings provide good background to how to conduct your research. Basically, the research projects can be as interesting as you make them. Exams are fairly graded and correlate well with both lecture and readings. Goodwin really cares about her students and is easily approachable, but most importantly, she is incredibly enthusiastic about her work and yours. She's definitely one of the better professors at UCLA.

I took her Anthro M140 class. It was a bit hard in terms of how the grading was done. Her exams are usually all essay based. There was alot of material covered. I learned alot of useful things but a few times I found that the lecture didnt really correlate with linguistic anthropology or at least I failed to see how it did. There was alot of reading, (her book, course readings and an additional book). One presentation or paper group project is required. Overall its a good class just note that it requires a bit of reading.

Entering this class, I had low expectations for it (I'm not a linguist by trade). By the end of the quarter, the care and concern Professor Goodwin and her T.A. had exhibited made this course into one of my favorites to date. This is a methods course, so you will be expected to complete some heavy-duty fieldwork. Don't be intimidated ... if you want to be a field linguist or a linguistic anthropologist, this *is* the class for you to try your hand at it. The readings were all excellent, and there was ample material provided in class to do well on both the project and any tests. In addition, Professor Goodwin demonstrated an enormous amount of concern with student welfare. She is very approachable and encourages discussions within the lecture. I would highly recommend her for all anthropology students.

Professor Goodwin is so sweet. Lectures were pretty much just reading transcriptions and watching video clips...over and over again. I personally could not concentrate because I wasn't use to her style of teaching...also because most of my attention was drawn at the white clumps of saliva that would collect at the edges of her mouth...it just made me want to wipe my own lips. Anyways there is a lot LOT of reading...I was surprisingly able to keep up with all the reading up until the midterm...and did pretty well on it. The average for the midterm was a low B and I got a 92%...but then I also had the best study group of my life (my grade on the midterm being the second lowest of the 5 of us). The article readings are way more important than either of the books used in class...so really study the articles. There is also a section for this class in which you have to submit a "precis" assignment before every section. The TA just checks you off to see if you did the assignment, so you get full credit...you can easily BS the precis each week and get by. There is also a group project thats worth 30% of your grade. So long as you pick a good topic, good group members and are/act interested in the topic you picked...you should do well because the average for the group projects was a low A. Also, she gives you the questions for her exams the lecture before...so...I did NONE of the readings after the midterm...but I went to EVERY lecture and had a great study group for the final...and was able to pull off an A. Lastly, she is very personable (although she often, but unknowingly, uses an intense stare that pierces through her glasses and paralyzes you with awkwardness if you're sitting in the front rows), concerned with student learning and actually enjoys writing letters of recommendations. I regret not knowing her better, because she would have given me a letter of rec if I asked for one. So I would definitely recommend Professor Goodwin!!

What an absolutely horrid experience. Professor Goodwin used some incompetent TAs with attitude problems for Anthro M140. For review session, the TAs said we are here to answer questions, then they would answer our questions with questions and you should know instead of helping. It was clear that one TA was the head TA that led the other one around as she didn't know what she was doing. For section, my TA, dawson or dickson, would waste time to purposely make sure we weren't ready for exams or papers as she wasn't prepared for section. At least state that you don't know the answer instead of giving us made up answers that you believe is right that will get us marked off points on exams that you graded.

As for the professor, I've heard raving reviews from past students, but after this course... I think they were more mesmerized by her easy grading. Don't let me go on about her making us buy her pricy textbook and read her articles.

Not so much with this course as she let the TAs do all the harsh grading. Some students I talked with who took her previous courses would say they submitted even better work than her past classes but received worst marks. It is obvious that she lacks a spine and care because she didn't even go over any of the papers and exams and grades when the final grades were released. You'll feel taken back when you see what you get for the loads of reading that you do and time spent studying.

If you're looking to take this class with her, expect low marks and harsh criticism from TAs who can't even explain themselves.

With teaching like this, it's no wonder that the linguistics department has been cut. And for the better too if students receive this crap.

Geezus! This class felt like a marathon race the whole way through. Over 1000 pages of reading that you actually had to do to get the point and to do the discussion homework. Now I am not one of those students that is always looking for an easy-A, however, if I worked hard I would have like to have come away with a much greater knowlege... but I feel that was not accomplished. On a quartersystem cramming in 6-10 readings a week was just not feasibe. I barely understood all the material... like main idea okay, but in depth knowledge... NO.

TA suck! They are not organized and bring nothing to help us understand the piles of readings and pages of lecture notes. They sit there and ask us to ask questions... uhh. most weeks I would not even understand the questions people asked or they would go off on tangent! UGH!!!!! One section I sat there thinking, "I have nothing to say because I don't give a crap about this!"

I was really frustrated with all the readings because I could not enjoy any of it. At the beginning I thought this course was going to be great... but it was just WAYYY to much- crammed in.

Testing was probably the one good thing: Midterm- given 6 questions up front; they are hard, but they pick 3 for the midterm so you have plenty of time to collaborate about them. Final is a take home 24 hours to complete it after filling out a study guide of terms. This was okay... but one question was on a realy hard reading that we had just read and had no time to process... WTF.. so not sure how people did on that one.

One group paper.. ours was 25 pages... my experience was not to bad...my group members were awesome, but I could see this being a nightmare!

I do not know my grade... but I tried very hard to attend every lecture/ discussion/ do the readings.

Bottom Line: This Class is a NO. I am Anthro BS and balancing this with two jobs and LS 3... not a good mix. subject can be interesting at time... but class needs to be worked on and condensed and refined!!!!!

UGH I am so glade that class is OVER!!!!!

she is quite over analytical. Her lectures are quite boring since she repeats everyting 100 times before she moves on to anothe concept.

Professor Goodwin is the greatest! Being in her class has changed my life and how I view the world. If I hadn't of been in her class I might not be as interested in linguistic anthropology as I am now. She definitely is encouraging and helpful to her students. She has handouts for each day in lecture. They help you to study for the exams. And the exams are pretty much everything that is on the review sheets. Straightforward. I recommend taking 141 first because it is more gradual. Then by the time you get to M140, you have the basics and more knowledge of the material for your final project.
She uses many examples from film, TV, as well as her own research to present concepts. Awesome professor!