At the beginning of the quarter I was worried if I would be able to do good in the class because some of the content was difficult, specifically syntax. But the professor and my TA (Isabel) were so helpful and explained very great. After the class and section I would ask the professor and my TA for help and they were amazing. The final grade consisted of 6 assignments, 2 exams (midterm + final, non-cumulative), and attendance (both in lecture and discussion). Both the midterm and the final were online, so I did them at home. For this class you do NOT need to have knowledge in Spanish and Portuguese. I speak Spanish so I found it easier to come up with examples in Spanish for the assignments and sometimes for the exams. This class is not about learning Spanish or Portuguese, it's mostly a linguistics class that uses some examples in Spanish and Portuguese. If I could take this class again, I definitely would! The professor and the TAs are extremely nice.

Also: the syllabus has a 'required' textbook, but I didn't use it or I think no one used it. The professor even said that the exams would only cover stuff she said in lecture and on the slides.

Overall, I loved this class and Professor Mateu!
Professor Mateu is an engaging lecturer who creates beautiful slides. This class is a really niche field (bilingual speakers and language acquisition), and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about it from someone so knowledgeable. In her slides, she shares numerous case studies as examples and multimedia to keep it engaging.

Grades are based entirely on weekly Gradescope homework assignments and fair midterm+final (and participation). I found the tests to call for some pretty specific details, but they were all on the slides, and the professor definitely went through them during the lecture. Professor Mateu also offers up to 3% extra credit by volunteering in Spanish/English research.

One tip I have for anyone who takes this class is to go to her office hours. Seriously, not only is she an amazing person to talk to, but she will answer literally all of your homework questions. I don't know think anyone will score below a 90 on a homework assignment if they went to her office hours.

The one con I can think of is that this class is more about English linguistics and language acquisition. In every linguistic unit we did, we had to do the same exercises in Spanish/Portuguese at the end, which felt tagged on to justify the course title. This is not the right class for more Spanish/Portuguese immersion.

TLDR: Great professor, very hard GE

Victoria is a very knowledgable and helpful professor. Her lectures are engaging and well prepared. However, this is a very difficult GE. Lectures are 110 minutes which often caused burnout for myself and my classmates around halfway through class. Victoria attempts to combat this by having a break mid class but it is still very long. This is worsened by the amount of content she covers each day. Each lecture is filled with new concepts and little practice, so actual comprehension of course material often falls to times outside of class. During section, TAs help guide students through practice sets of class material which is helpful. With good utilization of office hours, section attendance and participation, and thorough notes, a good grade is possible. Note that this class is very demanding and very unforgiving if a concept is not understood before deciding to take it as a GE.

This class is basically an advanced version of SpanM35 that is taught in Spanish. There are no required readings, just biweekly assignments, a midterm+final, and a research project. Prof. Mateu is always so organized and is a very clear lecturer. She has very useful slides and her homework assignments, though sometimes difficult, are very effective in terms of familiarizing yourself with the material and prepping for the exams. She is a very fair grader and makes herself available outside of class if you have any questions. Take this class if you are interested in linguistics!

This is a really hard class, definitely the hardest GE I’ve taken so, be careful. I spent hours in office hours every week because you really can’t get a passing grade if you don’t make a big effort to learn these things. It’s not a skim and do OK class and understanding is really important. The TAs were super helpful and accommodating, and held a ton of office hours meetings to go over the homeworks, which were really hard. The class was super interesting to me! But really hard for a GE, so keep that in mind.

The grading scale for this class goes like this: 45% Assignments, 25% Midterm, 25% Final, and 5% Attendance/Participation.

Professor Mateu is one of the most kindest and intellectual professors I know, who always maintained a big smile throughout lecture throughout the entirety of the quarter. She was always more than willing to answer questions in class and emphasized that every student attended at least one of either her office hours or the TA's (I didn't... oops). She was an accommodating professor that understood the pressures University students struggle with and was just overall an amazing professor/ person. I definitely feel that if I put more effort into utilizing the extensive resources she offers I could have gotten an A, but honestly this class was easy enough to put minimal effort and get a passing grade.

There were six assignments throughout the quarter where 3 were worth 5% and 3 were worth 10%. To be quite honest, the answers could be derived from the lecture slides. Although the answers were not the same, her slides contain sufficient examples that allow you to understand the concept and apply it yourself on the homework. It helped a lot to go to lecture, but if you didn't go, you would still be okay on the assignments. Ask for help if you need it though!!! I promise that both the TAs and the professor would be more than ecstatic to help you out. I never received anything less than a B+ (they're all going to be curved btw) and that's with me starting the night before and simply trying my best. Also, do not start the homeworks the night before!!! It can become extremely overwhelming and if you have a question it might be too late to get a quick enough response from the professor or the TAs.

The exams were open note and were taken online. They were not difficult, as you could look things up on your lecture slides, but you also had to know the information to figure out where to find it. Be sure to study for it a little bit, as some of the questions on these exams ask you to apply these skills yourself like: transcription, syntax trees, etc. With light studying, I managed to get at least a B on both exams.

For attendance and participation, you literally just had to show up to discussion and lecture. Unfortunately you have to be there because a sign in sheet is passed around class at the beginning where you have to put your UID and sign. However, if you miss too many classes, it shouldn't be that bad on your grade, given that it is only 5% of it.

If you're looking for a GE that covers the Linguistic category (or sumn like that) definitely take this one. The professor was a delight and despite some of the lectures being boring, Victoria tried making it as engaging as possible while also giving us all this knowledge. If you just try on the assignments and do some light studying every now and then, I guarantee you will get a passing grade. Do not be scared to ask for help!