Teaching

Selected Courses Taught/Assisted (Please see CV for complete list.)


Spring 2013

LINGUIST 150 - Language in Society (Teaching Assistant)
Stanford University, supervised by Penny Eckert
Course Description:How language and society affect each other. Class, age, ethnic, and gender differences in speech. Prestige and stigma associated with different ways of speaking and the politics of language. The strategic use of language. Stylistic practice; how speakers use language to construct styles and adapt their language to different audiences and social contexts.



Spring 2010, 2011

ENG 327 - Language and Gender (Instructor of Record)
North Carolina State University
Course Description: This course explores gender identity through the lens of language. Most of us, linguists and lay people alike, have observed differences in language use between men and women. We question whether these differences are universal across languages and cultures, and whether they are innate to sexual and gender identity. We also wonder the extent to which gender and linguistic differences between genders can truly be discussed in dichotomous terms. In this course, we will learn the various theoretical approaches linguists have used to examine gender and language, exploring quantitative and qualitative methods and using real language data.Through successfully completing this course, you will: understand fundamental theories, principles and issues in the sociolinguistic research of language and gender; be able to use the structural linguistic concepts underlying the variables we discuss; be able to discern and discuss the differences between “folk ideologies” and the systematic analysis of language data; understand some of the ways in which language is used to create gendered identities, reinforce cultural paradigms about gender, and subvert those same paradigms; and write an original research paper addressing an aspect of language and gender.



Fall 2010

ENG 327 - Spoken and Written Traditions of American English Dialects (Instructor of Record)
North Carolina State University
Course Description: This course explores basic issues in the study of language, including an introduction to the study of linguistics and dialectology. Perspectives in grammatical traditions such as prescriptivism/descriptivism and standard/non-standard are explored. Other topics include orality and literacy, language acquisition and awareness, and language aesthetics and ethics. Through successfully completing this course, you will: define what a dialect is, recognize the complexity of all forms of human communication, recognize features of various dialects of American English, and be able to analyze depictions of dialect in American literature.



Fall 2008

LINGUIST 102 - Languages of the World (Teaching Assistant)
Duke University, supervised by Julie Tetel
Course Description: In this course, our aims are to offer you: an understanding of the history of the language families of the world; knowledge of the present-day geographic distribution of these families; sketches of American Sign Language, Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, Korean, Romanian, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Wolof; familiarity with various writing systems found across the world; a grasp of social and political issues that affect languages in the world today. These aims serve our overall goal of providing for you the widest possible context in which to situate further linguistic, historical, cultural, and/or political investigations into any particular group of people/ region/ nation/ geographical area. Thus, this course is introductory in the sense that it is intended to offer a foundation for more advanced work in a variety of disciplines. However, it is not intended as an introduction to linguistics. We have designed this course for two audiences: 1) for our linguistics majors, we want to provide (and as the textbook says on p. vii) background information about the broad range of language phenomena found across the world, in addition to a review of the wealth of information about the major language families and the distribution of major and minor language groups; 2) for our non-linguistics majors (who are, presumably, not as oriented to the detail of linguistic analysis as are our majors), we want to bring into your awareness specific features of the often-overlooked medium of the socio-economic-cultural group/ region/ nation/ area that may be of disciplinary interest to you, namely the language(s) of that group/ region/ nation/ area.



Spring 2006, 2007

ENG 114 - Rhetoric and Communication (Instructor of Record)
LCC International University
Course Description: The course will explore theories of communication and media literacy. Students will use a variety of rhetorical models in their analysis of and writing about media. Students will demonstrate visual and verbal literacy for the successful interchange of ideas and information. Additionally, students will exhibit skill in written communication through rhetorical modes appropriate for varying audiences and purposes.




Fall 2005

ENG 113 - Academic Writing (Instructor of Record)
LCC International University
Course Description: Academic Writing is a required general education course for all first year students. The course focuses on introductory research writing processes, as well as critical reading and thinking skills. Assignments will integrate information from a variety of sources, including textual and field research. Students will learn basic writing formats for academic research papers, including appropriate documentation styles and acknowledgment of sources for academic integrity. The primary goal of this course is to develop writing and oral skills in the context of academic essay writing and small group interaction. Academic Writing sessions demonstrate the basic principles and process of doing academic research, use of library and online resources, and writing academic essays. Students will encounter the concept of documentation styles and practice using the Modern Language Association (MLA) Writing Style Format for all formal written papers.



Fall 2003, 2004, 2005

ENG 251 - British Literature to 1800 (Instructor of Record)
LCC International University
Course Description: The course is a survey of representative authors of British literature, including those of the Old English period, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, and Swift. It analyzes works according to genres and places the works studied into their historical contexts. In this course, students will: trace the development of British literature from its earliest writings through the eighteenth century; recognize and apply aspects of culture that can be revealed in its literature; identify universal themes in British literature and relate those themes to their personal experience; analyze the structure and techniques of literature in order to deepen their understanding and appreciation; begin to appreciate the mechanisms and the beauty of the English language; and develop skill in the writing process, in critical thinking, and in creative collaboration with their peers.