Take a Test Drive of an OLLI Course
What is Test Drive?
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Test Drive is a way for instructors to get feedback from you about an idea they have for a course
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How Test Drive WorksInstructors who are thinking about offering a course but are not sure of the level of interest members will have in it put a brief summary and detailed description of the course on our OLLI Members Web Site. You can read through the full course description and provide feedback.
If you think you might be interested in taking the course, fill in the feedback form found on the page with the full description to let the instructor know if you might be interested in the course or to make some suggestions as to what you hope the course will cover or to provide other comments. You are not committed to enrolling in the class should it be offered and the instructor is not committed to offering it. However, we hope that by playing the role of “matchmaker” the OLLI Course Test Drive will result in more courses of interest to you and other OLLI students. Please take the opportunity to ‘test drive’ the courses below and let instructors know what you think. |
Test Drive This Course
Thinking Ahead to Future OLLI Courses
Seeking your input! Let us know your thoughts and reactions to this course description. By expressing interest, you are not committing yourself to register. Given COVID-19, we cannot say when the course will be taught or in what format, but we would like your input. Please send your email to curriculum@olliatduke.org.
A Linguistic Look at English
You probably have lots of feelings about how people use English. But what do linguists have to say about these matters? You have already been using English successfully for decades, but what do you really know about structures that underlie so much of your usage?
Topics include the following: Who decides what is correct usage? What unconscious principles do you sometimes use when you make statements and ask questions? What is a systematic way to understand how we make the variety of language sounds that we do? If you are interested in such questions, take the course to get surprise answers.
This is not simply a lecture course. To immerse you more in each topic, you will be given "teasers"—homework before each class to draw you into the issues that we will look at. These do not have to take long, and you are not even required to do them.
Students are not expected to have done any prior coursework in English or linguistics. A person who is willing to get more involved than in the usual OLLI course is particularly likely to benefit from this course.
Larry Nessly received a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1974. Locally, he has taught at UNC, Shaw University, and NC Central University. In addition to graduate courses in phonology, he has taught the undergraduate courses “Intro to Linguistics,” “Sociolinguistics,” “Advanced English Grammar,” and “History of the English Language” at NCCU (1988-2018).
Seeking your input! Let us know your thoughts and reactions to this course description. By expressing interest, you are not committing yourself to register. Given COVID-19, we cannot say when the course will be taught or in what format, but we would like your input. Please send your email to curriculum@olliatduke.org.
A Linguistic Look at English
You probably have lots of feelings about how people use English. But what do linguists have to say about these matters? You have already been using English successfully for decades, but what do you really know about structures that underlie so much of your usage?
Topics include the following: Who decides what is correct usage? What unconscious principles do you sometimes use when you make statements and ask questions? What is a systematic way to understand how we make the variety of language sounds that we do? If you are interested in such questions, take the course to get surprise answers.
This is not simply a lecture course. To immerse you more in each topic, you will be given "teasers"—homework before each class to draw you into the issues that we will look at. These do not have to take long, and you are not even required to do them.
Students are not expected to have done any prior coursework in English or linguistics. A person who is willing to get more involved than in the usual OLLI course is particularly likely to benefit from this course.
Larry Nessly received a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1974. Locally, he has taught at UNC, Shaw University, and NC Central University. In addition to graduate courses in phonology, he has taught the undergraduate courses “Intro to Linguistics,” “Sociolinguistics,” “Advanced English Grammar,” and “History of the English Language” at NCCU (1988-2018).