Language and the brain

3 ECTS credits
75 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021026AER for all students in the 1st semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Esli Struys (course titular)
Stefanie Keulen
Mathieu Declerck

Activities and contact hours

8 contact hours Lecture
1 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
50 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

This course offers students an introduction into psycho- and neurolinguistics, with special attention for applications in the domain of applied linguistics (translation, interpreting, and foreign language acquisition and education) and artificial intelligence. The course covers the basic mental processes involved in each of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). The language skills are discussed from the four most widely used approaches in the study of language and the brain: 1) the behavioural approach; 2) neuroimaging and -stimulation; 3) the clinical approach; 4) the computational approach. Students learn how to set up a small-scale research project using basic psycholinguistic research methods.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) :

Additional info

Esli.Struys@vub.be

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

Students know and have insight into the basic mental processes involved in the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), and in multilingual communication. They can recognise and explain the mutual relations between these processes.

Students can apply the acquired knowledge and insights to the practice of second/foreign language acquisition/education, multilingual communication (translation/interpretation) and artificial intelligence.

Students have the ability to communicate the findings of a small-scale group research to their peers in an academic register, under supervision and with clear instructions. They use methods that are used within psycholinguistics.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 70% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 30% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Schriftelijk examen with a relative weight of 50 which comprises 70% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Groepspaper with a relative weight of 50 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

All information regarding evaluation will be announced timely on the online learning platform. The student is responsible for ensuring that he/she is registered on the online learning platform. If the student encounters problems with registration on the online learning platform, he/she is expected to notify the teacher as soon as possible by email.

The student will be graded for each evaluation component. If the student has not participated to one or more of the evaluation components, the student will be given an ‘absent’ score. The paper will be evaluated with the assistance of software for detecting plagiarism. The usage of generative AI is allowed to support the writing process in any possible way. Every usage of generative AI must be reported using the imposed reference style.

The teacher will also use obligatory peer assessment for the evaluation of individual students on the group paper. Students will have to assess other group members and themselves on a number of criteria. This will result in an individual score that will be used to modify the group score (= the intrinsic value of the group paper) for each individual group member. This individual modification will be executed by multiplication of the group score by the individual score. This modified score will have a weight of 30% in the final score for the whole course. If a student does not fill out the peer assessment within the set deadline, the teacher may decide to grant a null score to the student for that specific evaluation component. The teacher has the final say in this whole process and thus may decide to strengthen, weaken, or even not to take into account the obtained scores if they turn out to be unreliable. This decision will only be taken in exceptional circumstances, and must always be based on clear arguments, analyses, and/or additional observations/conversations.

The evaluation components are the same for the first and the second session. The results of individual components may, upon written request of the student via email, be transferred to the next exam session.

Within this course, students may receive the possibility to acquire a credit by participation to one or multiple experiments that are organized within the research group. Students who do not wish or who cannot participate to the (whole) experiment will receive another assignment that corresponds to the scope of the experiment.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context