Course Overview
This course deals with the interrelated nature of language, technology, and society. We discuss the invention of writing as a language technology and how that gave rise to a series of cultural revolutions. We tackle the nature of society and what it means to be a social group, a social world. We will then move on to discuss language technologies such as the telegraph and discuss their impact on history. Finally, we will investigate the internet’s relationship to language and its impact on society on a global scale.
Time and place
- Tuesday and Thursday 2:00PM - 3:20PM
- Gregory Hall 219
Instructor
Course Objectives
The main goal of this course is to discuss the relationship between technology and language, from the origins of the first writing systems to the printing press and modern artificial intelligence.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Discuss the origins of different types of writing systems and analyze the process of transcription, transliteration, and translation between them.
- Posit theoretical advancements to current language technologies that augment the social fabric of a given culture, creed, etc.
- Recognize the difficulty of creating a new technology to combat a challenge and overcome it in some significant way.
Please note: this course is not a technical class. No programming skills are required, and you will not be taught how to develop natural language processing systems here. However, we will be discussing the current state of research NLP and AI in broad strokes (among many other language technologies). If you are interested in these areas, the aim of this course is to give you a high-level survey of these fields and discuss the social significance of language technologies.
Course Materials
Required Textbook
- Language, Technology, and Society by Richard Sproat
You can rent or purchase the Kindle eBook version of this text from Amazon or purchase a paper copy from the University of Illinois bookstore, Bookshop, or Amazon.
Optional supplementary readings
Interested students are encouraged to enrich the content from the required readings with additional material from the following optional, but suggested, supplementary readings.
- The Story of Writing by Andrew Robinson. Thames & Hudson
- How Writing Came About by Denise Schmandt-Besserat. University of Texas Press; Abridged edition
- The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity by William Hannas. 2003. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- HAL’s Legacy: 2001’s Computer as Dream and Reality by David Stork. 1996. MIT Press.
- Language and the Internet by David Crystal. 2001 Cambridge University Press.
Course Organization
This course is organized into 9 content modules.
Module organization
Each module will include:
- A module overview which will provide an overview of the module’s topic and contents
- A list of module learning objectives
- A list of required readings for the module
- A playlist of optional videos for the module
- A description of module assignments, including reading logs, quizzes, and homework
In previous semesters, when everything was online, this course has been run as a “flipped classroom”: students would learn the material through readings and lecture videos outside of class, then use the in-person meetings for discussion and collaboration. This semester, we expect to be able to gather face-to-face, and surveys of previous students suggest that in-person lectures were more helpful than the videos.
So for this semester, in-person sections will be run as a mixture of lecture and discussion. But the videos from previous semesters will still be available, alongside the readings and in-person lectures. These are not mandatory or required viewing; they’re just provided in case students find them useful.
Module topics
- Language Technology from the Sumerians to Today
- Decipherment of Ancient Scripts
- How Different Writing Systems Encode Language
- The Invention of Printing
- Literacy in Society: How Literati Exclude the Illiterate; The Rise of Literacy
- A Brief Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
- Precursors to Language Computing: Swift to the 20th Century
- Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing
- Language and the Internet
Course Policies
Academic Integrity
This course follows the University of Illinois Student Code regarding Academic Integrity. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences also has an excellent web page on the topic. You are required to thoroughly read these resources no later than the Wednesday of the first week of class, and to thoroughly understand your responsibilities with regard to Academic Integrity.
All work submitted for this class must be solely your own. Violations of Academic Integrity include, but are not limited to, copying, cheating, and unapproved collaboration. Violations will not be tolerated and can result in a failing grade. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Do not hesitate to ask the instructor(s) if you are ever in doubt about what constitutes plagiarism, cheating, or any other breach of academic integrity.
Communications
Announcements and updates will mainly be posted on Piazza. Students are encouraged to use this platform to ask questions and discuss the material outside of class; it’s a good way to post questions either privately to the instructors, or publicly to your classmates, and you can choose to ask and answer anonymously.
Quizzes, reading logs, and exams will be graded on PrairieLearn. Homework and project submissions will be submitted through Moodle.
Synchronous office hours are available on Zoom, Monday and Wednesday 12:00pm - 12:50pm, or by appointment. The link is on Moodle for security reasons.
Grading
Students will be assessed through a combination of practical exercises, homework assignments, projects, quizzes and exams.
- Quizzes: 25%
- Homework: 30%
- Reading Logs: 5%
- Mid-term Exam: 15%
- Final Project: 25%
Grades will be assessed on a 10-point fixed letter grade system with no rounding. Grading on a curve will not be used. In the table below, square brackets and parentheses are used to indicate inclusive and exclusive endpoints, respectively.
| Letter grade | Percentage range |
|---|---|
| A+ | [97-100] |
| A | [93-97) |
| A- | [90-93) |
| B+ | [87-90) |
| B | [83-87) |
| B- | [80-83) |
| C+ | [77-80) |
| C | [73-77) |
| C- | [70-73) |
| D+ | [67-70) |
| D | [63-67) |
| D- | [60-63) |
| F | [0-60) |
Late work
Assignment submissions will be penalized by 10 percentage points each day past the deadline for four days past the deadline. Assignments submitted five or more days past the deadline will not be given credit. If there is an unforeseeable emergency which prevents you from submitting an assignment on time, please contact the instructor as soon as you can.
For some or all homework assignments, a solution may be presented to the class after the original homework deadline. Under no circumstances will work be accepted after a solution has been presented to the class.
Readings and videos
Students are expected to regularly review the schedule of assigned readings. The schedule is subject to change.
Students are expected to and required to complete all assigned readings prior to the class for which they are assigned.
Students are expected to read and participate in Q&As and class discussions on Piazza.
Learning Goals & Outcomes
Students are expected attentively read assigned readings, attentively view assigned videos, and complete all assigned work prior to the specified deadlines.
Students who do so are expected to attain the learning goals and outcomes.
Disabilities
To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the course instructor and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible. To contact DRES, you may visit 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign, call +1-217-333-4603, e-mail disability@illinois.edu or go to the DRES website.
If specific accommodations will be requested for this course, the student is asked to inform the course instructor as soon as possible, ideally within the first week of class or as soon as a DRES letter has been prepared, by following these steps:
- Post a private message to the instructor on Piazza (or via email)
- In the body of the post, the student should attach a PDF of their DRES letter
- In the body of the post, the student should list which specific accommodations mentioned in the DRES letter are being requested for this class
Religious Observances
Illinois law requires the University to reasonably accommodate its students’ religious beliefs, observances, and practices in regard to admissions, class attendance, and the scheduling of examinations and work requirements. You should examine this syllabus at the beginning of the semester for potential conflicts between course deadlines and any of your religious observances. If a conflict exists, you should notify your instructor of the conflict and follow the procedures described here to request appropriate accommodations. This should be done in the first two weeks of classes.
Sexual Misconduct Reporting Obligation
The University of Illinois is committed to combating sexual misconduct. Faculty and staff members are required to report any instances of sexual misconduct to the University’s Title IX Office. In turn, an individual with the Title IX Office will provide information about rights and options, including accommodations, support services, the campus disciplinary process, and law enforcement options.
A list of the designated University employees who, as counselors, confidential advisors, and medical professionals, do not have this reporting responsibility and can maintain confidentiality, can be found here. Other information about resources and reporting is available here.