Photo credits: Miranda Vescio
The focus of our Capstone in Linguistics course this semester was “Development of Wisconsin English.” The course was taught by Professor Joseph Salmons.
The capstone course is an opportunity for undergraduate Linguistics majors to synthesize information they have been learning throughout their undergraduate degree, including deep content knowledge of linguistics, academic research skills, linguistic data collection and analysis methodologies, critical thinking and evaluation, and written and oral presentation. It’s also a lot of fun!
Students typically take the class when they are seniors, or towards the end of their degree. They complete a semester-long data-collection and research project centered around the theme of the course, supported and directed by the professor.
Students also provide one another with supportive and critical peer feedback. This semester, Professor Salmons had students pre-record their final presentations. Students watched one another’s recorded presentations ahead of time, in preparation for a large-group discussion. We are glad to be able to offer this small, research-focused course to our majors!
