Summer and fall 2026 Linguistics Courses
Introduction
This is an unofficial list of courses that will be offered in Linguistics in spring 2026. It is strictly for the use of expanded course descriptions. For the complete official course offerings, please consult the My.UIC portal.
For a list of all courses and general course descriptions, please see the UIC Academic Catalog.
Fall 2026 100 and 200-level Linguistics
LING 150 – Introduction to the Study of Language
On Campus.
You use language all the time, but do you know about the structures that make up language? In this course, you will learn how we produce and organize sounds, build words, and understand the difference between “time flies like an arrow” and “fruit flies like a banana.” Here you’ll make sense of why people have accents, what teachers should know about language, and why good AI speech recognition is so darn hard to achieve.
Gen Ed credits in “Individual and Society”
LING 160 – Language and Society
On Campus.
How does language change over time? How do children’s animation films racialize language? What’s with all the pronouns? This course introduces students to language as it socially constructs place, status, gender, ethnicity, and other aspects of identity through intimate conversations all the way to national language policies. Bring your lived experiences and learn to process them through current sociolinguistic lenses.
Gen Ed Credits in “Individual and Society” & “US Society”
LING 210 – Introduction to Natural Language Syntax
On Campus.
Syntactic analysis is crucial for linguistic data processing and building linguistic data structure. This course gives you introduction to the hidden nature of even simple sentences using a scientific approach to data analysis. We will also make connections to other areas of linguistics and human cognition more generally, and we will touch on real world applications of syntactic analysis.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.
LING 220 – Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
On Campus.
What sounds exist in the world’s languages? What are the mechanics behind speech production and perception? How can we analyze human speech and categorize sounds to understand underlying patterns? How do we acquire the sounds of our languages, whether as children or later in life? What do the sound systems of bilinguals look like, and why? In this course, we’ll explore these key questions about the sounds of human language and more.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.
LING 230 – Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse
On Campus.
What is meaning? How is meaning communicated? How does meaning change in context? How does meaning change according to genre, style and modes of communication? Does new technology create new meaning? How do chatbots understand human language? Should chatbots be made polite? This course will explore these questions and more. We will study a range of linguistic approaches to meaning and look at real world examples.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.
LING 260 – Language Contact, Language Acquisition and Bilingualism
On Campus.
The social and psychological aspects of three major areas of language acquisition and use will be addressed: child language acquisition, adult second language acquisition and bilingualism/language contact.
• Gen Ed Credits in Individual and Society; US Society
Fall 2026 300 and 400-level Courses in Linguistics
LING 300 – Developmental Cognitive Linguistics
On Campus.
For a long time, language acquisition has been investigated from a purely linguistic perspective, ignoring the role of cognition. Developmental Cognitive Linguistics puts cognition back at the heart of language acquisition by examining the extent to which domain-general abilities, such as memory, attention, inhibition, categorization, analogy, and social cognition, shape the development of linguistic knowledge. This course explores how children acquire one or more languages and how their emerging cognitive capacities both influence and are influenced by the learning process. We will work empirically with real child data and engage with methods from corpus linguistics to investigate authentic language use and developmental patterns. We will consider first and multilingual acquisition, as well as both child and adult learners, in order to trace how cognitive and linguistic abilities develop, interact, and sometimes decline across the lifespan.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor. Recommended background: At least one of LING 210, LING 220, or LING 230.
LING 370 – Introduction to Computational Linguistics
On Campus.
Explores how computers process data for language research, specifically focusing on how to apply NLP techniques to language-data-related tasks using Python. Course Information: Extensive computer use required.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor. Recommended background: Credit in at least one 200-level LING course.
LING 459 – Advanced Statistics for Language Research
On Campus.
This course offers students the opportunity to (i) learn advanced statistical methods and (ii) apply them to their own research projects. Topics include regression, structural equation modelling, mixed-effects modelling, and Bayesian statistics, along with reviewing relevant research articles (subject to change). Students will work with Ra widely used programming language for statisticswithin the RStudio environment for their projects and data analysis assignments. In addition, they are expected to design a research proposal with a focus on statistical modelling.
Prerequisite: LING 370 (or consent of the instructor)
Recommended background: Credit in at least one 200-level LING course
Summer 2026
LING 150 – Introduction to the Study of Language
3 hours. Term 2. On Campus.
You use language all the time, but do you know about the structures that make up language? In this course, you will learn how we produce and organize sounds, build words, and understand the difference between “time flies like an arrow” and “fruit flies like a banana.” Here you’ll make sense of why people have accents, what teachers should know about language, and why good AI speech recognition is so darn hard to achieve. Gen Ed credits in “Individual and Society”
LING 170 – Languages of the World
3 hours. Online Asynchronous.
There are dozens of whistled languages that are endangered because of cell phones. The most common sentence structure places verbs at the ends of sentences. Almost half of the world’s languages have no written form. You might have to switch reading direction multiple times if you are given an Arabic text that includes numbers. West Africa is currently a creative incubator of writing systems.
The world’s over 7,000 languages all serve their speakers’ needs and yet function in a variety of different and interesting ways. In this course, students will be introduced to various ways in which languages behave and what we can learn from these patterns, like why translation apps sometimes fail so hard. Gen Ed Credits in “Individual and Society” & “World Cultures”
LING 320 – Linguistics and Speech Language Pathology
Online Asynchronous (informational only; email the department for more information)
Examines the intersections of linguistics and speech-language pathology throughout historical periods, in communication development throughout an individual’s lifetime and current trends in both fields. Course Information: Extensive computer use required. The course may be offered in 8 or 15 weeks. Class format varies by section. Check the class schedule for details. Online sections involve heavy computer usage; computer and internet access are required.
Prerequisite(s): LING 150 and LING 220; or consent of the instructor.
Recommended background: Credit in LING 160 or LING 260 or LING 300 or LING 310.