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Learning to think like linguists: A think-aloud study of novice phonology students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Catherine Anderson
Catherine Anderson*
Affiliation:
McMaster University
*
Department of Linguistics & Languages, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4M2 [canders@mcmaster.ca]
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Abstract

A key learning outcome for undergraduate linguistics courses is for students to learn to reason scientifically about language. This article presents the findings from a think-aloud study of undergraduates in an introductory linguistics course who were in the process of learning linguistic reasoning about phonology. I describe the students’ developing concepts and make recommendations for instructors to help students develop fully formed linguistics concepts and the ability to think scientifically about language.

Keywords

pedagogythink-aloudthreshold conceptsnovice thinkingdisciplinary thinkingphonology

Information

Type
Teaching Linguistics
Information
Language , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , December 2016, pp. e274 - e291
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Linguistic Society of America

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