Making Semantics Relevant
Consider the challenge of teaching introductory formal semantics to a general audience of undergraduates. What do you want the students to learn? How do you ensure that everyone learns something useful while still providing the foundation for some students to move on to more advanced or specialized work? These are general questions, applicable to nearly every disciplinary course. Within Linguistics, it's sometimes thought that formal semantics is the most challenging to deliver to a general audience. That has not been my experience. An introductory semantics course with no prerequisites has been a successful part of the UCSC undergraduate curriculum since the mid 80's. Many students have commented that they found it "their most relevant class." In my presentation I will share my thoughts about how that happens.