Welcome

NOTE: During this lecture you will occasionally see the two icons below on certain pages (as at the top right of this one):-

	This indicates a RealAudio clip will be played if you click on the speaker icon. Where a Transcript link exists below the icon, clicking on it will open a window showing a transcript of the audio for use in situations where the audio cannot be heard.
	This indicates a RealVideo clip will be played if you click on the clapper-board icon.

For both of the above you will require the RealPlayer V5 software installed on the computer. If you ARE NOT using a university campus computer and want to be able to hear the audio and/or view the video, get the necessary software from here.

On university cluster machines with a headphone socket on the front panel of the computer, you will need to bring a pair of headphones with you to hear the audio contained in these clips. Personal walkman style headphones are suitable.

I hope you will enjoy this new style of learning. There are several reasons for introducing this method: first we want to help you make use of the WWW and its resources all over the world. For example you will find a link to the institute where Washoe lives, which will lead you further into that particular research project, in a much more detailed form than any "normal" lecture could do. Second, you can work through this lecture at your own pace, going back and forth as you like. Third, the time that is normally assigned to the lecture can be used by you for an email discussion on PS97 which will help you to investigate the philosophical background of Animal Language.

Instructions

This lecture has been designed to be studied by you in your own time and pace. It covers most of the basic aspects of language in animals and introduces the most famous individuals who have been taught human language all over the world.

Like a "normal" one this "electronic lecture" will neither contain nor explain the complete area of this topic. There are plenty of books which give you additional information and you are expected to study them, as you would do before and after a conventional lecture.

You can follow the content in the order you see on the menu on the left of the screen but you also have the opportunity to jump forwards and backwards as you like it by simply clicking on the topic you would like to study. To simply go from one page to the next click on the little arrows at the bottom of each page.

Whenever you see the speaker icon on the right there is a spoken comment and/or a sound available. The audio files are not crucial for the basic understanding of the topic but do contain some additional information, anecdotes, discussion topics and, where applicable, animal sounds.

At the end of the lecture you will find a collection of questions which is designed to help you to see whether you learned and understood the lecture.

While you are taking part in this pilot project I would like you to fill in the feedback form. You can do this online on the computer or print out the form, fill it in and put it into my pigeon hole. Your comments will help to improve this style of teaching (or to abandon it, if the majority dislikes it).

I hope you have as much fun browsing through this "electronic" lecture as I had designing it.

Britta Osthaus

P.S. Please note that many of the links lead to webpages in USA. For fastest downloads try to link to them in the morning, at weekends or late at night.