Human language and interaction
Spring 2026: CHDV 23100, LING 21150, PSYC 23120, EDSO 23101
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30pm-4:50pm Chicago time
Language may be learned by individuals, but we most often use it for communication between groups. How is it that we manage to transmit our internal thoughts to others’ minds? How is it that we can understand what others mean to express to us? Whether we are greeting a passerby, ordering a meal, or debating politics, there are a number of invisible processes that bring language to life in the space between individuals. This course investigates the social and cognitive processes that enable us to successfully communicate with others. The theories we cover are built on observations of adult language use and child development in multiple cultural settings, also taking inspiration from non-human animal communication.
It is expected that, by the end of the course, students will be able to explain the limitations of language for communication and will be able to elaborate on a number of social and other cognitive processes that critically support communicative language use.
Instructor: Marisa Casillas (mcasillas@uchicago.edu)
Teaching assistants: Yuchen Jin (yuchenjin@uchicago.edu) and Samir Levitt (levitt@uchicago.edu)
Office hours:
- Dr. Casillas: Fridays 12:30–1:50. Pre-book a meeting here. Meetings take place in Rosenwald 318A unless otherwise specified.
- Yuchen Jin: Thursdays 2:30–3:30pm in Harper Library. Pre-book a meeting here.
- Samir Levitt: Tuesdays 11–12 in the Harper Café. If the café fills up before I find seating, I will walk down the hallway to the adjoining reading room in Stuart Hall. In that case, you will see me as soon as you walk in the room. Please email me with any clarifying questions @ levitt@uchicago.edu.
Course materials:
- Most required readings will be drawn from Herbert H. Clark’s text Using Language.
- The other required readings include a few separate chapters/articles on:
- Conversation Analysis
- Human Interaction Engine
- Sequence organization
- Multimodal interaction
- the study we will try to replicate as a class, by Stivers et al. (2009)
All other course materials will be available online on Canvas and the ChatterLab course webpage.
Grading
Students enrolled in this course will be graded on the following basis:
| Component | Undergraduates |
|---|---|
| Participation | 10% |
| In-class quizzes | 25% |
| Mini papers | 20% |
| Study replication project | 45% |
Participation (10% of grade)
Students are generally expected to come to class and actively participate in discussion. The participation grade reflects the range from no attendance (0%) to near-full attendance and active participation at every session attended (10%).
NOTE: Each student is allowed two excused absences—the two absences will not affect your participation score. If you miss more than two classes because you are experiencing a more significant interruption to your life, please get in touch.
In-class quizzes (25% of grade)
We’ll check your understanding of the class content with in-class quizzes at least once a week. The quizzes will cover the pre-class reading and prior lecture content. When we calculate your grade, we’ll grade this component on the best half of your quiz scores. For example, if your quizzes are all scored out of 5 and you got scores of 1, 0, 5, 4, 3, 5, 2, 3, 3, 1, your overall average would be 54%, but your score for your best half of quizzes would be 80%. Because we are dropping the bottom half of quiz scores, we are not offering make-up quizzes for missed class sessions.
Mini papers (20% of grade)
Over the course of the quarter, students will submit two mini papers (10% each; 2500 words max). Mini papers typically engage with real data of some kind. Papers will be evaluated based on their (a) thoroughness and attention to detail with respect to the data/prompt, and (b) quality of discussion relating the data to course materials. We strongly discourage students from centering their responses on personal anecdotes or pure critique. Responses should instead make specific, clear connections to relevant course concepts, and critical commentary should be accompanied by integrative and/or constructive framing.
Study replication project (45% of grade)
We will replicate some of the classic findings reported in the Stivers et al. (2009) paper. Your final assignment will be to submit a scientific report of our class findings that also proposes and motivates an original, but incremental followup study. This scientific report will depend on several components whose deadlines are over the quarter as follows:
- Read and review the original paper (in class, led by Dr. Casillas)
- Data collection (5% of grade)
- Data annotation: verbal responses (10% of grade)
- Data annotation: gestural responses (5% of grade)
- Review of results (in class, led by Dr. Casillas)
- Scientific report (due Tuesday of finals week, max 4500 words; 25% of grade)
We will spend some time on learning the basics of scientific report writing.
Policy on regrade requests
The policy on regrade requests is that I (Dr. Casillas) will look at and regrade any of your assignments again upon request, but if I don’t see a need to raise the score, I’ll take off a small amount of credit for each question/assignment you’ve asked me to review. This policy is just to balance the many requests I get for re-reviews against the time I need to spend on other commitments. It also ensures that students only pursue requests if they are quite certain that their grade is wrong.
A note on using AI
For any at-home written assignment, I (Dr. Casillas) leave it to students to use AI in whatever way best serves their learning. However, students are always responsible for knowing and understanding the ideas presented in their written work. Therefore, I reserve the right to conduct an oral exam on any submission if I suspect plagiarism or over-reliance on AI. If I request an oral exam, you will receive an Incomplete (I) grade in the course until you come to take it.
Course schedule
Module 1: Introduction
Tuesday, 24 March 2026 (1.1): Introduction and syllabus
- Pre-class reading: None!
Thursday, 26 March 2026 (1.2): Language use
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 1
Module 2: Foundations
Tuesday, 31 March 2026 (2.1): Joint activities
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 2
Thursday, 2 April 2026 (2.2): Joint actions
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 3
Tuesday, 7 April 2026 (3.1): Common ground
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 4
Thursday, 9 April 2026 (3.2): Introduction to Conversation Analysis
- Pre-class reading: Sidnell, J. (2016). Conversation Analysis. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. and Stivers, T. (2013). Sequence Organization. In J. Sidnell and T. Stivers (Eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 191–209). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Tuesday, 14 April 2026 (4.1): The Human Interaction Engine
Mini paper 1 due today: Devise a Schelling game (linguistic or non-linguistic) and run it on 4–6 of your friends. Describe how you set up your game, why, what you expected the outcome to be, and what the actual outcome was. Discuss your reported findings in a way that engages directly with big ideas from the course for full credit [2500 words max; rubric]
Module 3: Communication, language, and action
Thursday, 16 April 2026 (4.2): Study preparation
Pre-class reading: Stivers et al. (2009)
Participation: Prepare two questions before class: one clarification question and one critical or theoretically engaged question about the Stivers et al. (2009) reading before class.
Tuesday, 21 April 2026 (5.1): Grounding
Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 8
Due today for the scientific report: Find 2+ participants for the conversation data collection, establish a recording time and place BEFORE end of day on Thursday, April 23rd, and send your participants the event information. Cc your TA to confirm that you have done this.
Thursday, 23 April 2026 (5.2): Understanding intentions and signaling
Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 5 + UL Chapter 6
Due today for the scientific report: Upload your conversation Box (we will provide the link).
- Up to 5% for data collection
Tuesday, 28 April 2026 (6.1): Multimodal interaction
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 9 + Holler, J., & Bavelas, J. (2017). Multi-modal communication of common ground: A review of social functions. In R. B. Church, M. W. Alibali, & S. D. Kelly (Eds.), Why gesture? How the hands function in speaking, thinking and communicating (pp. 213-240). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Module 4: Discourse, narrative, and joint projects
Thursday, 30 April 2026 (6.2): Joint projects
Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 7
Due today for the scientific report: Upload your annotations of the verbal turn taking to Box (we will provide the link)
- Up to 10% for data annotation of verbal turn taking (the TAs will spot-check your annotation files and recording for high quality segmentation and annotation)
Tuesday, 5 May 2026 (7.1): Joint commitment
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 10
Thursday, 7 May 2026 (7.2): Conversation
- Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 11
- Mini paper 2 due today
Module 5:
Tuesday, 12 May 2026 (8.1): Layering
Pre-class reading: UL Chapter 12
Due today for the scientific report: Upload your annotations of the gestural turn taking to Box (we will provide the link)
- Up to 5% for data annotation of gestural turn taking (the TAs will spot-check your annotation files and recording for high quality segmentation and annotation)
Thursday, 14 May 2026 (8.2): Presentation of replication findings + how to write a scientific report
- Pre-class reading: None!
Tuesday, 19 May 2026 (9.1): Guest lecture from TA Samir Levitt
- Pre-class reading:
- TBA
Thursday, 21 May 2026 (9.2): Guest lecture from TA Yuchen Jin
- Pre-class reading:
- TBA
Final deadline (Tuesday, 26 May 2026)
Scientific report due, including: Study 1 on our class replication of Stivers et al. (2009) and Study 2, a motivated, original, incremental follow-up study proposal with predicted findings (4500 words max; rubric).
Contact
Email: mcasillas@uchicago.edu
Office: Rosenwald 318A
Office hours: Fridays 12:30–1:50. Pre-book a meeting here. Meetings take place in Rosenwald 318A unless otherwise specified.
If you require any accommodations for this course, as soon as possible please provide your instructor with a copy of your Accommodation Determination Letter (provided to you by the Student Disability Services office) so that you may discuss with him/her how your accommodations may be implemented in this course. The University of Chicago is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its programs. If you have a documented disability (or think you may have a disability) and, as a result, need a reasonable accommodation to participate in class, complete course requirements, or benefit from the University’s programs or services, you are encouraged to contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. To receive reasonable accommodation, you must be appropriately registered with Student Disability Services. Please contact the office at 773-834-4469/TTY 773-795-1186 or gmoorehead@uchicago.edu, or visit the website at disabilities.uchicago.edu. Student Disability Services is located in Room 233 in the Administration Building located at 5801 S. Ellis Avenue.