Spring 2027

Topics in Sociolinguistics

Introduction to sociolinguistics focusing on how language is shaped by social factors like gender, ethnicity, education, social status, and geographic location.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Kelly Wright3.5/5Laura Horton

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Kelly Wright

Dr. Wright assigned long, repetitive work due on Sundays, and the final exam required finding specific quotes from presentations or the book.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Read and critically evaluate published research in academic journals.

  • Summarize key research questions surrounding a specific topic in sociolinguistics.

  • Identify, compare, and contrast major theoretical frameworks on a specific topic in sociolinguistics.

  • Interpret results of various data collection methods relevant to topics in sociolinguistics (quantitative, qualitative, experimental, etc.).

  • Describe and critically evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of different methodological and analytical approaches in sociolinguistics.

  • Identify and discuss the relationship between features of human society and some aspect of language.

  • Examine and discuss your own beliefs about languages and language users and how these beliefs inform our use of language in interaction.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
LINGUIS 213

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.75/5 from 4 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Kelly Wright

Kelly Wright's lectures were described as engaging and interactive, encouraging participation and relating content to personal experience. One student found the environment welcoming and praised Dr. Wright's passion and knowledge.

However, other students found the lectures hard to follow with crammed slides and unnecessary tangents. The final exam was criticized for being tedious, repetitive, and poorly worded, requiring specific quotes from presentations or the textbook. Assignments were noted as long and repetitive.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.77 GPA, 91.2% A/AB (n=57 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.97 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=18 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.95 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.98 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Joseph Salmons

A past student found the course easy to do well in if you completed the required readings and discussion posts. They noted that Joseph Salmons' lectures taught a lot about language and that he was very accessible outside of class.

JOSEPH SALMONS is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KELLY WRIGHT is recorded teaching in Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LAURA HORTON is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 750
DIS 401Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 402Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 403Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 200

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Kelly Wright

Students found the content interesting and Dr. Wright's lectures engaging, though others reported the lectures were hard to follow and slides were crammed.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.98 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.84 GPA, 93.8% A/AB (n=97 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kelly Wright

Dr. Wright assigned long, repetitive work due on Sundays, and the final exam required finding specific quotes from presentations or the book.

Past student reviews · Kelly Wright

One student found exam questions poorly worded, while another described the final as tedious and repetitive, feeling it did not represent the semester's learning.

Topics

  • Social factors shaping language: gender, ethnicity, education, social status, and geographic location.
  • Relationships between human society and language.
  • Beliefs about languages and language users and their impact on interaction.

Skills

  • Critical evaluation of published sociolinguistic research.
  • Comparison of theoretical frameworks in sociolinguistics.
  • Interpretation of quantitative, qualitative, and experimental data in sociolinguistics.
  • Evaluation of methodological and analytical approaches in sociolinguistics.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
LINGUIS 213 · Spring 2027

Topics in Sociolinguistics

Recorded 2026-10-14
LINGUIS 213 · Spring 2027

Language Emergence

Recorded 2026-10-14
LINGUIS 213 · Spring 2027

Things You Can't Say

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "source_subject_id": "550",
    "title": "Topics in Sociolinguistics",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
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    "title": "Language Emergence",
    "credits_min": 3,
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
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    "offering_id": "1274:550:026640.6",
    "course_id": "LINGUIS 213",
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f884deef2917dfb2641fafb35fb5ae61643a46837d84f4da0bbd7c6718a96c02",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}