LING440 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Ellen Lau LING440 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/14/2025	This is my favorite class that I have ever taken in my college career, and Dr. Lau has to be one of my all time favorite professors. Everything about this class was just amazing. I love the amount of care Dr. Lau puts into the class, to the degree of even making her own course materials, and caring about making sure we understand the content rather than just following a strict schedule. You can tell she really cares about us changing the way we think about things and becoming more critical. I loved how every class was kind of like an interactive ted talk. The material was all so interesting and enjoyable, I've never had so much fun learning. And Dr. Lau herself is just a really fun and intelligent person, I feel smarter just listening to her talk. I think she has a great brain and I think she has an amazing understanding of human nature and how people think, and that is a tool she used successfully in creating the content for this course. There are readings for every class, and one discussion board post per week as well as one in class writing assignment, both to help you with the comprehension of the assigned reading. The readings themselves are very interesting, as long as you have interest in brain and cognition stuff. Assessments are more like syntheses that are to help you further your own understanding of the content, and as long as you show up to class and do the readings, you shouldn't have a hard time on them at all. She grades leniently, she just wants to make sure everyone is getting a good enough understanding of the content. I genuinely think this course is a hidden gem, and I would recommend it to anyone as it is just fascinating. Can't say enough about how much I love this course.
Ellen Lau LING440 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/27/2025	Professor Lau is super energetic and great at teaching. The class isn't difficult, just a lot of readings and discussion boards to keep up with during the semester. She is very encouraging and lenient with grading but overall easy to do well in the class if you pay attention and do the readings.
Ellen Lau LING440 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2022	Incredible professor. This class changed formats from previous semesters, and it's definitely not too much work anymore. A lot of writing and reading assignments, but her grading is lenient and her comments are encouraging. If you have time in your schedule to do so, take this class. It has completely changed how I think about language and thought.
Ellen Lau LING440 Anonymous 09/25/2021	Very intelligent and knowledgeable. Kindhearted and understanding. The only reason I'm giving 4/5 stars is because this class has a TON of work. Probably 1.5 times as much as any other linguistics class. And most deadlines are on weekends, which is very annoying. I always feel robbed of my weekends because of this class.
Ellen Lau LING440 Anonymous 09/21/2021	Amazing professor! I don't like neuroscience at all and she made learning about it fun. Super engaged and very open to questions. One thing I don't like is that she sometimes lets other students interrupt her in class and the students go on long rants where no one learns anything and they just argue against each other, which is a waste of everyones time imo. When she lectures I do learn a lot, its just that I wish she'd cut students off when they start running their mouths.

Ellen Lau
LING440

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/14/2025

This is my favorite class that I have ever taken in my college career, and Dr. Lau has to be one of my all time favorite professors. Everything about this class was just amazing. I love the amount of care Dr. Lau puts into the class, to the degree of even making her own course materials, and caring about making sure we understand the content rather than just following a strict schedule. You can tell she really cares about us changing the way we think about things and becoming more critical. I loved how every class was kind of like an interactive ted talk. The material was all so interesting and enjoyable, I've never had so much fun learning. And Dr. Lau herself is just a really fun and intelligent person, I feel smarter just listening to her talk. I think she has a great brain and I think she has an amazing understanding of human nature and how people think, and that is a tool she used successfully in creating the content for this course. There are readings for every class, and one discussion board post per week as well as one in class writing assignment, both to help you with the comprehension of the assigned reading. The readings themselves are very interesting, as long as you have interest in brain and cognition stuff. Assessments are more like syntheses that are to help you further your own understanding of the content, and as long as you show up to class and do the readings, you shouldn't have a hard time on them at all. She grades leniently, she just wants to make sure everyone is getting a good enough understanding of the content. I genuinely think this course is a hidden gem, and I would recommend it to anyone as it is just fascinating. Can't say enough about how much I love this course.

Ellen Lau
LING440

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/27/2025

Professor Lau is super energetic and great at teaching. The class isn't difficult, just a lot of readings and discussion boards to keep up with during the semester. She is very encouraging and lenient with grading but overall easy to do well in the class if you pay attention and do the readings.

Ellen Lau
LING440

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2022

Incredible professor. This class changed formats from previous semesters, and it's definitely not too much work anymore. A lot of writing and reading assignments, but her grading is lenient and her comments are encouraging. If you have time in your schedule to do so, take this class. It has completely changed how I think about language and thought.

Ellen Lau
LING440

Anonymous
09/25/2021

Very intelligent and knowledgeable. Kindhearted and understanding. The only reason I'm giving 4/5 stars is because this class has a TON of work. Probably 1.5 times as much as any other linguistics class. And most deadlines are on weekends, which is very annoying. I always feel robbed of my weekends because of this class.

Ellen Lau
LING440

Anonymous
09/21/2021

Amazing professor! I don't like neuroscience at all and she made learning about it fun. Super engaged and very open to questions. One thing I don't like is that she sometimes lets other students interrupt her in class and the students go on long rants where no one learns anything and they just argue against each other, which is a waste of everyones time imo. When she lectures I do learn a lot, its just that I wish she'd cut students off when they start running their mouths.

Reviews for LING440