Thomas Scovel

Professor Scovel has an engaging personality, but spends far too much time in class talking about growing up in China, being Christian and having grandkids. He knows his subject, but dumbs it down a lot for the consumption of his students, despite the fact that this was a graduate seminar. You could get everything you learn out of this class merely by reading the textbook, which isn't even a linguistics text but from the discipline of psychology (naturally there is crossover between the two in psycholinguistics, but considering this was a class in the linguistics program, not psychology, the text should have been from a linguistic point of view.) He also teaches as an authority on subjects that he doesn't know much about - for example, he did one lecture on sociolinguistics for some reason and managed to completely ignore the last 20 years of research on the subject. By the way, he seems easy based on his demeanor in class and the level of professionalism (not very high) in his lectures, but his tests are unexpectedly hard.

If you are a ELS student, please don't take his class. He might be a good guy and good instructor for upper division, but not for ELS classes! When I was in his English 208 class, i didn't need to pay any time for the class, because I was reviewing what I learned. but I still got bad grades maybe because the way he grade was wired or maybe his class was to easy and I didn't pay attention to it.

Dr. Scovel is such a wise and experienced professor. Professors like him at State make me proud to be a gator. He is a great lecturer and knows his stuff very well and his two tests really allow you to take time to LEARN the course material discussed in lectures. I thoroughly enjoyed his 426 class and hope to take other courses with him.

Dr. Scovel is a wonderful, inspiring professor with some of the most interesting anechdotes around. He knows his subject extremely well and does a good job of giving students a feel for some sophisticated content without overwhelming them. If you take a class from him, please do yourself a favor and go to his office hours a couple of times during the semester. He is one of the kindest, most nurturant faculty members we have, and is full of helpful suggestions and good advice. This was a fascinating class.

excellent professor! he gives lots of interesting and vivid examples with his lectures which makes his lectures more "alive" and comprehensive. he is very knowledgeable in his subject and is enthusiastic about teaching. his tests are challenging but if you are faithful to the course reading and attend class regularly, you should do fine.