English in use

Aims

Aims

This is a topics-based module that may change year on year. The main purpose of the module is to introduce students to the analysis and presentation of data through investigations of real language. Through weekly group exercises, students will practice carrying out and writing up both quantitative and qualitative styles of analysis. A major focus of the module will be on developing linguistics essay writing skills.

Note that almost all of the formative work for this module, both analysis and writing, is done in groups.

By the end of this module, you will have had the opportunity to:

• Develop analytic skills through intensive data analysis
• Compare grammatical, phonological and/or sequential structures used in English across different modes of communication
• Develop teamwork skills through working in groups
• Increase your ability to present yourself and your ideas with confidence through weekly writing exercises
• Recognize and investigate complex patterns in linguistic data
• Form generalizations and develop arguments
• Express linguistic concepts clearly and concisely
• Summarize and present findings in a useful way
• Develop your ability to apply knowledge and skills to new problems

Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Students must have successfully completed the following:

• E01C Understanding English Grammar (LAN00001C)

Programme

Programme

Contact hours

One lecture hour and 1.5 hours of seminar per week.

Teaching programme

The aim of the module is to investigate the use of grammatical features in different varieties of English, such as face-to-face (or telephone) conversation, real and imagined dialogue, newspaper styles, broadcast media, expository prose/academic writing, gendered language, digital language (email/txt/blogs etc), etc. Both speech and written forms will be investigated and contrasted. The list is neither exhaustive nor inclusive.

The emphasis throughout is on descriptive adequacy, argumentation, data collection (corpus based), data analysis, and written and oral presentation skills.

Teaching materials

Weekly readings will be made available on the VLE module site.

Suggestions for reading before the module starts

These readings are suggested for background and interest, to get you thinking about the kind of topics we may address. They are not required texts.

• Baron, N.S. 1998. Letters by phone or speech by other means: The linguistics of email. Language and Communication 18: 133-170.
• Coates, J. 1998. Language and gender: a reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Fox, B. 2001. Evidentiality: authority, responsibility, and entitlement in English conversation. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 11: 167-192.
• Halliday, M.A.K. 1985. Spoken and written language. Oxford: OUP.
• Hunston, S. 2007. Using a corpus to investigate stance quantitatively and qualitatively. In R. Englebretson, ed. Stance-taking in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 27–48.

Assessment and feedback

Assessment and feedback

Formative work and feedback

• Weekly formative exercises carried out in groups 
• 500 word formative essay (submitted end of Week 6)
• Written feedback on submitted exercises; oral feedback during discussion sessions

Summative assessment and feedback

• Essay
  • Due: Week 10, Autumn term
  • Length: 1375 words
  • Weight: 50%
• 2-hour closed examination
  • Week 1, Spring term
  • Weight: 50%