English in use

Aims

Aims

This is envisioned as topics-based course that may change year on year. The main purpose is to allow the students to review and practice what they learned in Structure of English (E01C), through investigations of real language data.

Course objectives

In this module you will:

• Develop analytic skill through intensive data analysis
• Review linguistic concepts from E01C and apply them to English as used in text and conversation
• Compare grammatical and phonological structures used in English across different modes of communication

Learning outcomes

In this module you will learn to:

• Recognize complex patterns in linguistic data
• Form generalizations about data
• Apply concepts from Structure of English to new situations
• Summarize and present analyses
• Express grammatical and phonological concepts clearly and concisely

This module will be capped at 45.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Students must have successfully completed the following:

• E01C Structure of English
  

Programme

Programme

Contact hours

Three hours per week.

Teaching programme

The aim of the module is to investigate the grammatical features of 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). 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 presentations skills.

Assessment and feedback

Assessment and feedback

Formative work and feedback

• Formative Exercises - worksheets to complete during practicals
• Immediate oral feedback during practical sessions with write-ups handed in weekly for brief written feedback

Summative assessment and feedback

• A dossier of exercises
  Selected by students from their portfolio of practical exercises, to be submitted Friday of Week 10.
  • Weight: 30%
• A 2000-word report (divided per question)
  Answering short questions that require analyzing data provided, due Tuesday of assessment period/Week 1 Spring term.
  • Weight: 70%