| Module |
Credits |
Compulsory/optional |
|
English Grammar
|
15 Credits |
Compulsory |
| This module examines what grammar is and is not, and presents a detailed description of the grammar of English. It looks at the different word categories, constituent structure of sentences, grammatical functions and the structure of complex sentences and different sentence types. It aims at providing you with the knowledge necessary to conduct grammatical analyses.
This module is a prerequisite for study of English Language & Communication at Level 3. |
|
Sounds of English
|
15 Credits |
Compulsory |
| This module will offer you the chance to study the sounds of English at two levels: the surface level (phonetics) and the underlying mental level (phonology). We will start by looking at the physiological apparatus involved with the production of speech before examining in more detail how individual speech sounds are made (articulatory phonetics). We will then turn to the organisation of speech sounds at the underlying mental level. Here we will identify the distinct 'sound concepts' of English and explore the various ways they each may be realised phonetically. We will then move on to analysing syllables and stress. The module offers you an important descriptive tool for further language study as well as essential knowledge for careers in areas such as speech and language therapy. This module is a prerequisite for study of English Language and Communication at level 3. |
|
Graduate Skills
|
0 Credits |
Compulsory |
| You will be offered a variety of employment enhancing workshops and online activities such as interview skills workshops, personality profiling and career planning in order to improve your employment prospects after graduation and make you aware of current areas of strength and weakness in relation to employability.
You will also have the opportunity to learn about self-employment options, graduate schemes and will attend speaker sessions with successful professionals in areas of employment appropriate for Humanities graduates so you can learn about the skills and attributes required for these areas and how to enhance your prospects of entering such areas.
You will be required to undertake a certain number of activities chosen by you from a career “menu” and to reflect on what they have learnt in order to complete the module successfully. |
|
Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, 1900-1945
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| Building on the study of narrative begun at Level One this course will examine some key texts published in the period 1900 - 1945 and offer an historical and theoretical framework in which the set texts can be read. A central part of the course will be the attempt to explain the literary developments of the period by reference to a central concept in twentieth century cultural history: Modernism. The course will make clear that the chronological division indicated here does not imply that all texts of this period can be called `Modernist'. As students will be invited to consider, this is simply a convenient label whose meaning is itself a source of controversy and debate. Attention will also be given to such common thematic motifs such as urban ambience, the 'presence of the past', social class and sexual politics. The writers studied on the course will vary from year to year but are likely to include such key figures as Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, May Sinclair, Jean Rhys, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot. |
|
Learning and Teaching Language 2
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module is the second of two that look in some depth at issues in the learning and teaching of language, with special reference to English. In this module, more emphasis is laid on teaching.
The module takes a broadly historical approach to language learning and teaching. The starting-off point will be a resume of the state of EFL as a result of the professionalization of teaching at the end of the C19 and the effects of the Reform Movement. Thereafter there will be examination of such trends and approaches as the grammar / translation 'method', behaviourism, the audio-lingual approach, the communicative approach, the Natural Approach and the Lexical Approach. Connections will be made in each case with the key concepts discussed in the preceding module.
A final session looks at classroom generated research and at what teachers can hope to learn from it. |
|
American Literature to 1900
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module will trace the development of American literature from the colonial period through to 1900, examining texts from multiple genres (autobiography, captivity narrative, political propaganda, novel, poetry, short story). It will examine how writers responded to the American environment and sociopolitical events to create a distinctively American literary tradition. Attention will be paid to issues such as New England Puritanism; the treatment of Native Americans; slavery; the War of Independence; Americas relationship with England; Manifest Destiny, expansionism and the frontier; transcendentalism; the Civil War; industrialization and the growth of the city; gender and sexuality. Authors who may be studied include: Mary Rowlandson, Phylis Wheatley, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allen Poe, Harriet Jacobs, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, Sarah Orne Jewett. |
|
Twentieth Century North American Writing
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module considers the diversity of twentieth-century North-American writing and the plurality of American culture and identity. It will consider some twentieth-century American writings about America as well as looking at theories of race, ethnicity and citizenship as explored in the selected texts. It will address the ways in which ideas about community and American citizenship and nationhood are historicized. The module will explore some of the repercussions and ramifications on recent American literature of such major American events and ideas such as:
* the notion of 'The American Dream',
* immigration over the twentieth century,
* the 'annexing' of native American lands,
* America's involvement in WWII,
* the legacy of slavery,
* capitalism and consumerism.
The module will consider the ways in which these and other issues are explored by a close examination of the literary devices, conventions and techniques deployed to investigate and imagine American identities. The focus of the module may change from year to year, depending on the writers chosen for study. |
|
Language and Species
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| Research into the evolution of human communication has been controversial. Shortly after the publication of Darwin's masterpiece in 1859, the topic w as banned by the London Philological Society. Recent advances in genetics, anthropology and cognitive science, however, have together resulted in renewed interest and more rigorous investigation and the birth of a new field.
Evolutionary Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which draw s upon linguistics, evolutionary theory, biology, anthrolopology, primatology and psychology in order to answer three key questions: Why do we communicate? When did language evolve? What are the origins of language? In this module, students are first introduced to the basics of evolutionary theory before focusing on the questions raised above. Additional questions addressed include: How do other species communicate? Could Neanderthals speak? Can chimpanzees lie? |
|
Language in Society
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| Sociolinguistics is the study of language in society. This module will introduce you to the major issues in sociolinguistics. We will start by addressing the relation between language and society and the nature of variation. We will address varieties of language use at the level of the group and the individual and explore three kinds of lectal variation: regional, social and functional. We will consider how and why users vary their language according to different social settings as well as the social pressures that cause language change. Further topics to be studied include accents and dialects, language and ethnicity and language and gender. This module should appeal to anyone interested in the way language is used to signal identity and negotiate society. |
|
Ways of Reading: Literature and Theory
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| Ways of Reading is an introduction to literary critical approaches which call into question apparently common sense interpretative concepts such as 'intention', the 'author' and 'character'. The module will offer a survey of twentieth-century trends in critical thinking about literature, including Marxism, psychoanalysis and feminism, together with later developments such as deconstruction and Postmodernism. The emphasis will be on learning to apply concepts which are characteristic of these approaches within the context of your own critical writing about literature. This module is compulsory for students intending to take an independent project module or dissertation in Literature at Level 6. |
|
Forensic Linguistics
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| In this module we will be concerned with real examples of language use in legal contexts. Specifically, the module will first give an introduction to discourse analysis and then apply the methods of discourse analysis to Forensic Linguistics, the application of linguistics in order to understand conversation in legal contexts and establish authorship, authenticity and veracity in forensic texts. The talk and texts we will analyse will be taken from court proceedings, police interviews, witness statements, confessions, emergency calls, hate mail and suicide letters. |
|
Language Competencies in Career Development
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| In order to be able to take this module, you need to have found a suitable work placement opportunity by the end of Semester A (1st December) and not have taken a work experience module in a different subject area. The module provides you with an opportunity to reflect on the experience you are gaining in EL&C related work experience. One the one hand, you will focus on subject specific skills applied in the work experience as well as communicative events in the workplace, on the other you will reflect on personal and key skills that the experience has helped you to develop and articulate the ways in which it has enhanced your career development. Suitable work experience includes: communication support volunteer for the stroke association, assistant supporting school students in literacy and English language skills, assisting with the teaching of English Language and Culture to adults, mentoring international students. |
|
History of the English Language
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| In this module you will study how English as a language has developed from Old English to its present form. We will discuss evidence for the earliest form of English together with the development of Old English dialects and the influence from a variety of languages. We will relate linguistic change such as the Great Vowel shift to the difficulties of the standardisation of spelling from the 15th century onwards. Vocabulary changes in the Early Modern Period are linked to contemporary history and the beginnings of the establishment of English on the world stage. The theoretical input is balanced by the study of contemporary texts in Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English, concluding with a view of how present day English has changed within living memory. |
|
Research Methods in English Language & Communication
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module provides you with a broad overview of research skills and the theoretical and empirical issues involved in carrying out research. We will focus on how to perform systematic literature reviews and to synthesise information, as well as on both empirical and non-empirical research methods. You are introduced to current research strategies used in English Language & Communication and will develop the skills (including IT skills) required in order to collect, code and analyse pre-existing, naturalistic, experimental and questionnaire data. Data archives and computer based analysis programs as well as psycholinguistic experiments are explored. The module will prepare you for the kinds of work you will undertake at level 6, as well as for conducting a long or short project. |
|
Lines on the Map: Explorations in Colonial Writing
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module introduces you to writings produced in international contexts, focusing on the period of Britain’s colonial expansion and empire c1700-1914. We will study writings about formerly colonised regions - Africa, the Americas, India, the Caribbean - and consider how the set texts represent these places and populations. The module is centred on some of the controversial issues and legacies debated by present-day critics and historians: national identity, race, trade, slavery, conquest, imperialism. We will also broaden the picture by looking at how contemporary writers in former colonies have, alongside film-makers, established a post-colonial literature to contest earlier representations.
Typically authors/texts will include Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), autobiographies by former slaves (Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince), Charles Dickens’s Arctic melodrama The Frozen Deep (prompted by a real-life scandal involving British explorers and cannibalism), stories by Joseph Conrad and H.G. Wells plus more recent novels by China Achebe and J.M. Coetzee. |
|
Images of Contemporary Society: British Literature and the Politics of Identity
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| Drawing on a wide variety of writing produced since the Second World War, this module focuses on the changing situations of both writers and readers of British fiction.
At the centre of the module will be an examination of realism in post-war writing through the texts of a wide range of authors. Students will be asked to consider the cultural representations of the period as they are evinced in both fiction, drama, and poetry including those of the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time of unprecedented change in British Society.
The module provides examples of this writing by investigating such authors as for example-, Sam Selvon, Pat Barker, Alan Sillitoe, Tony Harrison and Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh and Kazuo Ishiguro. As well as considering the ways in which the set texts deal with such issues as class antagonisms, race and ethnicity, masculinity and femininity and differing sexualities, students will be invited to consider the extent to which the set texts can be seen to be representative of contemporary society. |
|
Postcolonial Cultures: Texts and Contexts
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module will introduce you to a sample of texts and films produced within countries and regions which were formerly part of the British Empire, for example the Caribbean, Australasia, South Africa, India. Postcolonial criticism is one of the most significant developments of the last thirty years. We will consider some of the major theories which have emerged. The search for a national identity is a key issue. We will also look at the resistant strategies employed by post-colonial writers together with the idea that many are forced to write with `a borrowed pen’ i.e. they write in the language of the coloniser (Britain) even though this is not necessarily their first language. Texts studied will vary but might range from novels (Things Fall Apart; Chinua Achebe), poetry (Linton Kwesi Johnson, Derek Walcott, Grace Nichols) to the films (Muriel’s Wedding; P.J. Hogan; Ten Canoes; Rolf de Heer). |
|
Learning and Teaching Language 1
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module is the first of two that look in some depth at issues in the learning and teaching of language, with special reference to English. In this module, more emphasis is laid on theories of second language development and the learner, while greater emphasis is placed on the teaching of a second language in the second module.
The module examines both naturalistic methods of learning and classroom learning, discussing the impact of and typical outcomes for the learner in each condition. It considers the work of contemporary theorists, and examines factors such as the role of the L1, the different aspects of L2 knowledge and the interplay of variables that contribute to successful second language development. |
|
Age of Transition: the Victorians and Modernity
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| The Victorians recognized their own period (1837-1901) as a time of extremely rapid social change - an “age of transition”. In this module, we will study representative Victorian genres (novels, poems, plays, journalism), which respond to this sense of upheaval and the emergence of the modern world. Against this, we will read novels by writers working today who choose to set their work in the Victorian period. These so-called “neo-Victorian” novels re-write the Victorians from the perspective of our 21st century. They also ask us to reflect on our own preconceptions about the Victorian period and our sense of living in a more “enlightened” society. Texts for study will thus typically include examples of Victorian writing (Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Mary Braddon) but also recent bestsellers by writers such as Sarah Waters, John Fowles and A.S. Byatt and films such as Wilde (1997) which present the Victorians in a different light. |
|
Literature at Work
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module enables you to incorporate practical experience into your study of English Literature and/or Creative Writing. It focuses on how literature (the writing process, the marketing and retailing of texts, their critical analysis, or literary history) is encountered by an audience outside academia. To take this module, you must find a suitable work placement by the end of the previous semester, with guidance from the module leader. Suitable sites for work experience might include: a school, or further education college; a heritage site associated with a writer; a literary festival; a publishing company; a bookshop; a funding body or arts organisation; a theatre. Your time spent on placement should total up to at least 24 accumulated hours, though in practice you may spend longer. In seminars, you will reflect on your experiences, explore related conceptual issues and develop a broader appreciation of how literature is engaged with outside higher education. The module will be assessed by a presentation and portfolio of materials including the development of a new curriculum vitae. |
|
A Nation of Readers: British Identity and Enlightenment Culture
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module focuses on British literature first published between 1640-1740 and is designed to build on your ongoing close-reading and analytical skills. The module considers many key cultural themes during this turbulent period of history, including power and political authority, national identity, class hierarchies, print culture, gender and sexuality, and religion, and encourages students to consider texts from a historicist approach. Texts include works by Dryden, Marvell, Milton, Gay, Pope and Swift as well as lesser-known female authors such as Mary Chudleigh and Mary Wortley Montagu. Prose works include Behn’s ‘Oroonoko’ and Defoe’s ‘Moll Flanders’. You will therefore be looking at both the work of writers whose works are often identified within the 'canon' of 'great' English literature as well as others who have, until more recently, often been excluded from literary histories. |
|
Revisiting the Renaissance
|
15 Credits |
Optional |
| This module takes a historicist approach to British literature first published between 1550 and 1642 and is designed to build on your ongoing development of close-reading and analytical skills in relation to many key cultural themes during this turbulent period of history, including power and political authority, national identity, class hierarchies, print culture, gender and sexuality, and religion. Texts include plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson, and poetry by Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser and Donne as well as lesser-known female Renaissance authors such as Whitney, Wroth and Lanyer. Prose works such as Sir Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ and the Tilbury speech of Queen Elizabeth I will also be considered. We will therefore be looking at both the work of writers whose works are often identified within the 'canon' of 'great' English literature as well as others who have, until more recently, often been excluded from literary histories. |
