ENG5312 - Linguistic Topics

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate understanding of some basic principles of English phonetics and phonology, including the classification of English speech sounds and the conventions of phonemic transcription.
Demonstrate understanding of a specified range of linguistic terms and concepts and apply these in the stylistic analysis of literary texts
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a particular linguistic topic and discuss specific issues associated with that topic
Select appropriate material for, and present, a case study explaining an aspect of a particular linguistic topic

Content:

This module builds on the introduction to linguistics which students will have gained at Level 4 by extending and consolidating their knowledge of particular linguistic topics. It will extend the range of linguistic terms that they are able to apply to analysis of literary texts (Stylistics) and introduce them to a new topic (Phonetics and Phonology). In addition, students will undertake a detailed study of another specified topic at the end of which they will research and write an essay; this topic may vary from year to year, and will be defined by reference to current textbooks. Examples of topics would include: the history of English, World Englishes, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, semantics, and language change.

Learning and Teaching Information:

During the first part of the module there will be two scheduled seminars a week, focussed on introducing the concepts and skills required for the Phonetics and Stylistics tests and practising the analysis of texts and audio recordings using those skills. During the second part of the semester there will be one weekly seminar at which the main topic for assessment by essay will be introduced and possible sub-topics for essays explored through analysis of texts and other material. Some research and preparation will be set between each seminar, with some time being allocated each week to reporting back on this.

Seminars on Phonology / Stylistics Weeks 1-4M
Hours: 16
Intended group size: 25

Seminars on topic for Essay and Case Study
Hours: 14
Intended group size: 25

Guided independent study
Hours: 170

Further details relating to assessment
Credit should not be awarded unless a pass has been gained in all the online tests.

Other relevant matters
Online tests are automated and include random selection of questions from a question bank; tests may be attempted more than once before the deadline. Tests are accessed and processed on Moodle.

Assessment: