Course Catalogue

This course provides an introduction to literary Modernism as an artistic movement that transformed literary production in Europe and the United States from the end of the nineteenth century and across the first half of the twentieth century. In response to the unsettling social, political, and cultural changes brought about by an era of 'modernity', writers sought to create art that would engage with and reflect these changes. Through the study of key Modernist texts (prose, poetry, play), students will learn about the diverse innovations in form, style, and subject matter characteristic of the movement. Authors include, but are not limited to W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, T.S.Eliot, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and Samuel Becket. Students will study how these prominent writers and their work interpret and express the experience of modernity, and the ways in which they reacted to, reflected on, or tried to give shape to the social and political tumult of their times.

This course, sociolinguistics, provides a general introduction to the study of the relationship between language and society. Importance is given to the study of language variation and change, sociology of language, correlational sociolinguistics (how social factors like age, sex and social class influence language) and social context of linguistic diversity including dialectology, language and gender, pidgins and creoles, language and ethnicity, new varieties of English, intercultural communication and applied sociolinguistics. It will focus on language variation according to users, including regional and social dialects as well as variation by gender. It will also discuss language variation according to use. It also includes issues related to disciplines such as education, gender & cultural studies, and politics.

This course offers an introduction to the basic concepts and methods in the analysis of language meaning. It also offers the study of symbolic processes and how meaning is encoded in words, phrases, sentences, and utterances; a discussion of modern theories of meaning; and an exploration of relationships among language, thought and action. It surveys basic topics in semantics such as sense and reference, lexical semantics and basic sense relations, semantics and grammar, and simple logic. It also introduces pragmatics and the negotiation of interpersonal meanings in contexts of situations. The course also explores the relationship between how the use and the users determine the meanings of words.

This course will explore the traditional theories associated with language learning and how they have affected the evolution of language teaching. Particular attention will be paid to learner characteristics (attitude, aptitude, and motivation), cognitive and metacognitive strategies, interlanguage theory, the monitor model, acculturation, and accommodation. All theories will be learned in the context of application to teaching pedagogy.