English Language

<div id="tab2" class="tab grid_8 alpha hide-on-small" style="display: block;"> <div class="courseLinks hide-on-medium-down"> <img src="/media/liverpoolhope/styleassets/cssimages/media,975,en.gif" alt="print Icon" style="width : 24px; height : 24px; "> <span><a href="javascript:window.print()">print this page</a></span> <span class="st_sharethis_custom" st_processed="yes"><a href="#">share this course</a></span> </div> <h2>Curriculum</h2> <h1>English Language Curriculum</h1> <h3>Year 1&nbsp;</h3> <p>All English Language students will study the following:</p> <ul> <li>Lectures on <strong>Language in Society</strong> and the History and <strong>Development of English</strong>&nbsp;in which you will be introduced to language variation from different perspectives including social, regional and historical.</li> <li>The hands-on approach encouraged in <strong>The Structure of Language</strong> workshops will help you to understand how language works as a system. You will gain detailed knowledge of the grammatical and phonological structures of English.</li> <li>There is a range of assessment methods in Year 1, from the traditional (essay and examination) to the innovative (quizzes and puzzles), which help you to build skills incrementally with on-going support provided in weekly tutorials.</li> </ul> <p>Single Honours English Language students will also study the following:</p> <p><strong>Introducing Stylistics</strong></p> <p>This lecture and seminar strand enables you to build on work covered in the Structure of Language workshops. You will be introduced to the basic principles of stylistics allowing you to explore the ways in which language can be used for artistic purposes, thus enhancing your appreciation of fictional texts.</p> <p><strong>Language in Context</strong></p> <p>This seminar strand supplements Language and Society and the History and Development of English strands by providing further contextualisation though audio and visual materials such as Bragg’s <em>The Adventure of English</em> and Fry’s <em>Planet Word</em>. You will explore language variation in a range of contexts and examine the social, historical and political factors that precipitate variation.</p> <h3>Year 2&nbsp;</h3> <p>All English Language students will study the following:</p> <ul> <li>In Year 2 you will investigate the relations between language, action, knowledge and situation in <strong>Language, Ideology and Power </strong>and <strong>Studies in Media Language</strong>. At this level you will develop analytical skills as you explore the forms of language found in media discourse. In Practical Applications, you will study <strong>Child Language Acquisition</strong> and <strong>Corpus Linguistics</strong></li> <li>The teaching strategies in Year 2 help you to develop the research and project planning skills needed for longer and more complex academic projects available in Year 3.</li> <li>There is a range of assessment methods which allow you to further develop skills such as conversation analysis, poster presentation and synoptic examination.</li> </ul> <p>Single Honours English Language students will also study the following:</p> <p><strong>The Stylistics of Narrative</strong></p> <p>You will be introduced to up-to-date methods and theories of stylistics to enable you to appreciate and analyse the relationship between language choice, meaning and effect in literary texts.</p> <p><strong>World Englishes</strong></p> <p>You will examine the linguistic, social and cultural implications of the global spread of English and explore data from a wide range of Englishes.</p> <h3>Year 3</h3> <p>All English Language students will study the following:</p> <ul> <li>In Year 3 lectures in <strong>Sociolinguistics</strong> and <strong>Research Methods</strong> you will engage with contemporary research and develop your skills of critical and evaluative thinking more fully. Building on the knowledge and skills developed over the previous two years, you will interrogate the relationship between language and society through detailed study of contemporary sociolinguistic case studies. In addition, you will study <strong>Special Topics in Sociolinguistics</strong> which cover the research specialisms of members of staff. Currently the Special Topics are <strong>Language, Gender and Sexuality</strong> and <strong>Language and Culture</strong></li> <li>You will learn to contextualise and critique different methods and techniques in sociolinguistic research, thus enabling you to develop an understanding of current research methods and the applicability of these to your own research projects.</li> <li>At this level you will pursue a sustained, supervised independent research project and will have the opportunity to present your findings at an Honours conference.</li> </ul> <p>All Single Honours English Language students will study the following:</p> <p><strong>Multilingualism and Language Policy</strong></p> <p>This lecture and seminar strand extends the sociolinguistic strand permeating all levels of the programme. You will investigate how present-day sociolinguistic theories can be applied in order to gain a better understanding of the key issues in individual and societal multilingualism. You will learn how multilingual societies function at societal and institutional levels and how national language policy and planning influences people’s multilingual abilities.</p> <p><strong>TESOL</strong></p> <p>This seminar strand provides you with a sound basis for a career in teaching English as a foreign language. Having learned how language works both structurally and in its various social and cultural contexts, you will explore the theories, approaches and methodologies related to teaching and learning English.</p> <p><strong>The Psychology of Language</strong></p> <p>You will gain insights into how the multi-layered, dynamic nature of identities is realised through linguistic behaviour and reflected in the perception of languages and linguistic varieties. In addition you will learn about cognitive processes such as attention, memory, language processing, perception and problem-solving.</p> <p>All level 3 students attend a tutorial strand in the first term which helps them to develop and implement their research and project planning skills as they pursue their independent research projects.</p> <p>Single Honours students receive one-to-one supervision as they conduct sustained, supervised independent study in the form of a dissertation</p> <p>The following is a selection of dissertation titles in 2014:</p> <ul> <li>‘An investigation into how gender affects non-standard features used on Facebook statuses and attitudes towards these uses’</li> <li>‘Determining intergroup relations through perceptions of English regional accents’</li> <li>‘The Impact of Foster Care on Language Development’</li> <li>‘A Game of Thrones: The use of British accents to distinguish a North-South divide in the TV show <em>Game of Thrones</em>’</li> <li>‘An investigation into the use of euphemisms in obituaries’</li> <li>‘English and Eurovision: how has Anglophone pop music influenced the Eurovision Song Contest?</li> </ul> <p>All year 3 students have an opportunity to showcase their research project or dissertation at an Honours Conference.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 1.5em;">You may also be interested in...</span></p> <p><a href="http://www.hope.ac.uk/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses/creativewriting/">Creative Writing</a></p> <p><a href="/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses/dramaandtheatrestudies/">Drama and Theatre Studies</a></p> <p><a href="/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses/englishliterature/">English Literature</a></p> <p><a href="/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses/mediaandcommunication/">Media and Communication</a></p> </div>