Courses
English (ENG)
Concentrations
- ANTH-L 300 Language and Culture (3 cr.) This course explores the relationships between language and culture, focusing on research methodology and surveying various theoretical frameworks. Topics to be discussed include linguistic relativity (the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis), ethnographies of communication, interview techniques, and methods of data collection and analysis.
- ASL-L 340 Interpreting Discourse: ASL to English (3 cr.) This course focuses on the analysis of language use in different genres of spoken English so that interpreting students become explicitly aware of everyday language. Students collect, transcribe, and analyze features of conversations, lectures, explanations, interviews, descriptions, and other types of speech genres while reading and discussing theoretical notions underlying language use in English.
- ENG-W 310 Language and the Study of Writing (3 cr.) An introduction to the logical foundation and rhetorical framework of effective writing.
- ENG-Z 104 Language in our World (3 cr.) This course explores the power and importance of language in our everyday lives and looks at how language unites and separates us culturally, politically, socially, and psychologically.
- ENG-Z 204 Rhetorical Issues in Grammar and Usage (3 cr.) An introduction to English grammar and usage that studies the rhetorical impact of grammatical structures (such as noun phrases, prepositional phrases, and different sentence patterns). This course considers language trends and issues, the role of correctness in discourse communities, and the relations between writing in context and descriptive and prescriptive grammars and usage guides.
- ENG-Z 205 Introduction to the English Language (3 cr.) This course is an introduction to how language, and English in particular, is structured, including sounds (phonetics and phonology), words (morphology), sentences (syntax) and meaning (semantics). Discussions focus on examples from everyday language and the application of these basic concepts to real world contexts, including language teaching and learning.
- ENG-Z 206 Introduction to Language Use (3 cr.) An introduction to how we use language in our lives. This course explores how and why language varies between different groups and places, as well as the role of context in language meaning and interpretation. Insights are applied to understanding the impact of literature, film, writing, and other disciplines.
- ENG-Z 301 History of the English Language (3 cr.) P: ENG-Z 205 is recommended. A study of the origins of the English language, focusing on how and why English has changed over time. Topics include: the process of language standardization and its impact on education and literacy, relationships between language and literature, and the changing role of English around the world.
- ENG-Z 302 Understanding Language Structure: Syntax (3 cr.) R: ENG-Z 205 is recommended. An introduction to how language is organized at the sentence level, focusing on what it means to know how to produce and understand grammatical sentences. The acquisition of syntax by children learning their first language and non-native speakers learning a second language will be studied.
- ENG-Z 303 Understanding Language Meaning: Semantics (3 cr.) Examines the question of meaning, with a focus on the English language. After introducing various approaches to the study of meaning, the course examines how linguistic semantics analyzes such concepts as entities, events, time, space, possibility, and negation, and how these relate to human culture and cognition.
- ENG-Z 310 Language in Context: Sociolinguistics (3 cr.) R: ENG-Z 206 is recommended. This course explores the relationships among language, society, and culture. The interplay between social factors such as age, sex, status, class, and education and language use are discussed within the framework of various theoretical and methodological approaches. Perceptions of several varieties of English are investigated.
- ENG-Z 370 Second Language Writing (3 cr.) R: ENG-Z 206 is recommended. The course will consider theories and practices in the teaching and evaluation of second language writing (SLW). It will explore connections between first and second language writing, literacy, culture, and a variety of purposes. Students will learn how to identify writing needs, design tasks, and assess writing, and will form a philosophy of teaching SLW.
- ENG-Z 405 Topics in the Study of Language (3 cr.) This is a variable topics course in the study of the English Language.
- ENG-Z 432 Second Language Acquisition (3 cr.) P: ENG-Z 205. An introduction to a broad range of issues in the field of second language acquisition, providing the student with an overview of the most important approaches to the fundamental questions of how people learn a second language. Provides students with basic knowledge of theories of second language acquisition and an understanding of how theoretical perspectives inform practical application.
- ENG-Z 434 Introduction to Teaching English as a Second Language (3 cr.) P: ENG-Z 432 or consent of instructor. The course examines recent theories of teaching English as a second or foreign language. Students will get a chance to examine theories and methods and develop knowledge of linguistic resources available to new and/or practicing teachers.
