EIU3110

English: language and culture

(ART)

Lorraine Bullock

6 points + 3 hours per week + First semester + Clayton + Prerequisites: EIU2110 and EIU2130 or permission

Synopsis: This unit examines the complex relationship between language and culture focusing particularly on the second language perspective of the students. When students are from a non-English-speaking background they are expected to master much more than a body of information expressed in a different language; they meet, in addition, a whole world of cultural presuppositions. In our diverse cultures we learn to interpret the world differently, to adopt different patterns of thinking and to reflect all of these in our language in a variety of ways. The unit explores how the English language embodies the attitudes and behaviours which reflect its culture, in speech and in writing.

Assessment: Written (2200 words): 30% + Examinations (2 hours in total): 15% + Seminar participation: 5% + Group research paper (1200 words): 25% + Seminar paper: 25%