LIN3020

BA(Languages) - capping unit II - language, culture and society

Michael Clyne

4 points
* one 2-hour seminar per fortnight
* Second semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisite: enrolment in BA(Languages)

Objectives (1) To reflect on the experience of acquiring languages and cultural understanding from a comparative perspective. (2) To share experiences with students taking other languages/same language/different combinations of languages. (3) To gain an understanding of the following issues relating to language, culture and society: language, nationalism and nationhood; pragmatics and cultural behaviour; language and cultural relativity; linguistic determinism; less commonly used languages vs languages of wider communication; corpus planning; `Asian' and `European languages; and language and identity.

Synopsis The seminars will investigate issues concerned with language, culture and society and will enable students to reflect on the experience of acquiring languages and cultural understanding from a comparative perspective.

Assessment Class participation: 20%
* Class paper written up as 3000-word assignment: 80%

Prescribed texts

A reading list will be issued in class.