English II

Course Code: EN102E

Institution:

School of Arts and Communication

Revision:

3.1

For students admitted spring 2012   fall 2011   spring 2011   fall 2010  

Other set versions

Approval

The course was established 02 March 2007.
This course syllabus (version 3.1) was approved 17 June 2010 by the Board of Studies at Faculty of Culture and Society.
The syllabus is valid from 01 September 2010. Replacement for course syllabus ratified 25 May 2010.

Education level

Advancement in relation to the degree requirements

Entry requirements

Learning outcomes

• has an understanding of culture as shared meanings
• has knowledge of some of the theories about representation and culture
• can show knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives: International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Nature and Resource Management, and Equality and Gender

• can analyze different kinds of representations
• can analyze representations within the field of culture
• can begin to analyze the effects and consequences of representations
• can apply knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives to issues pertaining to language and culture

• can reflect on why representations are important in our culture and what effects they have, and how they produce identities and practices

• understands how language shapes discourse and how discourse shapes language
• has a basic awareness of how people draw on the knowledge they have about language, based on what has been said, heard, seen or written before
• can show knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives: International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Nature and Resource Management, and Equality and Gender

• can perform analyses of different types of text from perspectives such as context, situation, participants and purpose
• can utilize skills from language analysis in their own written production
• can apply knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives to issues pertaining to language and culture

• can reflect on what language does; exchange information, express feelings, arouse sentiment, affect opinion, etc

• knowledge of some of the canonical texts of English literature, their historical context, and of literary history as a field;
• has a basic understanding of canon formation and the debates surrounding it
• can show knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives: environment, gender, and migration and ethnicity.

• can perform basic analyses of literary texts;
• is able to read literary texts closely and sensitively with a particular attention to their historical and aesthetic contexts.
• can apply knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives to issues pertaining to literature.

• can reflect on how identities and meanings are constructed and contested through different kinds of engagement with the/a literary canon.

• understands a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analysing and synthesising appropriate primary and secondary sources;
• has knowledge of the conventions of usage, specialised vocabulary, format and documentation in his or her field;
• understands the relationships among language, knowledge and power, and
• can show knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives: International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Nature and Resource Management, and Equality and Gender.

• can use writing as a way for discovering, clarifying, explaining and advocating ideas in a discourse community that embodies the ideas of collaboration, shared ownership and shared authority;
• can use conventions of format and structure appropriate to different rhetorical situations;
• can integrate their own ideas with those of others;
• demonstrates the ability to work to agreed timetables, manage workloads, and meet deadlines, and
• can apply knowledge of Malmö University’s perspectives to issues pertaining to English in academic settings.

• demonstrates confidence in their abilities to communicate effectively in both written and oral contexts for a variety of purposes and to diverse audiences;
• applies a variety of strategies including diplomacy and compromise to solve problems, and
• can speak English in an accent that is understood by a majority of English speakers.

Assessments

Culture and Representation
The module is examined through a group presentation and an exam. The student must receive a passing grade in both examination elements to pass the module.

Language Analysis
The module is examined through one graded written paper, one graded written examination and obligatory written course work in the form of several written assignments and one oral presentation in groups. The student must receive a passing grade in all examination elements to pass the module.

Approaching the English Canon
The module is examined through one individual paper and a written exam. In the papers students have a chance to demonstrate their ability to read and interpret the literature closely and sensitively in relation to historical and aesthetic contexts. The student must receive a passing grade in all examination elements to pass the course.

Academic Writing and Rhetoric II
The module is examined through two graded written assignments. The student must receive a passing grade in all examination elements to pass the module.


Course content

English II consists of the following modules:

• Culture and Representation, 7.5 credits
• Language Analysis, 7.5 credits
• Approaching the English Canon, 7.5 credits
• Academic Writing and Rhetoric II, 7.5 credits

Culture and Representation
This module deals with culture and its representations. The underlying assumption is that culture consists of shared meanings and involves the linking of things (objects, people, events) with concepts and signs (language). In order to understand the complexity of linking things with language, we need to understand the semiotic and ideological structures that enable the sharing of meanings, and how these shared meanings regulate social practices and contribute to the formation of identities. In this module we look at how representational systems produce meanings, and how we can begin to analyze the effects and consequences of those meanings.

Language Analysis
This module introduces methods for analysing language as it is used in actual communicative situations. The focus is on what happens when people use the knowledge they have about language, knowledge based on what they have said, heard, seen or written before, in order to do things with language (exchange information, express feelings etc). The basic questions underlying this kind of analysis are: Why is this stretch of discourse the way it is? Why is it no other way? In particular, we deal with how language is shaped by, and shapes, different aspects of a communicative situation, such as participants, medium, and purpose.

Approaching the English Canon
This module is an introduction to the canon of English literature from Shakespeare to the postmodern/postcolonial novel of the 21st century. The module concentrates on close readings of selected texts divided into three sections, each with their own separate focus. The module proceeds through a combination of lectures and seminars, with the aim of deepening students’ understanding of the historical development of literature and culture in the English speaking world at the same time as it discusses the phenomenon of canon formation.

Academic Writing and Rhetoric II
The module approaches critical thinking, reading and writing as complex and flexible processes for learning as well as communicating.


Learning activities

Learning activities are lectures, seminars, written assignments and self-studies of course literature.


Grading system

Fail (U), Pass (G) or Pass with Distinction (VG). ECTS grading system can be used on students demand.


Reading list and other media

Language Analysis
Johnstone, Barbara. 2007. Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 1405144270
Resource books on grammar (not obligatory):

Greenbaum, Sidney & Gerald Nelson. 2009. An Introduction to English Grammar. Harlow: Longman. ISBN 9781405874120

Crystal, D. 2004. Rediscover Grammar. 3rd edition. Harlow: Pearson Education. ISBN 0582848628

Culture and Representation
Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London & Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage in association with the Open University, 1997.

Approaching the English Canon
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights: The 1847 Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism.
New York & London: Norton, 2003. ISBN: 0393978893

Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. London: Vintage, 2000. ISBN: 0099284820

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Oxford School Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006. ISBN 0198321511

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, Contexts, Nineteenth-
Century Responses, Modern Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. ISBN:
9780393964585

Academic Writing and Rhetoric II
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. 5th ed. New York: Pearson and Longman

My CompLab (online resourse)

Additional photocopied material or electronic publications may be introduced by the teacher but no more than 50 pages.


Course evaluation

All students are offered an opportunity to give oral or written feedback at the end of the course. A summary of the results will be made available in the school’s web-pages. The students are also given a possibility to offer feedback for each module.

Student participation takes place through the course council/program council.