omne initium difficile est

'Introduction to English Language aims to give students a broad overview of some of the main areas of study involved in the discipline of linguistics: the study of language, i.e. ...

"- a solid basis in language analysis from which to proceed". '

 Satori Soden, EN1023, 2012, p.1

Scoring policy and checking points

2^nd Course students 18/36

By the end of the course you should:

Ø  have good knowledge of the basic structure of the English language;

Ø  have sound understanding of the basic terminology and concepts relevant to the study of languages;

Ø  develop a basic critical understanding of the range and variety of traditions and approaches to the study of languages;

Ø  have improved basic skills in written expression and critical analysis.

The Key Assessment Criteria

One will be assessed according to your ability to:

ü use basic linguistic terminology;
ü demonstrate solid understanding of linguistic theory and research;
ü apply techniques of linguistic analysis to appropriate data sets and discuss them critically;
ü demonstrate good knowledge of the basic structure of the English language.

what is on the AGENDA?

yOU NEED TO READ CAREFULLY FIRST THE INTRO

lET iT BE CALLED U1 for now)) 

1 Introduction .................................................................... 3

Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Scope of this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .3

Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . ...4

Suggested study timetable . . . . . . . . . .  . . . .. . . . . .. 7

Method of assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . 7

How to approach the examination . . .. . . . .. . . . . . 8

Writing essays and examination answers in linguistics . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................... 9

Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

what is on the AGENDA for 08-09-2020?

U2.1. The nature of language                                                11

Essential reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . 11

Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .. . 11

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... .. . 11

What is language? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 11

What is a language? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 12

The differences between animal communication and human language . . . .................................................................14

Introduction to English Language by Geri Popova and Satori Soden

EN1023, 2012

what comes next?

U2.2. The nature of language 11

Acquiring language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Can animals learn a language? Experiments and unusual situations . . . . ........................................................... 19

Explaining language acquisition . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Learning outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . 21

Sample examination questions . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 21

Introduction to English Language by Geri Popova and Satori Soden

EN1023, 2012

LOOKING CLOSELY AT LANGUAGE

According to Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans

 "LOOKING CLOSELY AT LANGUAGE CAN TELL US ABOUT:

■  HOW OUR BRAINS UNDERSTAND AND PROCESS LANGUAGE (PSYCHOLINGUISTICS)

■  HOW WE LEARN LANGUAGES, AND SO HOW BEST TO TEACH THEM (APPLIED LINGUISTICS)

■  HOW SOCIAL FACTORS (AGE, GENDER, CLASS, ETHNICITY, ETC.) AFFECT THE WAY PEOPLE USE LANGUAGE (SOCIOLINGUISTICS)

■  HOW IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO HAVE A REALISTIC CONVERSATION WITH A COMPUTER 

(ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE)

■  WHAT IS DISTINCTIVE ABOUT LITERATURE AND POETRY (STYLISTICS)

■  HOW PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT CULTURES USE LANGUAGE TO DO THINGS (ANTHROPOLOGY)

■  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORDS AND MEANING AND THE ‘REAL’ WORLD  (PHILOSOPHY)

■  WHETHER SOMEONE IS GUILTY OF A CRIMINAL OFFENCE (FORENSIC LINGUISTICS)"

■  THE STRUCTURE OF NON-VERBAL LANGUAGES (E.G. SIGN LANGUAGES).

The source of the quote:

Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans

Language, Society and Power: An Introduction.

Fourth edition, 2015, p. 3.

We can investigate language (or a language!) by 

considering:

•  how it is learnt by speakers

•  where language (or a particular) language came from, in other words, its ancestry or past

•  how it is used by speakers

•  its structure.

Satori Soden, EN1023, 2012, p. 3

Syllabus Key Points 

1^st  Term

Тема 1 Language,  Linguistics, English varieties and acquisition

 Weeks 1–2 Introductory readings on language; how linguists study language; prescriptive and descriptive approaches

Weeks 3–4 Language as a property of humans; how language differs from other forms of communication; how humans acquire language;

Weeks 5–6 The history of English and its spread around the world; English as a global language and new varieties of English; English as a first and as a second language;

Тема 2. English phonetics, phonology and morphology

Weeks 7–9 The sounds of language: phonetics, phonology, prosody;

Weeks 10–11 Word structure: morphology;

2^nd Term

Тема 3. English Syntax and Semantics

Weeks 12–14 Sentence structure: constituency tests, phrases, different approaches to language analysis (theoretical grammars; descriptive grammars; systemic-functional grammar)

Weeks 15–16 Approaches to word meaning (sense and reference, prototype theory, componential analysis), lexical relations;

Weeks 17–18 Sentence meaning: truth-conditional semantics, structural ambiguity;

Тема 4. Language use in context

Weeks 19–21 Language use in context: pragmatics, Speech Act Theory, Grice’s Maxims, politeness theory;

Week 22 Revision and review: draw up a schedule of topics to revise and possible examination questions that may be asked.

• phonetics and phonology (the study of speech sounds)

• morphology (the study of words)

• syntax (the study of the structure of sentences)

• semantics (the study of word and sentence meaning)

• pragmatics (the study of speaker meaning).

 Another definition:

§  Phonetics – the study of speech sounds in their physical aspects

§  Phonology – the study of speech sounds in their cognitive aspects

§  Morphology – the study of the formation of words

§  Syntax – the study of the formation of sentences

§  Semantics – the study of meaning

§  Pragmatics – the study of language use

What applied linguistic tasks are like?   

Task 01. MORFAR (M)

"Бабушка из Норвегии"
Даны четыре норвежских слова: farmor, farfar, mormor, morfar.
Первое из них можно перевести на русский язык как «бабушка», но в хороших норвежско-русских словарях обычно проводится более точное его значение.

Задание

Переведите норвежские слова на русский и английский.

The Demands

Introduction to English Language EN1023

'Please answer any ONE question from the 2018 past paper, available in the exam paper database on the Introduction to English Language course page on the VLE (under 'Examination Papers and Reports')

Word limit:  1000 words.'

The Demands

Format and presentation: all submissions should

*be in one single Word document (preferably Word 97-2003 or Word 2007 – no rich text files please);

*provide a title page detailing

·         your name

·         student registration number

·         course (e.g. ‘Approaches to Text’)

·         course code (e.g. EN1010)

·         your tutor group letter (e.g. ‘Tutor Group A’)

·         the name of your tutor

·         the number and question written out in full

·         total word count for the essay (for all courses except Introduction to Creative Writing);

*unless otherwise stipulated, use double-spacing, 12 point Times New Roman font;

*reference all quoted material and provide a full bibliography at the end;

*consistently follow ONE of the following styles for referencing and bibliographies – MHRA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard.  You can download the MHRA style guide for free at the following link -

http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/index.html

Presentation Structure (on average 12 slides)

1.1. Title list

1.2. Present yourself and formulate your topic.

2.1. Provide Short Introduction

2.2. Give reasons, why your presentation topic is important. Start with the problem.

3.1. Make clear mapping of what you have to say. Formulate the tasks of your report.

3.2. Present the structure of your talk and slides.

4.1. Present a short narrative about the genesis of the concept under study.

4.2. Present clear definitions of new terms and notions; use references.

4.3. Introduce cases; provide examples.

4.4. Visualize the ideas /use block diagram, pie chart, flow chart etc./.

4.5. Explain interconnections between key ideas of your report. Use comparison of the key concept of your presentation with alternative approaches. 

5.1. Provide cues for feedback.

5.2. Be prepared for answering teacher's and student's questions

6.1. Specify connections to other topics in the subject of study. Formulate the limitations of your report.

6.2. Provide a list of checking questions/ a set of exercises or tasks for the audience.

6.3. Provide a set of interactive testing tools for checking understanding of the message by the audience; use QR-code for LearningApps tests, Google tests or Kahoot.

7.1. Provide List of References.

8.1. Provide a Glossary of Key Terms of your presentation.

9.1. Get ready to answer additional questions by the teacher and fellow-students

What applied linguistic tasks are like?   

Task 01. Theory )))

(a) Tell the difference between philosophy of language and theory of language. X

(b) Tell the difference between applied linguistics and linguistics applied.

(c) How old is English?

(d) Which language is older? English? French? Russian?

(e) Is English a global language? Why? Is it any good?

(f) What is Language?

(g) What is a language?

(h) What is Linguistics?

(i) Why We Should Care About Dying Languages?

(j) What family of languages does Basque belong to? X

Task B

Solve the task.

Task C

Solve the task.

(a) Get ready for dictation. 

(b) Find a grammar error in the following sentence. 

This exceeding trifling witling, considering ranting criticizing concerning adopting fitting wording being exhibiting transcending learning, was displaying, notwithstanding ridiculing, surpassing boasting swelling reasoning, respecting correcting erring writing, and touching detecting deceiving arguing during debating.

~ Goold Brown (1851)

(c) Write an analytical essay.

Choose a unique comparison pair for your essay topic. 

Analytical Trial Essay Structure (2,000 words)

i. The concept of the method of scientific research / language / linguistics / language acquisition (language learning or something...). State the problem and the task of your Research.

Provide context and standard criteria for its evaluation.

ii. Analytical description of method / concept / approach/ point of view 1.

(Highlight Key principles and Features. Be specific. Citing is welcome. Quoting must be followed by analysis. Describe your analytical tools. Provide enough examples.)

iii. Analytical description of method / concept / approach/ point of view 2.

(Highlight Key principles and Features. Be specific. Citing is welcome.Citing is welcome. Quoting must be followed by analysis. Describe your analytical tools. Provide enough examples.)

iv. Elicit and state the common features of two methods / conceptions (a block diagram).

v. Elicit and state the differences of two methods or matters under study.

vi. Show advantages and disadvantages of the two compared methods / conceptions. 

vii. Provide a Comparison table.

viii. Provide the two methods or concepts compatibility analysis.

ix. Conclusion. Pinpoint key results. State the limitations of your study. 

x. References

The Task.

Translate the words in bold into modern English.

Traust me, þó it may seem oddi at first, we er still very líkligr to use the same words the Vikings did in our everyday speech. 

Þeirra language evolved into the modern-day Scandinavian languages, but þeir (they) also gave English the gift of hundreds of words.

Beowulf (Old English)

An alphabetical list of 750 loanwords from French.

Об обучении в дистанционном режиме

Студент считается присутствующим на занятии, если у него включены камера и микрофон, и при этом студент активно включается в работу.

Topics foe essays /by 24-11-2020/

1. Old english and danelagh ['deɪnlɔː] influence

2. grimm's law

3. verner's law

4. medieval english

5. Great Vowel shift

6. English as lingua franca [ˌlɪnguʌ'fræŋkə]

7. Early modern english

8. wORLD ENGLISHES

9. ENGLISH AND GLOBISH

(1000 WORDS)

rEFERENCES and examples REQUIRED

Topics foe essays /by 1-12-2020/

1. English as a World language versus World Englishes

2. EFL versus ESL and ELF

3. Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE) versus Cockney dialect

4. English pidgins today

5. AAVE versus Jafaikan

6. Nativization versus englishization in creoles

7. Decreolization and Hypercorrection

8. Koine versus Pidgin and Creole

9. Global English versus Panglish

10. American English versus British English Grammar

11. Substrates, superstrates and adstratum(a) in the history of English.

12. Linuicism and linguicide

13. Contact language versus creole 

(2000 WORDS)

rEFERENCES and examples REQUIRED

USE ANALYTICAL ESSAY STRUCTURE

tHE TASK

1. LOOK AT THE MAP, NAME the COUNTRIES AND MAKE YOUR COMMENTS. BASED ON THE LECTURE AND some expedient EXTRA INFORMATION

2. rEAD ABOUT ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES 

statuses of english 

3. Read about english pidgins and creoles

4. present your critique of the map and suggest your amendments