Welcome to English (1-30) 30,0 Credits

Information from the course co-ordinator

Your full commitment to studying this course is crucial. If you have registered but changed your mind about taking this course, you should immediately inform our administrator, Monika Karlsson (studentsupport@hig.se), that you wish to be removed from the course list; there are applicants on the reserve list who could be admitted to the course within the first two weeks of the semester. We will schedule a mandatory "roll-call" session on Zoom in connection with your first seminar (week 4). You will find the time and place for the roll-call and your first seminars in the schedule four weeks before the course starts. If you cannot attend the first meeting but are committed to studying this course, contact Jessika Nilsson at jessika.v.nilsson@hig.se before the meeting takes place and briefly explain in writing why you want to study English.

Since this course runs at 50%, you must be prepared to allocate 20 hours of study per week, including class attendance, reading and writing assignments. Studying for 15 credits in one term is like a half-time job.

You will study five modules in total within this course:

Language Structure (7.5 hp)

Written Communication (7.5 hp)

World English (3 hp)

Culture, Ethnicity and Identity (4.5 hp)

Contemporary Literature in English (7.5 hp)

Culture, Ethnicity and Identity (weeks 3-8), Contemporary Literature in English (weeks 9-18) and World English (weeks 19-22) will be taught during the spring term of 2024. During the fall term of 2024, the remaining two modules will be taught.

You should order all the course books indicated in the syllabus as “Kurslitteratur”. The “Referenslitteratur” is not obligatory but can be used for further reading on the topics addressed in the course. Please note that the modules are not taught in the order that they are presented in the literature list. Make sure you order the literature for the first module (Culture, Ethnicity and Identity), John McLeod’s Beginning Postcolonialism (2010), in good time before the course starts.

More information about the content and assessment procedures for individual modules will be published by the instructors on the course site in Canvas. All five modules include student participation in their assessment procedures. The teaching usually consists of lectures and seminars, but each module has its own structure and policy with respect to the forms of teaching.

It is important that you log onto Canvas in good time before the course starts, since this will be our main channel for communication. This is where you will find material about our course such as the timetable, instructions, and additional resources. This is also where general announcements concerning the course will be posted. The email client will be used to send individual messages when necessary. Therefore, check the course page and your email regularly. Please note that the Canvas calendar is not your class schedule; it only indicates deadlines for Canvas assignments. Use the link to the “Course Schedule” to access your class schedule.

We will meet in a virtual classroom using Zoom. Information on how to access this classroom will be posted in Canvas. For us all to be able to benefit from a good quality of reception it is recommended that you use broadband and not a wireless connection. It is also important that you use a good headset with a microphone instead of the microphone on the computer only. A good camera is also essential for communicative purposes. Unfortunately, iPads, tablets, and cellphones do not work well for this activity.

Cheating and plagiarizing are serious academic offences, which result in failing the course and being reported to the college’s disciplinary commission. In Canvas, you are required to take a knowledge test about cheating before you submit any course assignments.