Welcome to English (61-90) 30,0 Credits

Information from the course co-ordinator

This course is our 61 to 90 cr. course in the English Studies Section. The first ten weeks of the semester you will study “Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition” and “Literature and Literary Theory.” You will write the C-essay for the remainder of the term. Class meetings are online and literature module meetings will usually be held on Mondays between 10-12 while linguistics module meetings will be held on Thursdays between 10-12. Note however that your first literature meeting in week 4 will be on Tuesday between 10-12 instead. The course coordinator is Kavita Thomas (kavita.thomas@hig.se). You should register for the course well before the start of the course which is in week 4. Once you register, you will be automatically enrolled on Canvas, our learning platform. Here is information on how to register:

https://www.hig.se/Ext/Sv/Student/Dina-studier/Kursregistrering.html External link.

The linguistics module presents central concepts in two central areas of applied linguistics: second language acquisition and sociolinguistics. You will learn about and discuss the implications of the central concepts in these fields, exploring how they apply to your own observations. Furthermore, you will explore research involving these concepts and see how linguists study language phenomena in these two fields. In the second language acquisition part, you will learn about different theories of second language acquisition and about factors that can affect learning a foreign language. In the sociolinguistics part of the module you will learn about how social factors like gender and class can affect language and about how language can be used to define and express identity. The required textbooks are:

Wardhaugh, Ronald, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 7th edition, Blackwell, 2015. Available as an ebook from the University of Gävle library.

Coates, Jennifer, Women, Men and Language, 3rd ed, Routledge, 2016.

Mitchell, Rosamond, Myles, Florence and Marsden, Emma, Second Language Learning Theories, 4th edition, Routledge, 2019.

Gass, Susan M., Behney, Jennifer, Plonsky, Larry, Second Language Acquisition, an Introductory Course, 5th edition, Routledge, 2020.

The module will be taught through 10 seminars which students are expected to attend and participate actively in. There are a number of assessed written assignments which come to a total of 15-18 pages (4700-5700 words).

The Literature module serves as an introduction to some of the most influential developments in critical thinking. Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Fourth Edition (2017) and Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (2023) (older editions are also fine) provide helpful starting points regarding the current breadth and complexity of literary and cultural studies. We will read five novels from a cultural and theoretical perspective. These texts are:
Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley

Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

Beloved by Toni Morrison

There will be five written assignments of 1000-1200 words for the Literature course, one for each book we discuss in class.

On Canvas, you will find specific information, such as detailed course descriptions, class schedule, teaching materials, course requirements, discussion forums, and assignments. A great part of your work will be carried out via Canvas, too. It is therefore essential that you register, which will enroll you in the course on Canvas before the semester starts. Course registration opens two weeks before course start, in week 1. See the link to register at the start of this welcome letter. Once the module has started, you should check the course site on Canvas on a daily basis. Important information will be posted by your instructors on the first page of the course site (as “Announcements”).

All the meetings for this course are online, in “digital classrooms” via the web conferencing system Zoom. Access to the digital classrooms will be provided through links posted in the course site on Canvas. Please note that you need to have a headset, a microphone and a webcam so as to be able to fully participate in our Zoom sessions. You will find a user guide to Zoom and information about the software at .https://www.hig.se/Ext/En/University-of-Gavle/Library/Learning-Center/Web-meetings-with-Zoom.html

First class meetings

Your first meeting in literature will be on Tuesday, January 21, 10–12, online in the following zoom classroom: https://hig-se.zoom.us/j/6914805372 External link.

Prior to that meeting you should read Crome Yellow and have read the chapter on Marxism in Barry. If you have any questions concerning the literature module, please get in touch with Iulian.Cananau@hig.se (if you need to reach someone before week 4) and otherwise, from week 4 onward, please contact the module instructor, Fredrik Svensson, directly: Fredrik.Svensson@hig.se.

Your first meeting in linguistics will be in week 4 on Thursday, January 23, 10–12, here: https://hig-se.zoom.us/j/67081253822 External link. You can find the reading and lecture to watch prior to our first meeting on Canvas in the C linguistics module. The reading is specified in the C linguistics syllabus in the linguistics module folder and you should read this document carefully when you are enrolled on Canvas. Please contact the instructor, Kavita Thomas, if you have any questions: Kavita.Thomas@hig.se.

Students attending courses in English at the University of Gävle are required to attend class in order to receive a passing grade. Studying English at our college does not only involve obtaining subject knowledge, but also improving one’s ability to speak and write in English, and this can only take place if students meet their teachers and actively participate in the instruction. Furthermore, the first two modules feature live, face-to-face, student-teacher and student-student interaction, and these live sessions are examination seminars according to the syllabus (kursplan). For these reasons, we require attendance, with only minor exceptions. To pass the course, students must attend and actively participate in at least eight meetings in each of the two modules, “Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition” and “Literature and Literary Theory.”

While studying the first two modules, you should think about the kind of research paper you want to write in the last 15-credit module. By the end of the first two modules, your course coordinator (Kavita Thomas) should know if you are going to write your paper in literature or in language studies. You will then be assigned an essay advisor who will work with you for the remainder of the course. Bear in mind that this is a full-time course of study and you should expect to put in about 40 hours a week on the course. Please contact the course coordinator with questions on the course itself. You will find answers to your questions on the individual modules on the Canvas course site.

Cheating and plagiarizing are serious academic offences, which result in failing the module in question and being reported to the college’s disciplinary commission. The use of AI in the production of written assignments for this course is considered plagiarism and oral examinations of students' written work at seminars will be used to ensure that students get the most out of the taught modules, which can only happen when they do the work themselves. To learn about plagiarism and get basic information on how to avoid it, please read the following disclaimer carefully before the beginning of the course:
https://hig.se/download/18.1a5c0163b4c29a902f8/1527755508111/Plagiarism.pdf External link.