L.008.32000 Project and Exploration Linguistics

Lehrende: Prof. Dr. Christian Langstrof

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar

Orga-Einheit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik

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Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 30

Voraussetzungen und Empfehlungen:
In order to attend this course, you MUST have passed the Introduction to Linguistics. This course is aimed at advanced BA students. Ideally you have already completed the modules "Beschreibungsebenen"/"Basismodul" and "History of English".“

Literatur:
A list with selected readings will be provided in the first session.

Kommentar:
Varieties of English in the Media
In this research seminar students will work on how different ways of speaking a language (“accents“) are utilised in different media formats including books, movies, and video games. We will look at the connection of accents to the social profile of fictional protagonists, the ways in which the depiction of standard vs. non-standard accents has been undergoing change over time, and the continuities and discontinuities of accents across different genres.
Patterns of linguistic variation in different media formats will be discussed in the context of various theories in sociolinguistics / language variation and change.
Students will be familiarised with a range of practical approaches analysing linguistic variation / data analysis and will apply these to their own research topics.


Language of Advertising
We are surrounded by advertising everywhere we go – posters at university, clips on YouTube, ads on Instagram and even blurbs on books that are trying to advertise the books’ content. Advertising takes many forms and so does the language used in different types of advertisements. How is language used to create an appeal? Which types of metaphors do certain companies make use of? Can we apply rules of word formation to newly created words in ads? All of these questions, as well as others, will be addressed in this seminar.
After five input sessions in which we will focus on content as well as research methods, you will get the chance to conduct your own linguistic research project in the field of language of advertising.


Accents of English
In this seminar, we will explore different native and non-native accents of English. We will look at ways of talking about and analysing accents and discuss the accents from a phonological as well as sociolinguistic point of view.

Corpus Linguistics and Language Teaching
Foreign language teaching in the German education system relies heavily on textbooks and prescribed patterns of teaching vocabulary and grammar. While there is agreement among both, researchers and practitioners, that language corpora provide a valuable additional resource in language teaching, there is still a lack of materials readily available for teachers. This course explores corpus linguistics as a tool for materials design and language teaching. We will cover theory as well as the practical use of corpora in order to:
-          understand the link between language learning processes and teaching materials
-          analyse and adapt existing teaching materials
-          design and evaluate corpus-based teaching materials

As this is a project-based course, we will start with a practical introduction to online corpus tools and how to work with them. In a second step, students will decide on a particular topic and target learner group and independently develop corpus-based material for this topic and leaner group. Course assessment is based on the design and peer-evaluation of this material.

This course is addressed at students of English linguistics (ZFBA and BA Linguistics) who consider working in coursebook publishing houses or online material design (i.e. Duolingo, Mondly…) as well as pre-service teachers of English (BEd.)

 

Wichtige Hinweise:
Please note that physical attendance is necessary in the first session so that we can determine the demand. Any spots on the course that are not taken will be given to other students.