English Language and Linguistics

Language is said by many people to be unique to our species. Certainly we are all involved in relationships, projects and institutions that could not exist without complex linguistic interaction. Over a lifetime, we each need to produce and respond to huge quantities of language, with enormous consequences for our lives and livelihoods. Most of the time we are not aware of all the linguistic choices we're making when we talk or write. Studying English Language and Linguistics will give you the tools for analysing language (your own or other people's).

English Language and Linguistics (ELL) is a social science that uncovers systematic patterns in language and language use. Our main focus is on the English language, but students are given examples in unfamiliar languages, and they explore how and why regional, social and functional varieties of language vary. This provides a very useful platform for going further with theoretical linguistics itself, but is also valuable for many other fields of study, such as learning other languages (e.g. Mandarin or Spanish), literary criticism, creative writing, psychology, sociology, media studies, law, philosophy, and language teaching. Many of the questions about culture, cognition, and social structure that are the focus of these fields can only be addressed by understanding how language works.

Questions we ask in ELL include:

• What do we unconsciously know about our own language?

• What happens in language use that we could not know about just from intuition?

• What does our use of language tell other people about us, and how does that affect our professional and social opportunities?

• Is it possible to avoid bias when we speak or write?

• What kinds of language difficulties are different learners likely to have and why?

• What is the relation between cultural change and language change?

• Why are some texts, and some styles of writing and speaking, valued more highly than others?

A major in ELL will enhance your ability to produce and analyse written and spoken English, and will also equip you to reason about language and make linguistic arguments about social issues. The course teaches fundamental skills that linguists use to analyse language, such as phonetic transcription, grammatical description and discourse analysis. It also teaches critical skills, like how to unravel a technical text, and will introduce you to fundamental tools such as online databases of spoken and written English (corpora).

An ELL major can lead to a professional qualification in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) if further study is undertaken in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Staff in ELL are internationally recognised researchers in functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, medical discourse analysis, and second language writing. If you take a major or a minor in ELL you will have the opportunity to conduct small research projects in these or related areas.

Major Study

A major in English Language and Linguistics for students who have completed their secondary education in an English-speaking environment (ESB students) consists of a minimum of 52 credit points, and must include 12 credit points at 100-level, 16 credit points at 200-level and 24 credit points at 300-level.

For students who completed secondary school or equivalent in a language other than English (NESB students), a major in English Language and Linguistics consists of a minimum of 58 credit points and must include 18 credit points at 100-level, 16 credit points at 200-level and 24 credit points at 300-level. Students who are uncertain whether they should be in the NESB or the ESB stream must consult the ELL Convenor.

Minor Study

A minor in English Language and Linguistics consists of 28 credit points for ESB students and 34 credit points for NESB students. For students from an English-speaking environment (ESB students) a minor in English Language and Linguistics will consist of two cores, ELL182 and ELL110, plus any two subjects from the following list: ELL 210, ELL 220, ELL 271, ELL 281 and ELL 310. Students from other language backgrounds (NESB students) will take three core subjects (ELL 110, ELL 152 and ELL 151) plus any two subjects from the following list: ELL 210, ELL 220, ELL 271, ELL 281 and ELL 310. Students may not cross-count any subjects from the minor in any other minor or major study.

Honours

See Bachelor of Arts Honours

Study Program

Subject Code	Subject Name	Session	Credit Points
CORE 100-Level - NESB (Non-English-Speaking Background) students
ELL 151	Effective spoken communication (NESB)	Spring	6
ELL 152	Effective written communication (NESB)	Autumn	6
ELL 110	Language in social Life	Spring	6
CORE 100-Level - ESB (English-Speaking Background) students
ELL 182	Effective written communication (English-Speaking Background)	Autumn	6
ELL 110	Language in social life	Spring	6
CORE 200-Level - all students
ELL 271	Grammar and discourse 1	Autumn	8
ELL 220	Corpus approaches to learning, teaching and analysing language	N/O 2013	8
CORE 300-Level - all students
ELL 315	Using language as evidence	Spring	8
ELL 371	Grammar and Meaning 1	Spring	8
Electives- all students
ELL 210	Communication across cultures	Autumn	8
ELL 281	Sound and meaning in language: variety, society and identity	N/O 2013	8
ELL 310	World Englishes	Autumn	8

Planning a coherent program

Focus on Discourse Analysis

An ELL major will give students experience in analysing the broader social, political, and other implications of language use and will be valuable for many areas of work. Students wishing to focus on Discourse Analysis should select whichever ELL electives they prefer. They should build on the major with additional subjects that interest them from other Arts programs (or other faculties). Additional subjects do not count towards the major but they count towards the 144 credit points required for the BA. These could be subjects that provide texts and contexts that students can analyse with ELL tools, or they could be subjects that provide alternative ways of thinking about systems of meaning, including visual and gestural systems as well language.

Focus on TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

Students wishing to pursue a career in TESOL should take a major in ELL which will prepare them for a graduate diploma or Masters degree in TESOL, to be taken within the Faculty of Social Sciences. Within their ELL major students interested in TESOL are strongly encouraged to take, as an elective, the following subject from the ELL electives.

ELL 281 Sound and meaning: variety, society & identity

Students interested in TESOL are also advised to take one or more of the following subjects from the Faculty of Social Sciences, which will not form part of the major itself but will count towards the 144 points required for the BA.

• EDET 302 Programming and Methodology in Second Language Teaching (Spring 6 cp)

• EDEK 401 Teaching, Reading and Writing to Second Language Learners (Spring 6 cp)

• EDET 401 Teaching Speaking and Listening to Second Language Learners (Autumn 6 cp)

• EDET 402 Teaching English in International Contexts (Autumn 6 cp)

Other teaching programs

Many ELL students also take a Major in ELL and then undertake a Graduate Diploma in Education to become primary or secondary teachers in NSW. These programs may also be combined with a major in another language such as Japanese or French. Please discuss these options with the Convenor of each language you wish to study.

Other Information

Further information is available at http://coursefinder.uow.edu.au/ or email: Arts - fac-arts@uow.edu.au