Topics in Grammar and Discourse: Description and Application (P00398)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : PPL-P-TGDLING

Effective language teaching depends on effective language description. Most parts of the 'total language teaching operation' - for example syllabus design, materials writing, testing, classroom explanations, and the making of reference grammars and dictionaries - testify to the truth of this statement. Effective language description is both accurate (it reflects, as far as possible, actual current usage) and appropriate (it is the right description for the task in hand). This course offers an opportunity for careful descriptive study of selected topics in lexico-grammar and discourse (mainly, but not exclusively, of English), considers the criteria for evaluating a language description as one that is pedagogically useful, and examines both the processes of making pedagogical descriptions and examples of products of these processes. The latter are drawn from a variety of sources, including reference grammars, course books and learner's dictionaries.

Examples of topics which may be covered are: reference and the articles; tense and aspect; modality; uses of vague language; conversational routines; discourse markers; some features of the grammar of spoken English. Cross linguistic comparisons will be considered where possible, depending on the language knowledge and interests of members of the class.

Venue:
Tuesday - G18 Adam Ferguson Building
Thursday - 1.02, 14 Buccleuch Place

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Language Sciences, (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Schedule I)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 20 minutes per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
08/01/2008	16:00	17:00	Room G18, Adam Ferguson Building	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	16:10	17:00	Central
Lecture	Thursday	15:00	17:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course participants will have developed their knowledge and understanding of:
- selected topics in the description of the lexico-grammar and discourse of (mainly, but not exclusively) English;
- the differences between, and the relationship between, language descriptions produced by linguists and those which are suitable for language teaching;
- the nature of pedagogical descriptions of grammar, lexis and discourse;
- the place of pedagogical description in language teaching, particularly in matters of method and materials design;
and will be able to:
- think critically and independently about issues of language description;
- evaluate published pedagogical descriptions;
- plan and produce linguistic descriptions which are accurate and appropriate, drawing on a variety of sources of data, including large and small corpora and published reference works.

Assessment Information

5000-word project.

The aim of the project is to offer a rationale for, and produce, a description of some aspect (lexico-grammatical or discoursal) of some language (it need not be English). The description should meet the criteria of accuracy (it should reflect, as far as possible, actual current usage) and appropriacy (it should be the right description for the task in hand, i.e. for some specified situation of use).