English Language and Literature Brief Course Description

Transcription

1 English Language and Literature Brief Course Description 1. English Language (Remedial) This remedial non-credited course aims at preparing weak students for studying course Hence, the focus is on developing the student s ability to read and comprehend English texts and enable him to express himself orally and in writing, through exposure to selected texts supplemented with appropriate exercises based on those texts. 2. English Language (1) ( ) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to develop the student's ability to read and comprehend general English texts, enhance his speaking skill through classroom discussions and improve his vocabulary skills through performing different kinds of vocabulary activities. 3. English Language (2) ( ) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to develop the student s ability to read and comprehend English texts related to his major field, enhance his speaking skills through discussions and improve his writing skills through doing appropriate exercises based on those texts. 4. Writing (102107) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to train students majoring in English on paragraph writing, with special emphasis on types of sentences, coherence, and the principles of punctuation and correct language use. 5.Reading (102108) (3 credit hours) The Reading course aims at developing the reading skills of freshman students in the first year. The focus will be on skimming, scanning, and inference skills. Emphasis will be on vocabulary building. Grammar points in the program will aid reading comprehension. Writing activities will refer students to the reading text in order to develop reading skills. Individual oral presentations after reading text will develop reading skills of understanding detailed ideas. Instruction will be given in analytical reading and within informative and argumentative texts. 6. Applied Grammar/English (102109) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to teach the student the grammatical rules which govern the basic structures of present-day English, to be followed by doing intensive relevant exercises in writing, and in listening comprehension in the language laboratory. 7.Listening Comprehension and Conversation (102110) (3 credit hours) This course is designed as a form of an intensive practice in listening to English recorded material on various topics, with the aim of training the student to comprehend modern spoken English, which will be followed by detailed discussion on what they have listened to.

2 8. Pronunciation (102206) (3 credit hours) The pronunciation course is designed to help students to master English phonemes including vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and word and expressions related to stress and intonation in terms of the BBC accent through listening to native speakers' models. Reference to the American accent differences, where possible, is also relevant. 9. Introduction to Linguistics (102209) (3 credit hours) This course aims at acquainting students with the general elements of linguistics: syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics and semantics, and introducing, where applicable, different views and approaches to linguistic analyses. 10. Syntax (102215) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to expose the student to various types of English syntactic structures, with emphasis on the constituent units of sentence structure, sentence patterns, together with the underlying rules governing the setup of those patterns. The course will also cover various transformations which sentences may be subjected to, with a focus on relevant grammatical exercises. 11. General Translation (1) (English-into-Arabic)(102217) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to train the student to translate selected texts from different genres of discourse from English into Arabic, with particular emphasis on how to select the proper word, how to use Arabic nominal and verbal structures, as well as major rhetorical devices, proper punctuation, sentence linkers, and smooth transitions between paragraphs. Lively classroom discussions resulting from comparing different translations should ensue with the aim of pointing out why each group of students prefers one translation to the other. 12. Translation of Literary Texts (102223) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to introduce the student to the various approaches of translating literary texts, taking into account the historical, the cultural, the aesthetic and the linguistic dimensions of these texts, be the source language or target language ones. In this course, the student will be translating mainly texts extracted from novels and short stories (narrative - type texts) and from literary book reviews (expository or argumentative-type texts). The student will also be asked to translate a short story from English into Arabic as part of evaluating his class participation. 13. General Translation -2 )Arabic-into-English) (102225) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to train the student to translate selected texts from different genres of discourse from Arabic into English, with particular emphasis on how to select the proper word, how to use English structures, as well as major rhetorical devices, proper punctuation, sentence linkers, and smooth transitions between paragraphs. Lively classroom discussions

3 resulting from comparing different translations should ensue with the aim of pointing out why each group of students prefers one translation to the other. 14. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) (102226) (3 credit hours) ESP is a reading course that presents a number of reading texts in various subjects related to specialized fields of study such as science, engineering, computer science, business, economics, commerce, medicine, and others. It focuses on developing students' reading skills of skimming, scanning and building new strategies for understanding unseen texts in these areas. Other skills of writing, listening and speaking are also considered, and structure items in these texts are handled to serve the purpose of promoting the reading skills in focus. The course includes a short orientation on the theory of ESP, its emergence, nature, development and principles. 15. Morphology (102299) (3 credit hours) The course will cover the two major divisions of morphology: wordformation, and inflection. Students will first be taught the lexical processes that are used in forming English words, then they be taught the processes of English inflection, which have a bearing on the forms of the constituents of the syntactic of the sentence, such as changing the tense of the verb and inflecting the noun to the plural. 16. Contrastive Linguistics (102312) (3 credit hours) This course consists of a study of the theoretical assumptions of contrastive Linguistics and their implementation in foreign language teaching, error analysis and translation. Emphasis will be laid on the grammatical level, with special emphasis on syntax. 17. Semantics (102313) (3 credit hours) This course introduces students to the discipline of semantics as part of general linguistics in terms of how language links form and meaning to constitute linguistic signs pertaining to word meaning and sentence meaning as well as the systematic relation between words and between sentences. It covers such topics as synonymy, antonym, homonymy, grammar and meaning, theme and rhyme, etc. 18. English Language Teaching Methodology (102396) (3 credit hours) This course aims at introducing different approaches to teaching English as a foreign language. The course focuses on the implementation of the most recent techniques of English language teaching in order to enable students to use training in lesson preparation and lesson planning. 19. Research Writing (102497) (1 credit hour) This course is designed to acquaint students with the methodology of writing, the procedures of writing an outline, quoting authors, concepts and theories and preparing materials. The ultimate aim of this course is to enable students

4 to learn the basics and the prerequisites of academic research and paper writing. 20. Introduction to English Literature (103107) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to introduce students to the principal genres of literature: fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as to a variety of technical concepts and skills of literary study. Emphasis is on reading and discussing selected, representative short stories, poems, and plays, and then on writing critical essays about them. 21. Phonetics and Phonology (103219) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to acquaint students with English phonetics and phonology. The course consists of two parts. The theoretical part acquaints students with the study areas of phonetics and phonology. It also acquaints them with the English consonants and vowels, the notions of phoneme and allophone, the structure of the English syllable, stress, intonation. In the practical part, students are trained on how to pronounce British and American English consonants and vowels, and the role of stress and intonation in pronunciation. 22. Short Story (103222) (3 credit hours) This course offers students opportunities to read short stories, to write responses to the readings, and to research literary criticisms about short stories. The students will be expected to read, think, write, and discuss critically the material covered in the class.students will be introduced to a range of short texts written in English and some significant short stories translated into English. 23. Drama (103223) (3 credit hours) This course aims at helping students to appreciate drama as a literary genre. Attention is paid to the development of Western drama, to the analysis of its elements and strategies and to its link to the issues which preoccupied drama audiences. Students will be introduced to a historical background, spanning the period which dates back to the ancient Greeks and the Romans, the Medieval, the Renaissance till its later development during the contemporary period. They will also be taught the elements of drama (dialogue, action, plot, characterization) through detailed study of representative plays. The purpose behind studying a drama course is to polish the students reading and language skills, help them appreciate literature from a different literary perspective, fine-tune their analytical skills, and most importantly, learn about themselves and about life through reading plays. 24. Essay (103228) (3 credit hours) This course offers students an opportunity to write original literary and nonliterary essays after studying, in depth, various models of classical and popular writings. 25. Islamic Studies in English (103301) (3 credit hours) This course aims at furnishing students with the skill of reading and conversing in English about topic related to Islam in terms of its concept,

5 foundations, system, and controversial issues against it. The training comprises studying texts taken from a book or books selected by the department for this purpose. 26. Novel (103321) (3 credit hours) This course introduces students to the novel as a literary form and explores its development in different historical and cultural contexts. It involves a study of at least three novels reflecting the social and political order that came into effect during and after the 18 th century. Students are to pursue an extensive study of concurrent developments in order to understand the motives and minds that influenced the change in the world of the novels after Daniel Defoe. 27. Poetry (103331) (3 credit hours) Poetry is a particularly rich and rewarding genre; it is also a difficult one. Over the course of the semester, the objectives will focus on strengthening students' critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. The emphasis will be on the analysis, appreciation, and craft of poetry through the study of a variety of poetic forms. While the focus will be on poems in English, poems from a wide range of periods, places, and genres will be read. A main goal of poetry is to allow the senses to overwhelm thought. Students will study established poems to see how they make meaning through sensory images. 28. English Literature (1) (103341) (3 credit hours) The course is a survey study of the major standpoints of English Literature since its beginning in the medieval period. It, therefore, starts with Beowulf and the major works that represent the Renaissance period. It also studies the works of the Metaphysical and Cavalier poets of the Seventeenth century and finishes with the representative works of the Age of Reason highlighting selective works of satire by Swift and Pope. 29. American Literature (1) (103345) (3 credit hours) This is the first of two courses designed to give a fairly extensive coverage of American Literature. American Literature 1 is intended to offer a survey of the development of American literature from the Colonial Period to the end of the nineteenth century. While learning appreciation skills by reading and analyzing some representative works of American writers, the course tries to establish the distinctive features of the American people and their culture through a selected list of readings representing the various genres and themes. 30. Shakespeare (103352) (3 credit hours) Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare remains the central author of the English-speaking world; he is the most quoted poet and the most regularly produced playwright and now among the most popular screenwriters as well. Why is that, and who "is" he? Why do so many people think his writing is so great? What meanings did his plays have in his own time, and how do we read, speak, or listen to his words now? What should we watch for when viewing his plays in performance? Whose plays are we watching, anyway? We'll consider these questions as we carefully examine a

6 sampling of Shakespeare's plays from a variety of critical perspectives. Some of the suggested titles are: Macbeth, Othello, Merchant of Venice, as well as some selected Shakespearean sonnets. 31. Classical Literature (103369) (3 credit hour) This course aims to familiarize the students with masterpieces of old literature that are considered among the foundations of Western thought. The focus is on the canon of the classical heritage in Greece and Rome. This course is based on the study and analysis of world literary masterpieces such as The Odyssey, The Oresteia, Electra, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Bible, The Book of Songs, Islamic Sufi Literature, Arabian Nights, the GLORIOUS Quran and The Divine Comedy. 32. World Literature (103370) (3 credit hours) Through this course, students are going to be exposed to different perspectives and people from other cultures through studying selected masterpieces of world literature. It aims at developing their literary awareness of thematic and cultural concerns in the writings of writers from around the world. Students will be asked to analyze, interpret and criticize the assigned literary readings based on the understanding of the historical and cultural backgrounds influencing the literature produced. In short, World Literature offers the students the ability to celebrate differences between cultures while recognizing the importance of shared bonds among all cultures. 33. Dialogue and Debate (103371) (3 credit hours) This course provides instruction and practice in the art of public speaking, with an emphasis on debate. Students train to compete in tournaments, Public Forum Debate (a type of team debate), and Extemporaneous Speaking (impromptu speeches analyzing current events. Most of the course focuses on the in-class debating of major political and ethical issues. Students are taught case-writing, rebuttals, cross-examination skills, and analytical thinking. Students are encouraged to participate in at least two tournaments. 34. Victorian Literature (103372) ( 3 credit hours) The course covers English literature and culture during Queen Victoria s long reign, This was the brilliant age of Charles Dickens, the Brontës, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson - and many others. It was also the age of urbanization, steam power, class conflict, Darwin, religious crisis, imperial expansion, information explosion, bureaucratization - and much more. Students will gain interpretive and analytical skills to enhance their understanding of novels and poetry written during one of the most complex and challenging periods in modern history. 35. Romantic Literature (103373) (3credit hours)

7 The artistic and philosophical movement known as Romanticism arose in the context of the revolutions in France, America and other parts of the worlds, and was situated in ambivalent relation to the main intellectual currents of the Enlightenment. Many of the writers of this period saw themselves as part of a utopian transformation of humanity, while others agonized over the potential for radical destabilization that new concepts of the rights of individuals had ushered in. This course examines a selection of British Romantic writers in the context of these momentous developments; texts studies may include poetry and prose by William Wordsworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, William Blake and John Keats. 36. Field Training (103399) (3 credit hours) Students who have completed the academic requirements of the third year shall go through a training period of teaching English in a primary, intermediate or high school, which is selected in coordination between the DELT and the Ministry of Education. The training is supervised by the field advisor (the original teacher at school) and the academic advisor (a teaching staff member from the department). The latter shall make three visits to each student to evaluate the quality of his/her teaching. 37. Western Thought (103409) ( 3 credit hours) Among the objectives of this course is to familiarize students with some key concepts and ideas in the history of Western culture, and with the relationships between different civilizations that existed in Europe, beginning with the philosophies of the ancient civilization and reaching down to those of the modern world. The course also focuses on the development of Western thought as a context necessary to a better understanding of Anglo-American literature. As an undergraduate student majoring in English, studying western traditions of the past and the present world, you will find this knowledge helpful in understanding the Western culture and the differences which separate the present world from the past. The course has another goal: to introduce you to how to think historically. What does it mean to think historically? Important literary, historical, scientific, and philosophical texts written before the 20th century are studied in historical context, in relation to contemporary culture, and as insight into the nature of individuals, society, nature, and the cosmos. 38. Colonial Literature (103430) (3 credit hours) This course is intended to serve as a general introduction to postcolonial literature and theory. Students will study prominent theorists such as Edward Said, HomiBhabha, GayatriSpivak and Frantz Fanon to enable them to understand key concepts in this theory such as Orientalism, occident, unhomeliness, identity, subaltern, Diaspora, etc. By reading a diverse selection of both colonial and post-colonial texts including poetry, short stories, and novels we will examine how the lives and identities of their characters have been radically altered through the experience of colonialism. Students will be able to apply postcolonial concepts and understand how history, geography and cultural dynamics operate within the context of postcolonial literature. In doing so, we will engage the major themes, vocabulary, and problematics of postcolonial literature and criticism

8 including issues of nation, gender and sexuality, resistance, language, education and hybridity. 39. Woman Literature (103431) (3 credit hours) This course introduces students to the history of women's writings in Western culture. It addresses issues of gender identity structures as constructed within cultural, social and historical perspectives and within literary contexts. Questions this course attempts to answer include: How have women been represented in literary works? How do women express and represent themselves in their literary writings? What might be the main factors that have shaped and are still shaping the way women are socially and culturally perceived? Is there a feminist literary tradition that is historically shaped? To answer these questions, students will read a collection of feminist texts that include fictional works and feminist theories to enable them to identify themes and motives governing women's writings. You will learn that gender roles have developed and changed through different historical periods and, thus, shaped the way women see and express themselves in different literary forms. 40. English Literature (2) (103439) (3 credit hours) This course starts with an analytical study of works by major Romantic and Victorian writers, paying attention to literary and intellectual trends, and such influences as the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of ideologies, colonialism and capitalism, and proceeds to an analytical study of works by major 20th century writers paying attention to some of the factors that shaped the twentieth century world as World Wars I and II. 41. American Literature (2) (103446) (3 credit hours) This course is the second of two courses designed to give a fairly extensive coverage of American Literature. It starts from the close of the Civil War to the present. It tries to explore a wide range of the most influential and innovative writers in times of rapid change leading up to the supremacy of the United States as a major force in the world. It will also lay emphasis on the main literary concepts, movements and schools characteristic of the period. 42. Literary Criticism (103471) (3 credit hours) This course is a conceptual survey of aesthetic and literary theories, ranging from the classical tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Horace), through the Romantics (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley), to the 20th century. It introduces students to twentieth century fundamental theories of literary criticism and examines the relationship between literary theories and different philosophical movements such as: New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction/ post-structuralism, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Marxism, Reader-Response and Reception, Post-colonialism, and African-American Criticism. These various theories will be put into practice through applying them to major literary works of fiction. Students will explore the meanings of theory, how theory is related to the field of criticism, how different schools of thought can change our social, personal and political views of the world around us. 43. Theory of Criticism and Schools of Thought (203472) (3 credit hours)

9 This course is designed to study the development of ideas in Critical theory which resulted in the rise of many schools of thought. These schools, which will be the target of this course, are: Formalism and New criticism, Psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist criticism, Reader Response Theory, Structuralism and Semiotics, Post structuralism, Post-colonial criticism, Feminist Criticism and Gender studies. 44. Analysis of Literary Text (103476) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to familiarize students with the history of modern literature dating back from the 1950s till the end of the century. To achieve this objective, students are going to be introduced to some historical events and ideological approaches which influenced the literature produced during the above mentioned period. The course also aims at providing a critical and historical understanding of the emergence of Modernism as a form of literary writing. Students are going to be exposed to literary writings which relate the conception of Modernism to thematic explorations of gender, culture, sexuality, identity, alienation, colonialism and orientalism. 45. Comparative Literature (103490) (3 credit hours) This course is designed to introduce students to the methods, approaches and definition of comparative literature. This is to be followed by a comparison and contrast between the French and American Schools of Comparative Literature. To illustrate how comparative studies work, representative writings dealing with similar themes in both Arabic and Western literature are compared and contrasted e.g. how Shaw and el-hakim s approaches dramatize the legend of Pygmalion.