IC/Passport Number - School of Humanities, USM

It covers word meaning, speaking to perception, cognition and the pragmatic
functions of language. Concepts such as ambiguity, presupposition,
parapharasing, synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, anomaly, connotation,
denotation and componential analysis will also be discussed.
HXE 305/3
MALAYSIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
This course will introduce students to new creative works written in English.
The course will examine the concerns, interests, experiences and themes
represented in the various works by literary artists from Malaysia and Singapore.
The course will explore how local needs, contexts, history, culture and
economics influence creative efforts. A special focus of the course will be the
examination of different styles of writing, as well as the specific ways in which
the English language has been used creatively in different contexts, reflecting
different needs and visions.
HXE 306/4
SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
The course deals with the study of language in relation to social factors i.e.
social class, educational level, types of education, age, ethnic origin etc. It also
includes studies which relate variation in the language used by a group of people
to social factors e.g. code-switching and code-mixing in bilingual or
multilingual communities etc.
The course also examines the correlation between linguistic behaviour and the
psychological processes underlying that behaviour. This involves the study of
the mental processes and comprehension of speech e.g. how memory limitations
affect speech production and comprehension and the study of how human beings
learn language, first and second language acquisition, theories of language
learning, motivational or attitudinal factors that affect language learning and
language impairment.
HXE 308/4
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES
The course discusses the definitions, claims, perspectives and the origin and
development of ESP. It will focus on the ESP learner, the ESP teacher and ESP
methodology and materials. Needs analysis will be discussed in detail as an
aspect of course design. The course will also include case studies in ESP
materials development.
HXE 309/4
TESTING AND EVALUATION
The course provides an overview of the various approaches to language test
design, with a focus on the principles and procedures of communicative
language testing, especially test design, construction, administration, scoring and
interpretation.
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