(BA) (4-year-programme) - The University of Hong Kong

37ENGL3034.ENGL3036.ENGL3037.ENGL3039.ENGL3040.ENGL3041.Research seminar in English literary studies (6 credits)Research seminar in English linguistics (6 credits)Research seminar in language and society (6 credits)Research seminar in cross-cultural studies in English (6 credits)Internship in English studies (6 credits)Senior colloquium in English studies (6 credits)Introductory CoursesENGL1011.An introduction to the study of meaning (6 credits)This course introduces the study of meaning in the English language. We will examine semanticmeanings - meanings encoded in the language system itself - and also pragmatic meanings - meaningsinferred from the communicative context of language use. Students will also be introduced to varioustheories of meaning and cognitive semantics.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL1012.Language as social action (6 credits)As a communicative tool, language is organized into spoken and written texts that are used to performdifferent social acts such as making people do different things, joke with them, make them feel good,or inform them of something. Doing things with language is a type of social practice (or discourse)and it fulfils different communicative functions. Language typically fulfils three main communicativefunctions: (1) it tells us something about the world (referential function); (2) it communicates whoyou are and how you relate to other people (interpersonal function); and (3) it carries informationabout its relevance to context (textual function). Communication is shaped by relations of power (i.e.patterns of influence and authority), and invested with ideologies (i.e. our beliefs and assumptionsabout the world). This course defines some of the key concepts in the study of language as socialaction, explains basic approaches to theorizing it, and introduces a useful toolkit for analyzing reallifeexamples (texts). We will explore language as social action in a wide range of situations with aspecific focus on contexts and genres of talk and text, aspects of social interaction, and criticalapproaches to discourse and interaction. The course explores also the relationship between speech,writing and other modes of communication such as images, gestures and dress.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL1013.Exploring the modern: Reading early 20th century British writing (6 credits)This course will explore the early 20th century as a site of modernity. We will look at a range of textsto explore what the modern might mean and how writers have addressed issues of modernity and itsimpact on society and human relations. Some of the topics to be covered will include representationsof the city, the changing roles of men and women, the rise of modern transportation and the impact ofthe First World War.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL1014.Imaginary geographies: The art of writing place (6 credits)Through studying a wide range of landscape descriptions in poetry, travel writing, drama and thenovel, students will learn about landscape description from aesthetic, historical, geo-humanist andgeo-political perspectives. Students will learn to identify particular movements and styles, such as thepicturesque, romanticism, modernism and environmentalism in selected descriptions of places. They