The major aim of
this course is to make students systematic and critical observers
of language as they use and encounter it in different contexts.
It will examine spoken and written texts across a variety of settings
and for a wide range of purposes. By providing students with a
beginner's framework and metalanguage for talking about texts,
interactions and social context, the course will enable them to
appreciate how language works to enable purposeful communication
in context, but also to understand how it often works to cover
underlying purposes and values. The course is organized around
specific weekly small-scale tasks, where students apply and finetune
the framework and concepts provided to texts which feature in
their everyday and professional/academic life, and which, for
future teachers, are likely to be relevant to pupils of their
own choice.
