Aims

To establish a basic understanding of language structure with respect to developing the skills necessary for examining and describing linguistic data. This module will heighten metalinguistic awareness in a systematic way that will inform and enhance the sensitivity, accuracy, and clarity of the student's knowledge of language structure, including English. There will also be lectures relating these issues to questions of wider interest (see below).

Outline Of Syllabus

Introduction to Language Structure

The core of the module consists of the foundations for the study of language, word structure and language sounds & systems. The word structure component in the module includes the word structure of English and other languages, word classes, and word formation processes. The language sounds component examines the representation of speech sounds and articulatory classification, along with the description of consonants and vowels and the structure of the syllable. The fundamental distinction between phonetics and phonology and the distribution of speech sounds will also be introduced.

Throughout the module these structural aspects will be related to wider questions such as: What do we know as speakers of a language? What’s wrong with the English spelling system? What causes a foreign accent? Which aspects of English phonology and morphology are subject to sociolinguistic variation?

This module will lay the foundations for more advanced modules considering sociolinguistic aspects of language and the acquisition of language.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures present subject materials to students, building on guided readings. The purpose of the small group work is to back up (by means of summary, elucidation, and illustration) the concepts and analyses presented in the lecture and readings, using active learning.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will complete a set of exercises for the phonetics, phonology and morphology components of the course. They will receive feedback in seminars to help prepare them for their final written assessment on tasks of a similar nature. The weekly quizzes will test knowledge of that week's content. The goal of the problem-solving exercises is to give the students an opportunity to practise what they have learned, to ensure they grasp the new concepts, and to check their ability to apply newly acquired knowledge to new examples.