English linguistics I

This course provides a linguistic, therefore descriptive, approach to the study of English grammar. It relies largely on A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. & Reynolds, B. 2021). It should not, therefore, be confused with an English proficiency course, where students learn what should be instead of what is.
The following key elements of English grammar are covered:
- verbs and verb phrases
- complements in clauses
- nouns and determinatives
- adjectives and adverbs
- clause types
- subordinate clauses (time permitting)

Students are expected

• to familiarise themselves with the descriptive approach to the study of languages
• to grasp the difference between a precise and rigorous linguistic approach and the looseness of traditional student grammars
• to form a clear idea of the key areas of English grammar.

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

The minimal levels of English proficiency for students to be able to follow the course successfully are shown in the table below. But let me insist that these are minimal requirements. Ideally, students should have achieved advanced mastery of English (or nearly), i.e. they should be able to read various types of texts with ease (fiction, newspapers, essays), readily understand spoken English and be able to express themselves fluently.
 

GERM-B100	CEFRL
Oral production	B1
Written production	B1
Listening comprehension	B1+
Reading comprehension	B1+

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages

Weekly lectures: 2 credits
Weekly exercise sessions: 2 credits
Weekly online tests (non-compulsory but recommended)
Personal preparatory reading: 1 credit

Contribution to the teaching profile

This course makes the following contributions:

1. Training students to think critically (by insisting on precisely defined concepts and rigorous analyses)
2. Developing students' command of English
3. Training students to adopt a scientific approach to language phenomena

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Compulsory reading:

• Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. & Reynolds, B. 2021. A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. 

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

MAIL : Louise.Raynaud@ulb.be
OFFICE : DB8.140 Make an appointment via e-mail.

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• written examination

written examination

• Out-of-session examination

• Open question with short answer
• Open question with developed answer
• Open question with fill-in the blanks text

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

There is one written exam:

• January: chapters 1 to 6, and 10-11 in Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. & Reynolds (2021)

Language(s) of evaluation

• english