Course teacher(s)
Philippe DE BRABANTER (Coordinator) and Louise RaynaudECTS credits
5
Language(s) of instruction
english
Course content
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
- relative constructions (time permitting)
- non-finite clauses (time permitting)
The second half of the course, starting in February, will introduce students to one of the most important empirical research methods in linguistics nowadays, namely corpus studies. It will also continue doing the descriptive work that was begun in the first term.
Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)
Students are expected
- to further familiarise themselves with the descriptive approach to the study of languages
- to internalise the difference between a precise and rigorous linguistic approach and the looseness of traditional student grammars
- to form a clear idea of all the key areas of English syntax
- to learn how to use an online corpus to collect data that is relevant to a research question
- to be able to analyse corpus data and draw conclusions on the basis of their analysis.
Prerequisites and Corequisites
Required and Corequired knowledge and skills
| GERM-B200 | CEFRL |
| Oral production | B1+ |
| Written production | B1+ |
| Listening comprehension | B2 |
| Reading comprehension | B2 |
Teaching methods and learning activities
Weekly lectures: 2 credits
Weekly exercise sessions and personal corpus research: 2 credits
Weekly online tests (non-compulsory but recommended)
Personal reading: 1 credit
Contribution to the teaching profile
This course makes the following contributions:
1. Training students to think critically (by insisting on preciselfy defined concepts and rigorous analyses)
2. Developing students' command of English
3. Training students to adopt a scientific approach to language phenomena (cf. point 1)
3.1. They learn what a research question is
3.2. They learn to plan a research assignment
3.3. They learn to think independently but also to cooperate with classmates
3.4. They learn to use corpora to collect data and to analyse those data meaningfully.
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.
Recommended reading:
Plag, I., Arndt-Lappe, S., Braun, M. & M. Schramm 2015. Introduction to English Linguistics, 3rd revised and enlarged ed., de Gruyter Mouton.
Course notes
- Université virtuelle
Other information
Contacts
MAIL : Philippe.De.Brabanter@ulb.be
TEL : 02/650.38.12
OFFICE : AZ4.109 Make an appointment via e-mail.
Campus
Solbosch
Evaluation
Method(s) of evaluation
- written examination
written examination
Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)
There are two written exams:
- January: Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. & Reynolds (2021)
- May-June: collecting and analysing corpus data
Students who didn't obtain the credits for the course in June will have to redo in August all the parts of the evaluation for which they got less than 10.
Language(s) of evaluation
- english