English Language

Course summary

Unit 1: Language, the Individual and Society Representation and Meaning: For this unit, students will develop their understanding of how language works and how text producers (of spoken and written texts) manipulate language to create meanings and representations. Language Development: For this unit, students will develop a strong theoretical and linguistic understanding of how children learn language by exploring real data from children at different stages of development. Unit 2: Language Diversity and Change The aim of this area of study is to allow students to explore language diversity and change over time focusing on the following key topics of study: - Language Change - Language and Gender - Language Variation (Accent, Dialect, and Social Groups’ usage) - Language and Ethnicity - Language and Occupation - World Englishes. In this unit, students will also develop discursive, analytical, and creative writing skills when writing about language. Unit 3: Language in Action The emphasis in this unit is to allow students to explore and analyze language data independently, as well as develop and reflect upon their own writing expertise. Students will write a language investigation focusing on an individual interest in an area of language study. Past investigations have covered diverse topics, such as regional dialect; the language of the media; gendered talk, and children’s language use. Students will also write one piece of original writing and accompanying commentary based on either: The Power of Persuasion, The Power of Storytelling, or The Power of Information.