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Fall 2008 Graduate Course Descriptions
English 520: Introduction to LinguisticsProf. Elizabeth Riddle Course description available in RB 295. English 536: Theory and Research in TESOLProf. Megumi Hamada This course surveys theories and research in TESOL, drawn from second language acquisition research. The course also examines factors that influence second language acquisition, such as age, attitude, and motivation, as well as issues surrounding English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners and teachers. The overall objectives of this course are to understand the mechanisms and the phenomena of language learning and to apply that understanding to ESL/EFL teaching and research. English 537: Methods and Materials in TESOLProf. Lynne Stallings This course is designed to help teachers of K-12, post-secondary and adult students understand, recognize and address the language acquisition challenges of non-native English speakers, both in the U.S. and abroad. Students will consider the various methods that have been/are used to teach ESL/EFL. In addition, students will be encouraged to apply what they know about second language acquisition theories to help them develop a principle-based approach to teaching ESL and EFL. English 601-1: Research in English StudiesProf. Robert Habich
The goals of the course are
English 601-2: Research in English StudiesProf. Carolyn MacKay This course is a graduate-level introduction to research methods in applied linguistics. The course will focus on research methodology: project design, data collection, and data analysis. This course will also introduce students to the writing of grant proposals, abstracts for professional conferences, and review articles. Students will get hands-on experience in working with issues related to original research. As a final paper they will be expected to design a research project (choosing a topic, describing its significance, researching the literature available, and determining the method of data collection and analysis). This course is designed to help M.A. and Ph.D. students determine the topic and the research design for their final research projects and dissertations. Students will write an abstract and a literature review for the project (20% of the grade) and will write a book review of one of the key sources for their topic (10%). The final paper (50%) is a complete research proposal. The remaining 20% of the grade is based on class assignments and participation. English 605: Teaching in English StudiesProf. Jackie Grutsch McKinney Those granted the privilege of teaching writing should be prepared; they should be acquainted with of the theories, research, and history of composition, argument, new media, research, style, and rhetoric. We will touch on all of that in this course in order to help teachers of college-level composition, old and new, ground their practices in theory and theorize from their practices. The main goals of the class are simple. I want students who go on (or continue) to teach writing to know more than their textbooks know about composition, so they can teach with confidence. Secondly, I want students to understand enough about the field of Composition Studies in order to navigate in it, draw on its knowledge base, and see themselves as emerging members in it. Students can expect to engage in discussions, readings, collaborative projects, presentations, short papers, and a new media project. English 610: Theory of Creative WritingProf. Sean Lovelace This course is designed for MA students who are beginning the Creative Writing program at BSU, but is open to all English graduate students interested in intensive reading and writing in multiple genres. Students will experiment with different genres and will think carefully about the mechanical elements of their craft. We will read essays about writing, and students will read and write original fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. In this course, we will try to address some of the many questions of interest to serious writers, and to students who are considering creative writing as a profession. English 611: Workshop in Creative Non-Fiction (Memoir)Prof. Jill Christman This advanced writing workshop will focus on the writing of real lives—your lives—and the navigation of those slippery spaces between remembering and forgetting, truth and invention. Because every good book list is rooted somewhere, we’re going to anchor ours at the beginning of memory—in childhood. We’ll read greedily with a writer’s attention to style and technique as we get in the practice of asking the questions that are essential in the crafting of real-life material. My hope is that when we apprentice ourselves to the memoirs on our reading list, we will practice the habit of art, honing our technical skills while we locate the patterns in our lives that have something to say about the human condition. In order to write well, we must read, and so we will split our time between workshops of student work and the discussion of published texts. In addition to essays in the contemporary journal of creative nonfiction, River Teeth, our reading list may include: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin, The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bick Minh Nguyen, Childhood by Nathalie Saurrate, Falling Through the Earth by Danielle Trussoni, and This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff. Course requirements will include two long essays (and a final revision), creative/critical responses to the reading assignments, workshop critiques, and a class presentation. English 621: Meaning and Structure in EnglishProf. Elizabeth Riddle Course description available in RB 295. English 625: PhonologyProf. Frank Trechsel Course description available in RB 295. English 627: SociolinguisticsProf. Carolyn MacKay This course is a graduate-level introduction to sociolinguistics that investigates how social structure influences the way people talk. We will focus on the correlation between language use and regional differences and the correlation of language use and social factors such as age, sex, social class/network, ethnicity, etc. The course will be conducted as a seminar; therefore, active participation in class discussions is expected and encouraged. The main requirements for the course are 2 papers. The first paper will discuss in detail an aspect of linguistic variation of interest to the student (e.g. Chicano English, the use of 'like', uptalk, the origin on Africam American Vernacular English, the Northern Cities Shift, Gullah, features of women's language, etc.) and the second paper will involve the students in data collection and the analysis of features of language use. English 632: Discourse AnalysisProf. Mary Theresa Seig Course description available in RB 295. English 637: Issues in TESOLProf. Megumi Hamada Psycholinguistic Processes in Second Language ReadingWhat is involved in reading and understanding? How is second language reading different from first language reading? What is involved in children’s bi-literacy development? To explore these questions, this course offers an introduction to the psycholinguistic processes involved in second language reading. Following bottom-up approaches within theories of first language reading, the course introduces how written symbols (letters) are processed and integrated into understanding of an entire text. Specific topics to be covered will be: the fundamental mapping between speech and written scripts in different writing systems in various languages; processes involved in word recognition (phonological, orthographic, semantic, and morphological processing); sentence parsing (syntactic processing); and discourse and text processing. Throughout the topics, the course addresses issues in learning to read both in first and second languages, the influence of first language in second language reading, and pedagogical implications of current theories in second language reading. English 641: Early American LiteratureProf. Robert Habich Early American writers depicted the colonial and early national experience in a surprising variety of narratives: poetry, histories, travel stories, captivity narratives, biographies and autobiographies, “domestic” novels, novels of seduction and revenge, even plays. This seminar will examine some North American writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries writing in English, with some attention to their literary and historical contexts. We will conclude by examining the legacy of these writers to later American literature. The focus of this course will be on writers' aesthetic responses to their world; thus, we will spend most of our time attending to literary texts. But we will also consider some of the major issues in Early American studies, evaluate some critical positions, discuss pedagogy, and become familiar with some of the terminology in early American literary studies. In addition to your class participation and completion of all readings, I will ask you to do four graded assignments:
English 646: Studies in American Ethnic Literature - American Indian LiteraturesProf. Deborah Mix This course will provide an overview of American Indian literature and literary theory, with an emphasis on contemporary Native writers. In particular, we’ll consider the complex and generative relationship between “tradition” and “innovation” in American Indian literatures. When we speak of “tradition” in Native literatures, we generally refer to literature that is oral, interactive, and transmitted in a tribal language. “Innovation,” on the other hand, opens up all sorts of possibilities, from the use of English to the remaking of traditional stories and characters to experiments with genre and form. We’ll begin our exploration by reading some theories of Native literatures, and we’ll be weaving information about tribal histories, cultures, and identities into our studies throughout the semester. Though we’ll spend some time on oral traditions, folktales, and early Native texts, our primary focus will be on twentieth-century literature, especially on contemporary authors. Our readings will include material from a diverse range of genres (poetry, autobiography, fiction, folktales, essays) and tribal cultures. Assignments for the course will include a book review, at least one presentation, and a major seminar paper. Likely texts include:
And also…poetry by Joy Harjo (Muscogee/Cherokee), Simon Ortiz (Acoma), and Wendy Rose (Hopi/Miwok); drama by the Spiderwoman Collective and William S. Yellow Robe (Assiniboine); criticism by Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna/Métis), Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Anishinaabeg); and much more. English 656: Cultural StudiesProf. Joyce Huff Theorizing Fat and ThinBody size is a contentious issue in American culture today. Pro-anorexia websites. The “obesity epidemic.” “Size 0” models. International No Diet Day. The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club. The size acceptance movement. How, as theorists and literary critics, can we interpret and make sense of the multiplicity of contradictory discourses about weight and body size that bombard us daily, not simply from our televisions and computer screens but also from between the pages of the literature we study and enjoy? In this class, we’ll exam differing theoretical paradigms for framing body size. Focus will be on the body as a cultural and historical artifact and on the representation of body size in literature and culture. We will resist seeing the body as an ahistorical given with a fixed and stable meaning; instead, we will examine the different cultural meanings that attach themselves to bodies (or, in some theories, construct and/or produce embodiment itself). To do so will require students to think beyond stereotypical notions of fat and thin and to question notions that the dominant culture takes for granted in order to form more complex and multifaceted understandings of bodies. Theoretical readings will focus more on fat than thin, to acknowledge the recent shift in the theoretical conversation from the 1980’s feminist deconstruction of the social meanings of anorexia to the current development of fat studies. Some background to basic body theory will be given. Possible theoretical texts on fat and thin issues include Katie Le Besco’s Revolting Bodies (poststructuralist/Judith Butler), Marilyn Wann’s Fat!So? (activist/fat rights), Susan Bordo’s Unbearable Weight (feminist/Foucault), Kim Chernin’s The Obsession (feminist/psychoanalytic), Sander Gilman’s Fat Boys (historical), Helena Michie’s The Flesh Made Word (feminist/historical), Eric Oliver’s Fat Politics (social science), LeBesco and Jana Braziel’s Bodies Out of Bounds (collection from various perspectives, such as queer theory, poststructuralism, new historicism, sociology). Representations we examine will be drawn from a variety of cultural discourses, which might include literature, history, film and television, advertising, medical texts, newspapers, fashion magazines, etc… English 661: Early British StudiesProf. Bruce Hozeski Intensive study of early British literature emphasizing language, sources, structure and significance of the works. Aspects of early culture pertinent to the works will be considered. A total of 6 hours may be earned, but no more than 3 in any one semester or term. During Fall Semester 2008 we will do a thorough reading and analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde and most of his minor works. English 664: Studies in English Literature of the Restoration and Eighteenth CenturyProf. Adam Beach British Writers and Global Slavery in the Long Eighteenth CenturyThis course will examine the ways British writers responded to slave institutions and cultures not only in the British Atlantic but also in West Africa and the Islamic Mediterranean. In the seminar, we will pursue the following questions: how might we integrate our study of British writings about slavery in other parts of the world with discussions, both then and now, about slavery in the British Atlantic? To what uses and ideological purposes did British writers put their discussions of slavery in the non-British world? Do such representations generally serve the interests of British imperialism and nationalism? How do we even begin to compare slave institutions and practices in various parts of the globe? In addition to reading what we might call “slave theory,” especially by writers such as Orlando Patterson, Claude Meillassoux, and Marcus Wood, we will explore the writings of canonical British authors like Aphra Behn, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift. Additionally, we will delve into the works of a number of former slaves, both English and African, including Olaudah Equiano and various English sailors held captive in the Barbary States of North Africa. Students will be expected to complete weekly responses, a 15-20 minute presentation, and a 20 page seminar paper. Please direct questions to me at arbeach@bsu.edu. English 694: Classical RhetoricProf. Paul Ranieri Classical Rhetoric, embodied in the primary texts of such figures as the pre-Sophists, Sophists, Aspasia, Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Cicero, Quintilian, and Augustine, is not only the heart of education in antiquity, but also the touchstone to which contemporary thought on writing and rhetoric always returns, if only to disclaim or deny. This course will study those primary texts that have been the core of classical rhetoric; it will look at contemporary responses to these texts; and it will lead up to the demise of ancient influences as the Roman empire dissolved and Europe moved into the early medieval era. Texts Required:
Optional:
English 696: Nineteenth-Century RhetoricProf. Linda Hanson This course will survey nineteenth-century theories of rhetoric and composition that established the roots of contemporary teaching practices. We will examine identified trends, key primary and secondary texts, and the factors that contributed to shaping those trends. The primary focus of the course will be intellectual inquiry into the 20th century perceptions of nineteenth-century rhetoric and the shifts in those perceptions over the last 15-20 years. Class activities will include reports on readings, group discussions, reaction papers, and a position paper on independent research. A primary goal is for each of us to articulate our views of nineteenth-century rhetoric in papers of publishable quality. REQUIRED TEXTS
English 726: Topics in Grammatical TheoryProf. Frank Trechsel Course description available in RB 295. ID 601: Teacher PreparationProf. Linda Hanson ID 601 prepares students to teach writing in higher education. As part of that process, students will extensively explore and develop their own writing as well as develop and demonstrate strategies for teaching writing to others. By the end of the course, they should be able to critically evaluate different pedagogical methods for teaching and assessing writing, be able to articulate their own coherent philosophy of teaching, and have developed a plan for systematic implementation in their classroom practice. TEXTS
COURSE REQUIREMENTS Online Teaching Portfolio “a place to document and reflect on one’s experiences and ideas as a teacher”—Chris Anson It will include:
Teaching Demonstration Collaborative Inquiry –examining the links between theory, research, and practice related to a major issue in teaching writing Reflective Journal—maintained through weekly posts to the discussion board
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English
601 is designed to introduce graduate students majoring in literature to
some of the resources, issues, terminology, methods, and uses of
literary research. A "hands-on" seminar, it requires weekly ungraded
reports as well as five graded papers: an evaluation of three similar
reference sources; an annotated bibliography of major scholarship and
criticism for an author of your choice; a paper “solving” a literary
myth or hoax; a report on the current status of a professional or
research issue; and a research statement and proposal. 