Department of English

Course Description

This lecture surveys the sounds of English, primarily those of British and American. We will focus on the articulation of English sounds, including speech organs and the production of vowels and consonants, as well as the system used for the phonetic description of speech sounds, the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA. We will also have a look at phonemes, the smallest sound units of a language, and the distribution of their variants. Another unit will deal with phenomena of connected speech, such as the mutual influence between neighbouring sounds, word stress and intonation. Students will also learn to read and transcribe spoken English using the IPA transcription.

Course book: Lorenz, Frank. 2013. Basics of phonetics & English phonology. With IPA transcription. 2nd. ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Magnus Huber

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Asynchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

ILIAS

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master of English

Prerequisites

Introduction to english linguistics; Sufficient English skills

ECTS

2

Course Description

This is an introductory seminar to modernism, its poetry and its poetics. In this class, students are introduced to a diverse range of poems and poetic forms, using modernist poetry as a focus point and example. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Dr. Andrea Rummel

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Synchronous, Time (CET): Tuesdays 12:00-14:00

Online Tool for Teaching

Webex

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master of English Studies

Prerequisites

English C1

ECTS

5

Course Description

The first associations we have with ‘style’ probably more readily relate to fashion than to linguistics, but the conceptual underpinnings of the notion of style can as easily be applied to linguistics as to vogue. Imagine you are scheduled for an interview with the head of personnel of the multinational corporation you have always wanted to work for. Just like we have at our disposal different ways of dressing ourselves for this occasion – we have the choice between e.g. a pair of jeans, a skirt, a suit or sweat pants – we also have different ways of dressing our thoughts linguistically when we, for instance, introduce ourselves to said head of personnel. Upon first meeting the person in question, we can, for instance, say “Good afternoon, my name is Joe Smith. It is a pleasure to meet you.” or we can say “Hi, how are you doin’?”. Stylistics is interested in the various forms a user of a language can employ to communicate certain content in a given situation – and aims at describing which of these forms may be considered most appropriate under consideration of certain contextual factors such as the interlocutor, medium, degree of formality, etc.

In the course of this class, we will first of all tackle some major theoretical frameworks surrounding the notion of (linguistic) style and then analyse and compare the styles users employ in written and spoken texts, fictional as opposed to non-fictional texts and various texts forms we encounter in popular culture.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Dr. Tobias Bernaisch

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Asynchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

StudIP Webex

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor

Prerequisites

Introduction to Linguistic Studies

ECTS

5

Course Description

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to English in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terms of core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and computational linguistics.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Dr. Barbara Ann Güldenring

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Asynchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

StudIP, ILIAS

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor

Prerequisites

English B2

ECTS

5

Course Description

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Dr. Barbara Ann Güldenring

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Asynchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

StudIP, ILIAS

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master 

Prerequisites

English B2

ECTS

5

Course Description

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Dr. Barbara Ann Güldenring

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Asynchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

StudIP, ILIAS

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master 

Prerequisites

English B2

ECTS

5

Course Description

This course aims at introducing key concepts, models, methods and directions within the World English paradigm with a special focus on institutionalized second-language varieties - popularly known as “New Englishes”. We will encounter these varieties within their rich historical, cultural and regional backgrounds and, in doing so, place an emphasis on variety-specific features not only on the various structural levels of linguistic analysis, but also in terms of their cultural conceptualizations. We will review various case studies of New Englishes in Africa, South Asia, South-East Asia, etc. and use them as the basis for our own small-scale corpus-based studies.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Dr. Barbara Ann Güldenring

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Synchronous, Time (CET): Wednesdays, 10:00-12:00

Online Tool for Teaching

Webex, StudIP, ILIAS

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor

Prerequisites

English B2

ECTS

5

Course Description

The seminar will focus on some of the most well-known texts by early modern playwrights, poets and natural philosophers (Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Thomas Shadwell, Margaret Cavendish and others) in order to explore the cultural impact of the New Science, its utopian implications, the use of rhetorical strategies and poetic imagery on both 'sides' (- even though there is no clear dividing line between 'literary' and 'scientific' writing in the 17th century), and their contextual framework.

Unfortunately this course cannot be selected via the online application form. In case you would like to select this course, please write an e-mail to vipprotect me ?!admin.uni-giessenprotect me ?!.de

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

PD Dr. Martina Mittag

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

29/04/2022, 14:00-17:00

15-17/06/2022, 10:00-18:00

Mode and Time

Synchronous

Online Tool for Teaching

Webex

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master

Prerequisites

ECTS

5

Course Description

This course focuses on the mediation of approaches and techniques of scientific work within English linguistics and literary studies with regard to structural, stylistics, and content design of academic research papers. Additionally, the course provides ample opportunity to work with different (linguistic) tools and practices research skills. We will also place an emphasis on how to discuss and present empirical findings.

Group A focuses on the most common methods and theories in analyses in the field of linguistics.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Lena Turski, Liza Bauer

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Synchronous, Time (CET): Wednesdays, 12:00-14:00

Asynchronous (recorded)

Online Tool for Teaching

Webex or MS Teams (tbd)

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor

Prerequisites

B2 English

ECTS

5

Course Description

This course focuses on the mediation of approaches and techniques of scientific work within English linguistics and literary studies with regard to structural, stylistics, and content design of academic research papers. Additionally, the course provides ample opportunity to work with different (linguistic) tools and practices research skills. We will also place an emphasis on how to discuss and present empirical findings.

Group B focuses on the most common methods and theories in analyses in the field of literary and cultural studies.

Faculty

Faculty of Languages, Literature, Culture

Institute

English Department

Lecturer

Liza Bauer, Lena Turski

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/22-15/07/22

Mode and Time

Synchronous, Time (CET): Wednesdays, 12:00-14:00

Asynchronous (recorded)

Online Tool for Teaching

Webex or MS Teams (tbd)

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor

Prerequisites

B2 English

ECTS

5