Summer 2008 Graduate Course Descriptions

First Summer Session

• ENG 622: History of the English Language
• ENG 624: Issues in Second Language Acquisition
• ENG 629: Proseminar in Applied Linguistics
• ENG 650: Seminar in Literature
• ENG 690: Seminar in Composition
• ENG 693: Writing in the Profession

Second Summer Session

• ENG 609: Indiana Writing Project

English 622: History of the English Language

Prof. Elizabeth Riddle
Summer 1
M-F 11:00 - 12:35

This course will cover the internal linguistic and external social history of English from Old English to the present. Class activities will include discussion of readings, data analysis, and videos. Graded assignments will include data analysis exercises, a research paper, and an oral presentation of the paper.

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English 624: Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Prof. Megumi Hamada
Summer 1
M-F 12:45 - 2:20

This course outlines second language acquisition (SLA) theories and research and introduces various issues related to second language learning and teaching. The objectives of the course are to become familiar with SLA theories and research and the related issues and to learn the skills that are necessary to understand and conduct SLA research..

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English 629: Proseminar in Applied Linguistics

Prof. Elizabeth Riddle
Summer 1
M-F 9:15 - 10:50 AM

English in the American Cultural Context

This course is designed for TESOL and (Applied) Linguistics students desiring to perfect their use of English in the American cultural context. Students will work with the instructor as participant-observers to identify their needs and establish specific, testable goals in one or more areas such as grammar (e.g. articles, tenses), pronunciation, vocabulary, and cultural aspects of language use in any of the contexts of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We will work together in a workshop setting to deepen students’ knowledge of the structure and use of English in natural contexts and to apply it to their own production. In addition, the instructor will meet with each student twice a week for individual practice and feedback.

Class activities will include the study of aspects of American culture and problem areas of English, as well as error analysis, using videos, transcribed conversation (native and nonnative), and a variety of written texts. Students will be guided to draw on their professional expertise in TESOL to develop materials and to devise techniques for internalizing what they learn and importing it into their own spontaneous production.

All students will be required to keep a journal reflecting on their experience as participant-observers. Other requirements will be worked out with each student during the first week, based on their individual goals. These requirements may include such activities as intensive reading assignments, monitored conversation, prepared or extemporaneous speeches, documented observation of language use by native speakers, corpus study of lexical items and grammatical structures, and high-level listening and pronunciation exercises. Emphasis will be place on achieving a small number of significant, observable results in spontaneous and edited language production.

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English 650: Seminar in Literature

Prof. Robert Habich
Summer 1: June 2 - June 13
M-F 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Workshop in American Literary Biography

How do we write about writers—and can authors' lives help us to understand their work? This two-week workshop is an examination of the theory, history, and practice of American literary biography, including its use and misuse as an interpretive and pedagogical tool. Students will acquire hands-on experience in evaluating literary biographies and experiment with ways to apply authors' lives to the interpretation of their works. This workshop will stress frequent student reports on readings, practical applications for classroom teaching, and analysis of examples.

Activities include lectures, class discussions, reports, and group work. Assignments: in addition to the reading, class participation, and attendance, each student will present several short reports to the class and write two short (5-page) essays, one a critical review of a literary biography, the other an application of an author's life to the teaching of her work. Contact Dr. Habich with questions at rhabich@bsu.edu. 
 

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English 690: Seminar in Composition

Prof. Jackie Grutsch Mckinney
Summer 1
M-F 11:00 - 12:35

In this section, we will explore issues of Writing Center pedagogy, history, theory, research, and administration. Through readings, discussions, and assignments, students will be immersed in this relatively new subfield in Rhetoric and Composition. Starting questions for us will be:

• Out of what historic conditions did writing centers emerge? In what conditions are they sustained?
• How does a writing center's site as a non-classroom space fit with theories of composition that come from classroom spaces?
• Do writing center pedagogies have anything to give back to classroom teachers?
• What relationships should writing centers forge with faculty across the campus?
• Who makes a good peer tutor? What training does a tutor need to be successful?
• How could one engage in administration as intellectual and scholarly work?
• How do different technologies of composing alter writing center practices?
• What's a postmodern writing center ethic? How would one put such an ethic into practice?

This class is appropriate for all graduate students in Rhetoric and Composition, students who want to prepare for the possibility of administrative work in the academy, and those who teach writing and want to know more about writing center theories and pedagogies.

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English 693: Writing in the Profession

Prof. Deborah Mix
Summer 1
M-F 12:45 - 2:20 PM

This course is designed to teach students in literature and rhetoric and composition how to participate in significant writing for a in our disciplines: identifying and applying to conferences; writing and delivering a conference paper; writing and revising an article for publication in an appropriate journal. We’ll discuss strategies by which materials you have already written or will soon write—especially seminar papers, research projects, and dissertation chapters—can be transformed into proposals, conference papers, and journal articles. At the end of the class, you will have completed an abstract for a conference paper, a conference paper, and a draft of a journal article.

We’ll be reading several articles during the course, but our primary focus will be on your writing. Your work in this course will be based on a seminar paper you have written for a previous course that you feel has potential for further development (and one that your don’t expect to get sick of working with). Each of the major units in the course will count for half of your final grade:

• Conference proposal, paper, and presentation 50%
• Journal research, report, and article 50%

Each of these assignments will have multiple steps, each one building on the last. In-class workshopping will be a vital element of these assignments, and your participation in these workshops is extremely important. Your regular and substantive participation in class discussions and peer review sessions is mandatory.

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English 609: Indiana Writing Project

Prof. Linda Hanson
Summer 2: June 18 - July 13
M-F 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

For Indiana Writing Project's Invitational Summer Institute, please visit the IWP website.

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