Drama and English Language BA(Hons)

This module introduces you to the history of the English language from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. You'll have the opportunity to focus on how English has developed historically, from its earliest origins in the Old English period, through its development into Middle English and then Early Modern English, to its present-day status as a global language. The key theme of the module is how English varies over time, and you'll be encouraged to examine how intra- and extra-linguistic factors have caused this.

This module focuses on the various relationships between language and society. It considers the difference between languages and dialects, how these develop and what constitutes a community of speakers. It explores the way in which language can vary according to a number of factors such as social class, age and gender, and examines how language works to create identity. It also considers macro-sociolinguistic issues involving the role of particular language varieties (with an emphasis on English) in particular societies. The module prioritises the collection and analysis of ‘real’ as opposed to intuitive linguistic data, in order for you to develop an understanding of sociolinguistic principles.

This module introduces you to the linguistic analysis of literary and other texts. The focus is on describing and explaining the relationship between linguistic choices and poetic effects in the three major literary genres of poetry, drama and prose fiction. In the lectures you are introduced to a range of analytical tools for describing and explaining meaning and effect, and in seminars you are given the opportunity to test out your understanding by applying these tools to the analysis of a number of extracts from literary texts. The emphasis throughout the course is on you developing practical analytical skills.

This weekly workshop/lecture/seminar introduces you to a range of historical performance practices from the late-Victorian period to the present. The seminars are designed to encourage you to probe and debate the issues raised with reference to texts taken from a range of cultures and periods. Each week you will be asked to examine theatrical play texts and performances in historical context using theories of performance.

You’ll have the opportunity to explore the ways in which a play script can form the basis for a live theatre production through working together as a company to stage a short text. Training in acting, voice, and the physical can be explored through the challenge of staging the work.

You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a training project in one of a range of theatre skill areas, such as directing, performing, physical theatre, technical theatre, or workshop facilitation. A programme of training will help to prepare you to undertake an independent project which demonstrates your skills and understandings.

This module concentrates on the uses of theatre, introduced through lecture-workshops. You’ll then have the opportunity to go on to develop researched case studies of contemporary practitioners and practices, concentrating on the uses of Drama, Theatre and Performance. You are encouraged to develop knowledge of practitioners and practices that sit outside of mainstream theatre and performance culture.

This module focuses on informal conversation. Fundamental features of this variety will be explored, including the turn-taking system, turn construction units, storytelling, overlap, repair and preference. Discussion will include consideration of approaches to the study of language, and the relationship between language and society as a result of studying conversation analytic findings.

This module focuses on the linguistic analysis of style in language. It aims to improve your skills in text analysis through the introduction of a range of cutting-edge theories, frameworks and methods for literary and non-literary stylistic analysis. You'll have the opportunity to explore the relationship between form and function in language by analysing a wide range of texts and investigating such issues as text style, genre style and authorial style.

Corpus linguistics focuses on the techniques of computational corpus-based language study. The module concentrates on the analysis of electronic linguistic corpora using corpus linguistics software packages such as AntConc and WMatrix. Corpus linguistics methodologies are used to illuminate such areas of linguistics as grammar, lexicography and stylistics. Additionally, you'll have the chance to examine how to build, store and exploit your own corpora for linguistic analysis.

After considering the scope of pragmatics (language use) and its place in the study of language and communication, this module covers its major conceptual foundations (speech act theory, deixis, presupposition, implicature, relevance theory, context) and then proceeds to introduce its major developments and applications (the pragmatic perspective on conversational structure; interpersonal pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics; discursive pragmatics; metapragmatics.)

This module acquaints you with the history and practice of linguistic fieldwork and teaches the skills needed to carry out linguistic projects and collect data successfully. You'll critique different ways of eliciting language data and carry out your own data collection and linguistic analysis of the findings.

This module develops your skills in the phonetic and phonological approach to language analysis. It will build upon your knowledge from Sound to Speech, while introducing new levels of phonetic and phonological analysis. This module will cover the basics of acoustic analysis of speech, commonly used phonological notation, and the position of phonology within linguistics. You will be introduced to a new piece of software to conduct acoustic analysis of speech and also be provided the tools to analyse and describe sound alternations in different languages.

The aim of this module is to develop the tools of syntactic analysis and description that you began to acquire in 'Structure to Sense'. You'll be introduced to a more formal syntactic framework, specifically Minimalist Generative Syntax, which will be contrasted with other generative and non-generative approaches. You'll be introduced to the theoretical motivations behind Minimalism and apply the theoretical apparatus to solve syntactic problems. This will provide a more nuanced understanding of the grammatical features of language, how languages differ and how grammatical relationships are realised.

The Final Year Project is an opportunity to demonstrate practical skills in a significant theatre or performance role. Building on skills developed through earlier study, you will be able to negotiate a practical project that may focus on performing, directing, applied theatre practice, writing or technical and production skills. With input from a supervisor, you will then be asked to work largely independently to deliver the agreed project. Many of the practical projects appear in the Department’s annual Common Grounds Festival.

This course provides you with an opportunity to engage in the process of practical and/or theoretical research at an advanced level and to plan and write a critical analysis of an area of drama/theatre/performance practice which reflects your individual academic and/or vocational interests. The dissertation will include an understanding of the intellectual, philosophical and societal contexts of the work, and an engagement with appropriate and relevant discourses.

The module studies a wide range of interpersonal pragmatic practices, focusing on how relationships are co-constructed in interaction. Instead of approaching interpersonal relations as stand-alone phenomena, the module provides an analytic view to encourage you to capture these practices in a single framework, by approaching them as social actions situated in time and space.

This module introduces you to the translation theory and provides the instruction and setting for translation practice. You'll have the opportunity to explore translation history and the emergence of translation studies, the current problems and issues in the field. You'll be supported to apply these theoretical concepts to texts, evaluating the difficulties and problems faced in the translation process. You'll be encouraged to examine the tools to overcome difficulties and the vocabulary to describe and criticise translations. You'll also have the chance to explore the practicalities of the translation business, from seeking work to using technologies available.

This module allows you to explore current issues and practices in a number of aspects of audiovisual translation (AVT), including subtitling, audio description and dubbing for TV and film drama. The module aims to develop your understanding of the effects of decisions made in the process of audiovisual translation, and to use linguistic insights to improve professional practice in this area. You'll have the opportunity to explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of audiovisual translation and gain knowledge of the industry.

This module focuses on how the kind of language we use can vary according to such factors as the geographical or social background of the speaker, the formality or informality of the speech situation and the purpose of the speech event. In addition, you'll have the opportunity to consider how the identity of speakers is represented by the way in which they use language, and how speakers interact with others in order to achieve particular conversational goals.

This module explores bilingualism and multilingualism, describing the phenomena and learning how they are acquired, practised and lost in speakers. You'll have the chance to explore the social contexts surrounding multilingualism, such as education and community, as well as social attitudes towards multilingualism.

You'll have the opportunity to explore issues relating to language and power and how to apply the techniques of critical linguistics to example texts ranging from casual conversation to political speechmaking. Techniques you’ll have the chance to study include the analysis of naming, transitivity, modality, speech and thought representation, presupposition, opposition, negation and deixis. You'll also be encouraged to read and discuss extracts of the seminal work in this field.

This module provides an introduction into the way in which children acquire language. Along with overviewing some general issues such as the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar, the module explores the procedure of acquiring social skills through language learning. This ‘socialisation’ process spans expression of one’s emotions via language, through the proper use of conventional language, to distinguishing between the norm of language use in group and individual settings. The module aims to train you to collect and critically analyse language data produced by children.

This module is about how people get on – or don’t get on – with each other. It explores why people say the things they say and do the things they do, the effects of these actions on their feelings and sense of self, and how they evaluate what people say and do as polite or rude, friendly or unfriendly, acceptable or unacceptable.

This module provides an introduction to forensics as it is applied to both speech (Forensic Phonetics) and text (Forensic Linguistics). On this module you will learn about the roles speech and text play as evidence in the courtroom as well as for criminal investigations. You will be introduced to a range of topics from both forensic phonetics and forensic linguistics that will enable you to situate the use of language in the real world and to analyse speech and written language from a forensic perspective. The topics introduced through this module will be supported by lectures and hands-on lab work.