As Assistant Professor in English Language at Coventry University, I teach on a number of courses including the BA in English (AHU033) and the MA in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (AHT020).

Courses

BA in English (AHU033)

A three-year undergraduate course that considers a broad range of English subjects from language to literature. English is fundamental to everything we do both at play and work. An understanding of it and the linguistic structures behind language in general facilitate communication and help us appreciate our own sense of identity.

MA in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (AHT020)

This is a one-year master’s degree with a strong focus on how language can be taught to nonnative speakers. It considers a variety of theories and practices in a range of educational contexts.

Modules

Modules that I teach on include the following:

7029HUM Grammar and Phonology for the English Language Teacher

This is a master’s level module for the MA in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Language teachers need to have an impeccable grasp of the grammar and phonology of the English language since this is the object of study. You wouldn’t take your car to a mechanic that knew nothing about how an engine operated. Neither would you trust a brain surgeon to operate on you without knowing anything about the brain. In the same vein, English Language teachers should have a thorough grounding in grammar and phonology, not only how they manifest themselves in the English language, but how they can be taught.

7034HUM Research Methods

This module is a support module for master’s students who are undertaking their dissertation. The module looks at all aspects of planning, doing and writing up the dissertation as well as ethics.

4005HUM Discourse and Digital Media

The aim of this module is to develop your awareness of the structure and organisation of language at levels above the sentence.

6009HUM Language in the Mind and the Machine

The aim of this module is to develop students’ awareness of the psycholinguistic processes of language storage and retrieval. Students will learn the difference between the brain and the mind, and will become familiar with the processes and modules of the brain/mind that help us to store language, comprehend it and produce it under typical conditions. The module will also look at language disorders such as aphasia, stuttering and autism to see how language is produced in atypical circumstances. Finally, the module will look at how artificial intelligence in machines such as neural networks and video games simulates human linguistic behaviour and will consider to what extent this mimicry is realistic and convincing. The question of whether this linguistic behaviour in machines constitutes true intelligence will be considered. 

Previous Modules

210DEL Discourse in a Social Context

In this module, I focus on conversation analysis, politeness, and institutionalised discourse analysis, in particular political discourse. This has led to the development of the website neutralfooting.

213DEL Child Language Acquisition

This module considers the acquisition of our first language, i.e. our mother tongue. Hannah Arendt claimed that man is not a man without their mother tongue and a political community. This module looks at how we take up this place in the early years of our lives. It is a useful module for those students wishing to go on into teaching or speech and language therapy.

313DEL Language and the Mind

This module has now morphed into 6009HUM above.

The Language of Humour – slides

Header image: the BEATS by RANT 73 /Public domain