This introductory language course is designed to allow students to gain a sufficient amount of ‘explicit’ (conscious) knowledge of both language in general and English in particular and to provide them with the tools necessary for understanding and describing the structure of the English language. The course is attempting to provide students with an introduction to some general properties of language and some specific properties of the English language in particular. As such, the course will introduce students to the basic linguistic terminology, main branches of linguistics and their corresponding methods of linguistic analysis. In the first part of the course, students will learn about the physical and mental aspects of sounds and speech production pertaining to English. Thereafter, an examination of the linguistic structure of English words and sentences will be conducted. Afterwards, the focus will shift towards understanding the meaning making process in the English language using the general principles of semantics and pragmatics. On completion of this course, students will be able to understand and describe some of the core ideas of English linguistics and acquire English linguistic skills.
- Teacher: Ravindran Kumarasamy
- Teacher: Sajith Peiris