English in the Era of Globalisation: Culture - Acquisition - Translation - MA Seminar 4

Master's seminars

The course looks at the linguistic challenges of globalisation at the time when English is gradually losing its cultural identity, evolving into a lingua franca. It seeks to understand the effects (both positive and negative) of this linguistic hegemony, including new trends in teaching English as a foreign language.

Another issue to be addressed is the use of new technologies in distance learning, in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

For the research part of their MA projects, students may choose to devise and carry out their own experiments, e.g. involving an interview or a questionnaire. To this end, students will be introduced to basic tools of descriptive statistics.

The seminar is addressed to students with an interest in the language-culture interface, the status of English in the world today and cultural aspects of translation. It is also recommended for student-teachers, in-service teachers and anyone wishing to enrich their language teaching resources.

The course looks at the linguistic challenges of globalisation and increased mobility at the time when English is gradually losing its cultural identity, evolving into a supranational lingua franca. It seeks to explain the unprecedented popularity of English, to understand its role in globalisation and the effects (both positive and negative) of this linguistic hegemony.

In this context it is necessary to modify the prevailing approaches to language teaching. Students interested in FLT methodology will be able to explore the solutions proposed (among others) in CLIL (Content-and-Language-Integrated Learning), M. Lewis’s Lexical Approach, M. Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence Model.

The global status of English makes it a perfect carrier of cultural content. To fully appreciate the interdependencies between language and culture we will look at a number of currently available interpretations of culture and its manifestations in language (from literature to propaganda). The robust network of cultural references poses an obvious challenge for a translator/interpreter. One of the options that the seminar offers is therefore to look at cultural untranslatability and a range of possible translation strategies and techniques.

Another issued to be addressed in the course is the use of new technology in distance learning (digital delivery) and hybrid learning, which becomes a major educational challenge in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

For the research part of their MA projects, students may choose to devise and carry out their own experiments, involving a range of data collection instruments (e.g. an interview or a questionnaire). To this end, students will be introduced to basic tools of descriptive statistics.

The seminar is addressed to students with an interest in the language-culture interface, the status of English in the world today, the problems of globalization, mobility, cultural aspects of translation. The course is also recommended for student-teachers, in-service teachers and anyone working with CLIL programs or wishing to enrich their language teaching/learning resources.

On completing the course the participants

a) are able to prepare an academic text, meeting the formal and content criteria for an MA project at the Institute of English Studies

b) select and critically approach primary and secondary sources, to be used for their academic work

c) accept and follow ethical guidelines pertaining to their academic work, including but not limited to all stages of MA thesis preparation

d) appreciate the benefits of implementing the acquired skills and knowledge for their own learning/teaching and research purposes

Successful course completion depends on a number of criteria, intended to help students to timely deliver their MA projects.

Requirements for course completion:

attendance (2 absences allowed in synchronous mode)

meaningful participation in group discussions

one in-class/online presentation reflecting student’s academic interests (team work possible)

completion of subsequent fragments of the MA project (in keeping with a pre-determined schedule)