Seminaria Magisterskie 2009-2011

Prof. dr hab. Zdzisław Wąsik
The Axiosemiotics of Literary and Journalistic Discourse

Issues highlighted in theoretical lectures and individual readings will concentrate around the notion of discourse as texts embedded in social roles of communication participants and their culture. Against the background of other discourse types literature and journalism will be treated as human exchange of messages, ideas and emotions. Distinctions related to verbal and nonverbal means of expressing meaning, source and destination of communiquĂŠs, and the manifestation forms of self-identity in interpersonal linkages will be introduced. Students exploring English texts excerpted from selected works of creative writing, literature or journalism, will apply methods of transactional analysis to the description of interpersonal relationships between literary characters, or authors and readers, on the basis of the principles of effective communication, pragmatics of politeness, irony and/or cooperation. Moreover, the topics of their theses might comprise, among the other things, axiological and semiotic methods of critical discourse analysis in search of human needs, values and intentions, etc., expressed in texts and extra-textual reality.

Prof. UAM dr hab. Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak
Sociolinguistics and Discourse Studies

This seminar in sociolinguistics and discourse studies will be devoted to the description and explanation of socially-conditioned ad context-dependent language variation.
It will start with a critical survey of sociolinguistic theory as well as classic and current empirical studies in variationist sociolinguistics. In their semester projects students will consider the significance of social variables (e.g. age, social status, ethnicity or gender) for language variation on the basis of (modern or historical) language data from English (and Polish). The social context will not only be conceived in terms of such major social categories but also within the social networks approach, which emphasises relationships between members of speech communities. Interactional sociolinguistics and qualitative analyses will be in focus here.

Further, language will be discussed as essentially a part of a larger context in which speakers negotiate values to be conveyed. Source texts will therefore be approached by the analytical tools of Critical Discourse Analysis. We will also explore processes of the construction of speaker identities and social roles through linguistic/discursive means.

Students’ M.A. projects may involve the study of language as correlated with gender, age, social status etc., discourse(s) in various contexts, language attitudes and ideologies, discursive identity construction. Topics related to stylistic differentiation of language or the social interpretation of language change may also be taken up.

Prerequisites: Students should be familiar with aspects of fieldwork methodology, such as methods of data collection and informant sampling. A general interest in the study of language in context is essential.

dr Agnieszka Rzepa
Canadian Literature in Transition

The aim of the seminar is twofold. First, the seminar will familiarize students with the Canadian literary tradition and major trajectories of change in Canadian literature from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of 21st century. Special emphasis will fall on post-WWII novel and short story (i.e. the period between—roughly—the 1950s and the beginning of the 21st c.). Second, the seminar will allow students to examine changes in the critical discourse on Canadian literature.Texts selected for discussion vary in style, subject-matter and focus, allowing students to appreciate the diversity of contemporary Canadian prose and literary criticism and theory. The course is reading-intensive.

Each student will be required to prepare an oral presentation on a selected topic, act as a discussion-leader, and write a research paper. Active participation in in-class discussions, as well as regular attendance, will also contribute to the final grade. Towards the end of the academic year the students will be asked to select the topic of their M.A. thesis and submit a tentative M.A. thesis project. All theses have to focus on problems related to Canadian literature, although topics based on comparative North American approaches will also be considered.

Successful candidates wishing to participate in the seminar should have thorough knowledge of the US literature at the undergraduate (B.A.) level, and an avid interest in literature that goes beyond basic undergraduate requirements. At the selection stage, familiarity with Canadian literature is desirable, but not required.

dr Anna Ewert
Bilingualism

Bilingualism research is a multidisciplinary field of study. In this seminar, we shall concentrate on neurolinguistic, psycholinguistic and second language acquisition perspectives on bilingualism. Our main focus will be on understanding how the two languages work together in the mind of a bilingual person and on interactions between language and cognition. We will discuss both recent theoretical perspectives on bilingualism, such as dynamic systems theory, connectionist and usage-based approaches, as well as state-of-the-art empirical research reports in areas such as L2 effect on L1, conceptual transfer and linguistic relativity, language attrition, bilingualism and the brain, bilingualism and cognitive processing, mental lexicon, metalinguistic knowledge, bilingualism and emotions.

Credit requirements: Towards the end of the first semester the students will be required to choose a topic for their MA project and submit a research proposal. A detailed plan of the thesis with a list of relevant literature will be required in the second semester. A report on the empirical project should be provided by the end of the third semester.

Admission requirements: Candidates should have a good orientation in general and applied linguistics. Foundation in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics is welcome but it is not a necessary prerequisite. The candidates should also be well-motivated and capable of independent study. Prospective candidates are also advised to visit: http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~eanna/

Basic references:
Baker, Colin. 2006. Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. (4th edition) Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
De Bot, Kees – Wander Lowie – Marjolijn Verspoor. 2005. Second language acquisition. An advanced resource book. London: Routledge.
Doughty, Catherine J. – Michael H. Long (eds). 2003. Handbook of second language acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Kroll, Judith F. – Annette M. B. de Groot (eds). 2005. Handbook of bilingualism. Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Myers-Scotton, Carol. 2005. Multiple voices: An introduction to bilingualism. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Romaine, Suzanne. 1995. Bilingualism. (2nd edition) Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Prof. nadzw. dr hab. Arleta Adamska-Sałaciak
Lexicology And Lexicography

In this seminar we shall focus on the lexicon, looking at it from the point of view of lexicology (the linguistic study of words) and lexicography (the study of dictionaries).
Possible MA projects include examining different meaning-related aspects of the English lexicon, such as the semantics of individual words and expressions (e.g. collocations, idioms); the relation between meaning and form; the rise of new words and new meanings; figurative language in its different manifestations. Another possibility is contrasting different aspects of the lexicons of English and Polish (or any other language the candidate knows well). All of this will ideally be combined with the lexicographic perspective, through studying the treatment of the chosen linguistic phenomenon in different dictionaries or dictionary types.
Participants will be expected to have some background knowledge in general linguistics. Previous exposure to semantics, though not obligatory, will be a bonus. Interest in words and dictionaries is taken for granted.

Dr Janusz Kaźmierczak
Media, Culture and Society

The seminar will equip the students with a set of conceptual and methodological tools with which to investigate an important aspect of culture. As the seminar’s title suggests, it will focus on the representations carried and the role played by the media in modern society, and in so doing it will introduce the students to media theory and research. The conceptual and methodological apparatus thus built will enable the students to complete their MA thesis projects that will involve studying the representations carried or the role played by the media in British or American culture, or investigating links between British, American and Polish culture as observed in the media. Accordingly, in addition to the theoretical input, the seminar will offer guidance in developing and applying research skills, including making library searches, assessing literature, as well as planning and writing MA theses.

Suggested reading:

Fiske, John. 1990. Introduction to communication studies. London: Routledge.
Thwaites, Tony – Lloyd Davis – Warwick Mules. 1994. Tools for cultural studies: An introduction. Melbourne: Macmillan.

dr Katarzyna Bromberek-Dyzman
Issues in Experimental Pragmatics

The seminar will offer psychological sociological and linguistic insights into the processes associated with comprehension of explicit and implicit meaning in communicative interactions. We will discuss both what is said and what is meant in daily communication – within the view of communication as a constant constrained mind-reading process targeted at reconstructing speakers' intentions. Pragmatic inferential mechanisms will be scrutinized. Heuristics of indirect language interpretation will be offered. In order to study how linguistic properties and contextual factors interact in the interpretation of utterances, the seminar will explore mental architecture underlying the inferential comprehension processes of spoken and written communicative interactions. We will also take a look at the brain, getting to know how language processing and comprehension is distributed between the left and right hemisphere, and how the two hemispheres contribute to the overall comprehension result, constructing meaning on the fly. The area of special interest will be cognitive and affective aspects of processing in both: literal and figurative verbal communication. We will discuss the ontogeny of social cognition, and seek to explore how mentalizing and mindreading develop in social interactions. Another area of interest will be the automaticity-controllability continuum of higher mental processes and default comprehension modes. Throughout the seminar we will find out how to investigate pragmatic aspects of cognitive and affective processing and how to test them experimentally.
The seminar is aimed at students who are keen on reading extensively on philosophical, linguistic and psychological aspects of meaning interpretation, and are eager to discuss issues connected with mentalizing, inferencing and comprehension. To successfully complete the seminar, the participants will be required to attend the classes; complete all reading assignments; actively participate in class discussion; prepare and deliver at least one per semester oral presentation on the selected topic from the reading list; systematically progress in the research project. Students are expected to formulate the topics and outlines of their M.A. theses by the end of the second term.

Basic reading:
Barrett Louise – Robin Dunbar – John Lycett. 2002. Human Evolutionary Psychology. Palgrave.
Davis, Steven F. (ed). 2005. Handbook of Research Methods in Experimental Psychology. Blackwell.
Horn, Laurence R. – Gregory Ward (eds). 2006. The Handbook of Pragmatics. Blackwell.
Noveck, Ira, A. – Dan Sperber (eds). 2004. Experimental Pragmatics. Palgrave.

Prof. dr hab. Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk
New Sounds: A seminar on the acquisition of Second Language Speech.

The seminar will be devoted to SLA (Second Language Acquisition) of phonology. The choice of subject is dictated by the fact that the School of English will host the sixth edition of the international conference called New Sounds in 2010, May 1-3. This will be a perfect occasion for the participants of the seminar to get acquainted with the world top specialists in the field and their work, which will hopefully stimulate the students to prepare their own original M.A. projects.
There will be ample time in the months before the conference to present and discuss the necessary background, i.e., a historical perspective on research in contrastive linguistics and SLA, major areas of research in SLA, main theoretical approaches in SLA, recent developments in SLA, SLA and native speaker, and SLA and English as a lingua franca.
The students will have a wide choice of topics from such areas as (suggested also for New Sounds 2010): speech perception and speech production, theories of acquisition of L2 phonology, phonetics and phonology in SLA, acquisition of second language phonotactics, multilingualism and the acquisition of third language phonology, the application of new technologies, neuro- and psycholinguistic aspects of phonological acquisition, early acquisition of second language sounds.
They will be able to use the available corpora of second language speech, e.g., a corpus being collected at present at IFA (of Polish English) or a newly released corpus of Austrian German English VOICE (http://www.univie.ac.at/voice), or collect their own data.
Needless to say, a good knowledge of the basics of phonetics/phonology of English/Polish and general will be required.
Please visit the NEW SOUNDS site at http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/newsounds/.
In place of bibliography, please consult works of your choice by the authors below:
NEW SOUNDS advisory board:
Catherine Best (University of Western Sydney)
Ocke-Schwen Bohn (Aarhus University)
Juli Cebrián (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)
James Flege (University of Alabama at Birmingham, Professor Emeritus)
Maria Luisa Garcia Lecumberri (University of the Basque Country)
Ulrike Gut (Augsburg University)
Valerie Hazan (University College London)
Paul Iverson (University College London)
Allan James (University of Klagenfurt)
Roy Major (Arizona State University)
Ineke Mennen (University of Bangor)
Thorsten Piske (Pädagogische Hochschule Schwäbisch Gmünd)
Linda Shockey (University of Reading)
Rajendra Singh (University of Montreal)
Ewa Waniek-Klimczak (University of Łódź)
Steven H. Weinberger (George Mason University)
Martha Young-Scholten (Newcastle University)

Prof. UAM dr hab. Krystyna Droździał-Szelest
Understanding foreign language classrooms

This seminar will introduce students to the theory and research concerning classroom foreign language teaching. Special attention will be given to such topics as developing communicative competence; promoting learner autonomy in the classroom (including strategy training); the use of the mother tongue in foreign language instruction, effectiveness of various teaching procedures, washback effect of the Matura examinations, etc.

Next, the students will be acquainted with a range of research instruments (observation, interview, questionnaire) that can be used to investigate what goes on in the language classroom. The concept of action research will be introduced as well.

As the main objective of the seminar is to enable the students to complete an M.A. thesis and to pass the M.A. examination, it will focus on the development of the relevant skills and abilities such as:

• identifying potential areas for research (practical or theoretical problem areas) and selecting/developing methods for researching them;
• conducting research in a language classroom; gathering, analysing and interpreting data;
• reporting (in an appropriate style) on small-scale research projects (planning and organizing a research report following formal requirements);
• compiling an adequate bibliography, finding and making use of relevant materials.

Reading list (to be updated):

Allright, D. and Bailey, K. 1991. Focus on the language classroom. Cambridge: CUP.
Bailey, K.M. and Nunan, D. (eds). 1996.Voices from the language classroom. Cambridge: CUP.
Carter, R. and Nunan, D. (eds). 2001. The Cambridge Guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: CUP.
Dörnyei, Z. 2003. Questionnaires in second language research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Gillham, B. 2002/2005. The research interview. London: Continuum.
Kumaravadivelu, B. 2006. Understanding language teaching. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
McNiff, J. 2002. Action research: principles and practice. London: Routledge/Falmer
Richards, J.C. and Renandya, W.A. (eds). 2002. Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: CUP.
Williams, M. and Burden, R.L. 1997. Psychology for language teachers. Cambridge: CUP.
Articles from ELT journals.

Prof. dr hab. Liliana Sikorska
Perceptions of Time, Space, Body and Soul from the Middle Ages to the Present

This seminar is primarily addressed to those who are interested in the history of English literature and in contemporary literary theory. The following four semesters will be devoted to the study of past and more recent literature as well as to the study of the construction of the past in contemporary literature. The classes will be organized around the four major topics of space, time, body and soul, and their representations in literary texts. Accordingly, our discussion of space will revolved, among other ideas, around the notions of heaven (paradise as a garden), hell (as torture chamber) and purgatory (the medieval and modern city as purgatory) in medieval and contemporary texts. The works selected for analysis represent different types of literary prose: religious writing, travelogues, autobiographies as well as novels. Placing the texts in their historical and literary context will provide the basis for our debates, while the discussion on generic conventions will grant more in-depth analyses.

Requirements:
1. An Outline of the MA thesis at the end of the first semester
2. Introduction and Chapter One is a requirement for the completion of the seminar at the end of the second semester (the end of I year).

Pre-requisites:
B.A. in English or American literature

Candidates must be familiar with the texts from the English literature reading list (Year One and Two) as well as with selected texts from the supplementary list.

Prof. dr hab. Roman Kopytko
Social Communication: A Pragmatic-Discursive View

This M. A. seminar offers an interdisciplinary approach to studying linguistic communication in a variety of formal and informal social situations in a broad interactional, mental, social, cultural, physical, and historical context. The primary disciplines involved in studying social interaction include linguistic pragmatics and discourse analysis.
Special emphasis will be put on (1) the analysis of factors that influence communicative success versus those that lead to communicative failure; (2) the practical aspects of linguistic communication such as job interviews, techniques of linguistic persuasion, handling a variety social situations and controlling the course of verbal interactions; (3) the examination of ‘emergent phenomena’ in discourse, (such as humor, faux pas, embarrassment, face threatening acts, etc., and (4) the handling of interpersonal relations in social interaction.
In their M. A. theses students are expected to study selected linguistic texts/discourses (either oral or written ) in a broad context of use by applying the most appropriate methods to analyze them. The range of texts is unlimited. It may concern inscriptions and recipes as well as the language of the law, politics, economy, medicine, science, entertainment, humor, conflict, press (the mass media), interviews, film scripts, plays, everyday (recorded) interaction, etc.

Recommended reading:
Brown, Gillian & George Yule, 1983. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge : CUP
Dijk van Teun, (ed.) 1998. Discourse as social interaction. London: Sage
Mey, Jacob . 2001. Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Schiffrin, Deborah, 1993. Approaches to discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Thomas, Jenny, 1995. Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics: London: Longman.

Prof. dr hab. Teresa Siek-Piskozub
Practice in a Second Language

The seminar is addressed to EFL teachers (BA graduates). The goal of the seminar is to give students basis for their own research within the discipline of foreign language learning and teaching. A particular focus will be given to language practice. It is generally assumed that practice is a necessary condition for language learning without giving the concept much further thought. Misgivings and misunderstandings about practice are often rooted in even deeper misunderstandings about what is that language learners are supposed to learn. In the course of the seminar the learners will analyse practice issue – theory and research findings from different language learning related disciplines: educational psychology, applied linguistics, second language acquisition and foreign language learning. They will also analyse different teaching methods from the perspective of the concept of practice.
Apart from the participation in the seminar discussions each student will give a presentation on a selected topic and write a review of an article of his/her choice.

Readings:
DeKeyser, Robert M. (ed.) 2007. Practice in Second Language: Perspectives from Applied Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology. Cambridge: CUP.
Marton, Waldemar, 1988. Methods in English Language Learning. Frameworks and Options. New York – London – Toroton – Sydney – Tokyo: Prentice Hall.
Journals: ELT Journal, Applied Linguistics, ELT Forum, Language Teaching, Neofilolog, Języki Obce w Szkole and others.

Prof. UAM dr hab. Marcin Krygier
History of the English language - change and diversity

The aim of this seminar is to lead students towards a M.A. thesis devoted to the discussion of a selected aspect of the history of the English language. The main focus will be on periods of radical change, their causes, nature and course. Alternatively, projects studying the development of non-standard varieties of English will also be welcome. Some suggested research areas are the influence of language contact on various subsystems of English, and developmental tendencies in English phonology, morphology and lexicon in a wider perspective. The actual topic of the thesis may vary, and any of the contemporary methodological approaches (sociolinguistic, dialectal, structural, and others) may be employed. Original research based on source analysis will be required, and development of the ideas presented in the candidates' B.A. theses will not be accepted. In the course of the seminar students will be expected to read and critically comment on a number of scholarly publications in the field of historical linguistics, English as well as general; two minor written tasks per month will also be required. A draft version of the first chapter will be expected to be handed in by the end of the spring semester.

Prof. UAM dr hab. Przemysław Tajsner
English minimalist syntax

This MA seminar is devoted to the analysis of English syntactic structures in terms of the current paradigm of Generative Grammar (GG) known as the Minimalist Programme. The course will also include elements of comparative, cross-linguistic analysis as well as some discussion of the methodological and philosophical foundations of G.G. The prerequisite for the course is a completion of the GG-based course of Descriptive Grammar of English, part two (syntax) (2nd year of BA studies). A prior completion of a proseminar or a BA seminar in syntax will be helpful but is not required. The major aims of the seminar are to stimulate students’ interest in formal syntactic analysis and to prepare them for independent work on their M. A. theses.