ELT-4 Electives:

 

Culture Awareness in Language Teaching

By Dr. Ali Bala

The goal of this one-semester course is to give learners a general theoretical overview of language and culture, the relationship between these two, to give a guide to the practice of key aspects of language teaching, and to consider some of the underlying concepts. It will help the learners to understand English-speaking cultures, raise learners’ awareness of their own and each others’ cultures, to overcome potentially embarrassing problems arising from different conventions of behavior, politeness, and gestures. Different kinds of activities (at any level of language ability, from elementary to advanced) will be presented to learners in order to increase their cultural awareness and promote cross-cultural interaction in the classroom.

 

 

Internet Linguistics

By PhD c. Karwan Karim

When you go on the internet, you see acronyms, abbreviations, emoticons, emojis, memojis, memes, and new words. You will realize that there is a new language emerging out of the influence of the internet and media. Due to the impacts of the internet and media, new forms and styles enter languages. In some cases, a number of linguistic expressions get new psychological and cultural meanings. David Crystal, the renowned British Linguist, calls this new field Internet Linguistics. The aim of this course is to investigate the internet language from four different perspectives: Sociolinguistics, Education, Stylistics, and Applied Linguistics. The sociolinguistics perspective will be examined through the concept of themes. From the educational perspective, the focus will be on the impact of the internet on Standard English, the language of education. The stylistic perspective investigates how the internet has encouraged new forms and different styles through different channels including: mobile phones, blogs, virtual worlds, e-mail, and instant messaging. The applied perspective tackles the linguistic exploitation, the good and the bad, of the internet. On the one hand, the good side of the exploitation can be seen in language documentation and language revitalization. On the other hand, the bad side can be seen in cyber-crimes, identity theft, terrorism, and internet fraud. By the end of the course, students will be acquainted with language change during the fourth revolution that is artificial intelligence, AI.

 

Learning Objectives of the course

Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Understand the evolution of the English language, and the impacts of different technologies on language use and change,
  • Discuss how the internet language is different from the conventional formal written and spoken language,
  • Evaluate different perspectives in the field of Internet Linguistics,
  • Apply theoretical understanding into the English and Kurdish Media,
  • And write critically about Kurdish Internet Linguistics, as a new field in Kurdish linguistics.