As Director of Graduate Studies in English, Dr. Utschig advises primarily graduate students, but she is also the advisor for the multidisciplinary Language Studies minor. This course includes a thorough review of traditional English grammar, from the parts of speech to sentence structure and punctuation. Students have many opportunities to practice what they learn, to ask questions, and to work together. Through a combination of lecture, group discussion, and group problem solving, they will also learn some of the reasons why language is the way it is. This class provides an excellent grammar review, with practical applications, for any student.
Course work varies from short exercises and quizzes to presentations, papers, and exams.
In this course we take a look at the many ways that language can be investigated. We talk about our own variety of English and how it compares to others. We also pay special attention, throughout the course, to the notion that no language or language variety is fundamentally superior to any other, despite the prevalence of attitudes to the contrary. This class combines lecture, group discussion, and group problem solving, and students are given many different ways to grasp the material and show what they can do, from short exercises, quizzes, and presentations to papers and exams. This course begins with a brief discussion of the nature of language and language variation and a brief review of English phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, and semantics.