Course Title : Languaging: English and Creativity in Everyday Life

Course Code : ENG 3009

Recommended Study Year : Any (LUE1002 University English II must be either in progress or completed)

No. of Credits/Semester : 3

Mode of Tuition : Sectional

Teaching Hours : 3 hours per week

Category in Programme : English Language Enhancement (ELE) Elective

Course for students taking the revamped ELE

curriculum (can also be taken as a free elective by

students pursuing the ELE curriculum before revamp)

Prerequisite(s) : Nil

Co-requisite(s) : Nil

Exclusion(s) : Nil

Exemption Requirement(s): Nil

Brief Course Description

What do we mean by ‘using’ language? Is it like playing chess, in which each piece has a fixed value and there are agreed-upon rules? Or is it more like a dance, which people perform together but never in exactly the  same way? This course aims to engage  with  these  questions  by  introducing  a  new  understanding  of  language  as languaging, and of creativity not as the mental product of creative geniuses but as something that is present in ordinary people’s everyday language activities. From this perspective, language is not simply a readymade tool to be used but demands our creative efforts to make it happen. In this course, we will look at seemingly mundane instances  of  ‘making  language  happen’  across  a  broad  range  of  contexts  from conversational narrative to professional communication. The course will emphasise the importance of context and creativity when individual language-makers engage with specific audiences. We will also critically analyse ‘creative’ texts produced by various parties (e.g. advertisements) and discuss their social and moral ramifications. Overall, through cultivating  students’ awareness of creativity in everyday life and heightening   their   sensitivity   to   contexts,   this   course   seeks   to   enhance   their contextualization  skills  and  enable  them  to  communicate,  both  creatively  and appropriately, in English.

Aims

This course aims to:

1.   Enhance students’ awareness of how contexts shape our language use and how our languaging activities reshape the contexts.

2.   Explain to  students the important role of creativity in everyday languaging activities  through  examples  and  cases  drawn  from  real  life  situations  and communication scenarios.

3.   Encourage students to participate in a range of languaging activities involving spoken,  written,  and  multimodal  texts,  which  are  highly  relevant  to  their current and future lives.

4.   Equip students with the skills of critically analysing a broad range of texts produced by different parties for specific purposes.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students should be able to:

1.   Explain why our daily production of various texts can be seen as a creative process.

2.   Identify the ways that various parties employ in their language activities to engage with specific audience for specific purposes.

3.   Explain  the potential  social  and  moral  effects  of  creative  language  use  in particular contexts.

4.   Analyse  spoken,  written,  and  multimodal  texts  appropriate  for  a  specific audience, purpose, and situation.

5.   Reflect upon their own use of English and engage with English in a more confident and creative manner.

Indicative Contents

The contents of the course will be organized under the main theme of ‘languaging’ into three main units, each of which covers a common domain of languaging activities in  everyday  life.  A  series  of newly  developed  concepts  and  notions  drawn  from applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and narrative studies will be introduced to help students to grasp these theoretical perspectives on everyday language use. We will  also examine languaging activities across a broad range of contexts highly relevant to students’ daily life. Our focus lies in both demonstrating the creativity involved in  languaging activities and encouraging a critical engagement with ‘creative’ (ab)use of language.

1.   What is languaging; Introduction to relevant concepts and notions

2.   What is text: text types, genres, and text analysis

3.   Making Narratives: ‘the narrative turn’ in the humanities and social sciences, narrative-making in various social, professional, and personal contexts, critical analysis of narrative-making

4.   Making  Advertisements:  multimodality,  purpose  and  audience  awareness,  contextualization,        linguistic        creativity,        critical         analysis        of advertisement-making

Teaching Method

The course meets for a total of 3 hours each week, with one extra hour being assigned for out-of-class course work. Multimedia presentations will be used to present the necessary analytical and conceptual frameworks. The primary teaching mode will be experiential  and participative, with  students  analyzing,  comparing,  producing,  and evaluating spoken, written, and multimodal texts according to the particular focus of the class.

Measurement of Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes will be measured through continuous assessments. Students’ progress  will  be  measured  with  regard  to  their  participation  during  lectures  and  tutorials, presentations, and written assignments.

Assessment

Required Readings

Because of the  scope of the course and the nature  of the assignments there are no specific required readings. Depending on the course units and assignments, students will be asked to consult the sources listed below.

Recommended Readings

Abbott, H. Porter. 2008. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Blake, Barry J.. 2007. Playing with Words: Humour in the English language, London and Oakville, CT, Equinox.

Carter, Ronald. 2004. Language and Creativity: TheArt of Common Talk. London:

Routledge.

Carter, Ronald, and Michael McCarthy.1997. Exploring Spoken English. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Forceville, Charles. 1996. Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising. London and New York: Routledge.

Cook, Guy. 2001. The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge.

Cornbleet, Sandra, and Ronald Carter. 2001. The Language of Speech and Writing.

London: Routledge.

Coupland, Nikolas. 2007. Style: Language Variation and Identity.  Cambridge  and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Fairclough,  Norman.  2013. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Routledge.

Frow,  John.  2006. Genre: The New Critical Idiom. London   and  New  York:

Routledge.

Goddard,  Angela.  2002. The Language of Advertising: Written Texts. London:

Routledge.

Halliday,   Michael   Alexander    Kirkwood,   and    Jonathan   Webster.   2014. Text Linguistics: The How and Why of Meaning. Sheffield, UK ; Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing Ltd.

Jones, Rodney H.. 2024. Discourse Analysis: A Resource Book for Students (3rd ed.).