Elective English Courses 

ENG 201- ENGLISH-TURKISH TRANSLATION(6390201)

Course Description:Eng 201 involves intermediate to advanced work in translating texts from English into Turkish in three stages: (a) starting with samples including the basic structures in English at sentence level, (b) moving on to short paragraphs in which these structures are found in more complex form, (c) exposing students to short essays covering a wide variety of subjects as representative as possible of the styles and registers found in contemporary written English.

Course Outline

Creative Non-Fiction (6390213)

Course Description: Creative non-fiction is a combination of literature and real life. We all have stories to tell — about ourselves, other people and the world around us. In this class, you will explore ways of telling your story in your own way. We will study the theory and practice of creative nonfiction by reading and writing in a variety of forms, including list essay, memoir, travel essay and personal essay. In the meantime, we will also study the core elements of nonfiction, such as voice, character, point of view and scene.

**This class includes an intensive writing component and your work is critiqued by other students in a workshop setting. There is also a fair amount of reading as no one can become a good writer or storyteller without being a good reader.**

Course Description

Advanced Textual Analysis (6390214)

Course Description: Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this course is designed to provide an introduction to discourse analysis, the study of language in context, for non-specialists in the area of language study.The development of lexical competence is a multi-factorial phenomenon, that is lexis only has meaning in context. Therefore, this course aims to take a holistic approach to multifactorial textual analysis. Advanced Textual Analysis makes use of the findings from semantics, etymology, lexicology, lexicography, discourse analysis and pragmatics in analyzing a variety of selected texts developing further reading skills, putting a special emphasis on improving vocabulary development strategies. Students are sensitized to subtle distinctions or variations in meaning between synonyms, idioms, phrasal verbs, and proverbial sayings by dealing with dictionary skills in depth and are provided with the means to achieve vocabulary development autonomously.

Course outline

World Thinkers (6390215)

Course Description: The course aims to study some chosen thinkers who escaped crucifixion, burning or imprisonment, and who sometimes did not. We will discuss their life stories, what they thought, what they lived through, what they achieved, and even what they did not achieve, for there are times when their failures are as important and valuable to us as their achievements. We have chosen to study not professional philosophers, although there are times when they come in handy, but intellectual leaders of human civilization: Scientists, artists, authors, musicians…

Course outline 

Poetry and Music (6390216)

Course Description: The course covers some of the well-known poems of English language. They cover a wide variety of topics and themes, but they have all found their way into the songs of some famous musicians. Therefore, in addition to reading, students will have an opportunity to listen to them. Appreciation of literature and music will go hand in hand. The course is not a strictly literature course. It is more like a personal exploration of literature.

There will be class discussions on every poem; thus, students need to come to class having read them. During the course, students will have to write an essay where they discuss their understanding of the central idea of a particular genre or poem. Towards the end of the course, students will prepare a group presentation in which they will employ a variety of media to present their version of a poem. At the end of the semester, there will be a written final exam.

Course outline

Literary Tekts (6390217)

Ders Tanımı: Literary texts is a learner-centred course that will be offered at a technical university. Therefore, specific needs and background of technical university students as well as those studying social sciences are taken into consideration during the design process. The course aims to provide students with practice in four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening). The course also appeals to students who are interested in literature, since it offers literary materials either as reading texts or as writing prompts to which students can respond to either in the form of an essay or an extended research on the assigned theme of the week. At production level, higher-order thinking skills such as synthesizing and evaluating information as well as producing ideas and forming judgements will be required. In this course, a thematic approach will be adopted, and course materials will be chosen among literary texts that revolve around certain thematic concerns such as war, migration, city, nature, house and body. Each theme will be discussed for two weeks. At the end of two weeks, students will be assigned paragraphs, presentations, group presentations on the theme of the week.

Language in intercultural contexts (6390218)

Ders Tanımı: This course is designed for students in any field of study who would like to raise their awareness the requirements of functional communication in intercultural contexts. The course deals with how language is a sociocultural medium of communication, how it is interwoven with culture, and the implications of this relation on our learning and behaviour. 

courseoutline

English through Seminars on Films (6390219)

Course Description: English through Seminars on Films is a course for students who like watching and discussing movies.  The course encompasses all four skills of language, class hours mainly focusing on speaking and listening skills, homework assignments focusing on listening, reading and writing skills. It aims to facilitate oral communication with the academic discussion method of seminar, which is a scholarly discussion technique that will be taught by the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Each week, students watch a different movie and think about a set of open-ended questions assigned by the instructor as homework. In the class, students discuss the questions using the seminar method. The seminars will focus on the story in the movies. As homework assignment, students write one essay and make one presentation elaborating on one of the questions given by the instructor to discuss the debate/issue in the movies further in more detail.

The English Language and the Future of World Englishes (6390220)

Course Description: The course aims to assist students in raising awareness of the issues centered on the development of the English language and its forms of use today and, most importantly, for the future of the language in terms of becoming a Lingua Franca. The course involves assignments, presentations, group discussions, and critiques. Hence, active participation in all sessions is expected from students. The course requires extensive reading before each session and active involvement in class discussions to be carried out.

The course will begin with a brief introduction to the English language and its history and analyze the extended development of the language from very early periods. After reflecting on the development and history of the language,  fundamental terminology associated with the concept of World English (WES) and related terms such as change, identity, culture, and their reflections on the English language will be covered. After going over key concepts, WES around the world and its effects internationally will be shown. Language choice in multilingual communities, their culture, and the implications of this for teaching in EFL contexts will also be dealt with. Finally, the future of the language by going through popular concepts like social media, the Internet, and so on will be discussed. During our final session, the future of WES and its appearance in Lingua Franca will be discussed.

Conversational English (6390312)

Course Description: English312 is a learner-centered and integrated-skill based course with a specific emphasis on both word- and sentence-level phonological features and is designed to help nonnative speakers of the English language to improve speech clarity and communicability and help them gain self-confidence, and self-monitoring abilities in English. Students will improve communicative and articulative accuracy by working on some of the finer features of native speech including stress and intonation variation for emphasis or special meaning, syllable reduction, and liaison. The task types include monologues and dialogues accompanied by grammar activities when required. The reading and listening skills will be utilized as a means for speaking outcomes, and the writing skill will mainly function as a self-reflection tool. The course will also offer a supportive learning environment to help students gain an understanding regarding the phonological and morphological impacts of Latin and Greek on the English language.