The course is about one of the most basic, common sense, mundane yet complex activities that we as members of society engage in almost every day: talk and interaction. During the course, we examine the complex yet taken for granted ways in which we as members of society use language to construct meaning, make sense of ourselves and of others actions, and of the way we organize our social world through the ordinary everyday mundane taken for granted power of talk and interaction. From a theoretical perspective, the course introduces the approach to the study of social interaction known as conversation analysis. More specifically, students will be exposed to notions such as turn-taking organization, sequencing organization, overlap and repair as well as the techniques of conversation transcription. The course is explicitly designed to raise student’s awareness of the ways in which users of English apply a range of resources and methods in conversation (or interactional encounters) in an attempt to orient themselves towards a set of shared understandings.

This course aims to introduce students to a selection of the rich diversity of cultural history and human values reflected in Anglophone writing produced in English speaking countries. Through short readings (essays, stories, poems, and plays), students learn to observe, understand and evaluate how literary texts work. The course introduces students to genre (prose, poetry, the short story, drama) and models for them the skills of close reading and comparative analysis. It equally trains students to observe, comprehend and evaluate how literary texts are written, and how to write effectively about their insights.