New Courses (Fall/Winter 2022-23)

The Department of Language Studies strives to create courses that are meaningful.
We are excited to announce that several of our proposed courses have been approved, and many will be offered for the first time in the upcoming academic year (Fall/Winter 2022-23).

Education Studies

EDS101H5 • Health and Education

This course serves as an introduction to theory and research in the related fields of health and education. Students will learn to identify, address, and manage health-related risk in school environments by deepening their knowledge of holistic and brain-based theory. The course will explore health and wellness as a fundamental human right by addressing proactive approaches through the Determinants of Health and Developmental Assets Framework. Active research will include investigation of school-based policies and practices (e.g, the critique of a new fitness technology, examination of a school food and nutrition program, assessment of a school health campaign).

Note:

As this is an introductory course to the topic, students are encouraged to take this course in their first or second year as preparation for EDS220H5 Equity and Diversity Studies and EDS388H5 – Internship in the Community.

French

FRE398H5 • The Culture of Paris

This course explores the city of Paris as it developed into a cultural beacon of excellence in French culture throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will expand and apply previous knowledge in cultural studies, and their oral and written competences in French, to the study of the events that have shaped the Paris of today. Particular emphasis will be placed on extending attentive interpretive skills to the impact of historical events, city planning and promotion, and artistic celebration, and on deploying these skills to think critically about heritage in the French context.

FRE354H5 • Teaching French in a Plurilingual Context [to be offered in the future]

This course allows students to explore innovative pedagogical approaches such as the Action Oriented and Plurilingual & Pluricultural Approaches, building on knowledge and skills acquired in FRE227H5 Teaching and Learning a Second/Foreign Language. This is accomplished through the examination of the linguistic and cultural diversity observed in French Language classes today, and the discovery of innovative and current teaching approaches followed by the creation of pedagogical materials. Particular emphasis is placed on students’ abilities to transfer knowledge into practice.

FRE377H5 • The Phonetics & Phonology of French Foreign Accent [to be offered in the future]

This course explores the phonetic and phonological properties of second language French learners' speech. Particular emphasis is placed on students' ability to summarize typical characteristics and phenomena of second language speech learning, identify segmental and prosodic features of nonnative French including inter-learner variability, and conduct acoustic analyses of real learner speech.

FRE389H5 • Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition [to be offered in the future]

This course examines the effects of cognitive (e.g., aptitude, working memory) and affective differences (e.g., motivation, L2 anxiety) on second language acquisition. Students will come to understand the nature of these differences via empirical studies on learners of French and the use of assessment instruments including questionnaires and on-line tests. Particular emphasis is placed on students' ability to discuss between-learner differences in comprehension and production, identify relevant individual differences capable of explaining such variability, and conduct their own individual differences research.

FRE395H5 • Francophone Media and Global Culture [to be offered in the future]

This course explores media and culture in the Francophone world through textual, graphic, musical and cinematographic content. Students will apply previously acquired knowledge in cultural studies, and their oral and written competences in French to the study of multiple cultural and mediatic forms including movies, graphic novels and songs. Particular emphasis will be placed on extending attentive reading skills as ways of thinking about texts, images and music, and on deploying these skills to better understand the relationship between different Francophone cultures within our contemporary world.

Linguistics

LIN341H5 • Linguistics and Computation

How can you get a computer to tell grammatical and ungrammatical sentences apart? How does it know whether 'cricket' refers to the game or the insect in a sentence like "The cricket jumped over the fence"? This course is designed to introduce students with either a background in Linguistics or in the Computing Sciences to the intersection of linguistics and computing, with a focus on the question of how computational algorithms and data structures can be used as a formal model of language. Topics may include finite-state automata for phonology and morphology, context-free grammars, semantic parsing, vector space semantics, computational cognitive modelling, and computational sociolinguistics. No programming skills are required to take the course.

LIN387H5 • Theoretical Issues in Teaching and Learning Second Language Vocabulary

This course provides an overview of second language vocabulary acquisition research and the resultant implications for second language teaching. Topics include dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, incidental and intentional vocabulary learning, textbook analysis, learning strategies, and teacher beliefs about vocabulary teaching and learning. Implications are drawn for pedagogical practices, including best vocabulary teaching practices, materials selection, and measuring vocabulary knowledge.

LIN419H5 • Field Methods: A Language Unlocked [2022-23: Oromo]

This course provides experience in language analysis based on elicited data from a native speaker of an understudied language. It emphasizes procedures and techniques and provides an opportunity for first-hand appreciation of linguistic unity and diversity.

LIN479H5 • The Structure of a Specific Language [2022-23: Chinese]

An introduction to the structure of a featured language other than English. Topics of analysis may include the phonological, morphological, syntactic, or semantic systems; the writing system; historical aspects; variation. Students will use the tools of linguistic analysis learned in prior courses to examine the structural properties of this language. No prior knowledge of the language is necessary.

We are excited to announce that the language to be studied in Fall/Winter 2022-23 is Chinese.

Language Teaching and Learning

LTL383H5 • Teaching Second Language Reading and Writing

This course examines theories and practices related to the teaching and learning of reading and writing in a second language, particularly with reference to English. The course will focus on the theoretical and research-based underpinnings of second language reading and writing and on the ways in which instruction can facilitate the development of these skills. The relationship of vocabulary to second language reading and writing will be examined (particularly with reference to English).