Ling 402: Academic Discourse Practices

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Example Essays

The essays provided here have been donated by former MA students in the Department. In most cases the students have also provided the marks that they received for the assignment. These are provided in brackets at the end of the essay title.

The essays have been organised by the title of the course for which they were submitted. Please note that some of the courses listed are no longer offered.

• Background to Applied Linguistics
• Bad Language: From Attitudes to Ideologies
• Bilingualism
• Contributions to Language Learning
• Critical Discourse Analysis
• Expertise in Language Learning and Teaching
• Gender and Language
• Issues in Language Testing
• Language and Education
• Linguistic Analysis
• Literacy Studies
• Managing Innovation in Language Teaching
• New Directions in Language Analysis
• Pragmatics
• Research Issues in Applied Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Stylistics
• Trends and Issues in ELT Methodology

Background to Applied Linguistics

Error Analysis with specific reference to Greek learners of English (65)

Should we (as teachers) attempt to correct 'defective performances' in speech and if so, how? (66)

On communication strategies. (71)

Bad Language: From Attitudes to Ideologies

An ideological debate over literacy and othography: romanization of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. (64)

Bilingualism

Code-switching, conversation analysis and construction of social identity. (70)

Contributions to Language Learning

What has a stronger effect on SLA: The learners’ L1 or the age at which they started to learn the L2? (67)

A comparison of two studies on Chinese and Korean Learners on the acquisition of the temporality system in L2 English (71)

Critical Discourse Analysis

Social Actors in a BNP Election Leaflet (62)

A critical discourse analysis of the examination of witnesses in court. (72)

Expertise in Language Learning and Teaching

Language learning strategies: definitions, classifications and factors which influence them (65)

Teacher beliefs (74)

Gender and Language

Gendered discourses in a contemporary animated film: To what extent does Shrek subvert or confirm gender stereotypes? (74)

Issues in Language Testing

Two different tests, two different approaches to vocabulary testing (64)

Washback: a cautionary tale about the importance of exploring causes and alternatives, examining the evidence and reading critically. (65)

Language and Education

The place of speech in the curriculum and 'knowing your place': how speech keeps the classes in order. (65)

Linguistic Analysis

Theory of accessibility and some considerations on high accessibility marking in Georgian. (68)

Literacy Studies

An ecological view of a literacy event: finding information about the treatment of headlice. (59)

Managing Innovation in Language Teaching

Pre-service teacher education and curricular innovation. (78)

New Directions in Language Analysis

Cooking an(d) Identity: an analysis of the texturing of Jamie Oliver’s identity in the cookbook Jamie’s Kitchen. (72)

Pragmatics

Expediting goals and saving face: a pragmatic analysis of strategic impoliteness in the TV series Fawlty Towers. (65)

Pragmatic analysis of an excerpt from the film American Beauty (68)

The scope of impoliteness theory: an application of Culpeper et al.'s impoliteness framework to courtroom discourse. (76)

Research Issues in Applied Linguistics

Designing a method of investigating problems of assessment in a community ESOL class (whose primary purpose is speaking and listening). (61)

Relating exams to the Common European Framework: the preliminary steps (67)

Some methodological and theoretical issues in transcription and translation of conversational data. (67)

Identifying Scots Speech in Fiction: Some Methodological Issues (68)

Analysing language ideologies on the basis of the Danish debate on 'politically correct' language. (72)

The 'how' and 'why' of qualitative research: a case study. (78)

Outline up to three research questions for the dissertation you are planning to write and summarise the way(s) in which you intend to operationalise these quesitons.

Sociolinguistics

Many ways of using 'mayonnaise': a critical evaluation of policies in relation to written Standard Danish. (68)

Causes and consequences of language standardization in Brunei. (75)

Stylistics

A stylistics analysis of the opening of 'London Fields' by Martin Amis. (62)

Stylistic analysis of Patience Agbabi’s poem ‘Ufo Woman (Pronounced Oofoe)’ (68)

An examination of an empirical study replicating Short and Van Peer (1988). (72)

Trends and Issues in ELT Methodology

Communicative language teaching and ELT in Georgian state schools. (75)

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the following students who have provided essays for this collection:

Jamie Chien

Rebecca E. Hargreaves

Sarah Jackson

Anne Kjaergaard

Anne Knier

David Laming

Yan Li

Nino Nijaradze

Minna Olesen

Spiros Papageorgiou

Johnny Unger

If you would like to donate your assignments to this collection, please contact Jayanti Banerjee.