ASPECTS OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE
Assignment Topics
The course will be assessed through written assignment of no more than 4,000 words. This assessment has been broken into two parts:
In researching your assignment, you should consult, and make reference to relevant academic sources (books, book chapters, or journal articles). Where appropriate, include illustrations to complement your text, remembering to provide a source credit in the caption of each graphic.
Computer Science and a Language students are required to write an end-of-term paper from any of the topics below (2,500 words), and sit a written examination.
Assignment One: World Writing Systems
1. Discuss the early emergence and development of one ancient script, which may or may not be a script dealt with in the lectures.
2. Discuss in detail one modern script, focusing mainly on how it represents the language(s) for which it is used, and its appropriateness for the language it represents.
3. Explain the various challenges faced by those trying to decipher a disused script, taking examples from real cases of decipherment (successful or unsuccessful).
4. Examine writing systems for sign languages, and discuss the practical implications of adequately expressing a signed language using written script.
Assignment Two: Other Aspects of Written Language
5. Detail the role of the printing press with movable alphabetic type in the standardisation of languages. Discuss the role writing plays in standardising spoken language.
6. Critically review the arguments in favour and against the claim that literacy crucially alters the way humans think (the “Great Divide” theory).
7. Discuss the processes involved in reading, and the pedagogical implications of bottom-up, top-down, and integrated models of reading.
8. Discuss the issues surrounding literacy for deaf children in Ireland (or elsewhere). Issues may include challenges of learning a phonetic script, and learning to write in a second language.
9a. Record and transcribe a short piece of real (i.e., not fictional or scripted) speech (one speaker or several) from the media, and compare and contrast the use of language with that of a piece of written text on the same or a similar topic. The recording should be two to three minutes long, and transcribed in as much detail as possible. Do not ‘edit out’ hesitations, false starts, stutters, ungrammatical utterances, etc.
9b. Discuss the differences of spoken, written, and signed modes of communication. Drawing on the differences between written and spoken discourse, what further differences are there between written and signed modes of communication. Draw on real examples where possible, by analysing (for example) recordings of printed English news stories, spoken English news stories, and ISL news stories on the same topic and discuss differences between the three.
10. Discuss the language of one electronic communication technology that uses chiefly writing: e.g., SMS, webchat, instant messaging, blog comments, bulletin boards, etc. Discuss how the technology adheres to, or deviates from, standard/traditional written conventions. Illustrate your points with real extracts.
- One assignment of no more than 2,000 words on a world writing system (50%) DUE: NOVEMBER 6th
- One assignment of no more than 2,000 words on a further aspect of written language covered in the course (50%) DUE: JANUARY 12th
In researching your assignment, you should consult, and make reference to relevant academic sources (books, book chapters, or journal articles). Where appropriate, include illustrations to complement your text, remembering to provide a source credit in the caption of each graphic.
Computer Science and a Language students are required to write an end-of-term paper from any of the topics below (2,500 words), and sit a written examination.
Assignment One: World Writing Systems
1. Discuss the early emergence and development of one ancient script, which may or may not be a script dealt with in the lectures.
2. Discuss in detail one modern script, focusing mainly on how it represents the language(s) for which it is used, and its appropriateness for the language it represents.
3. Explain the various challenges faced by those trying to decipher a disused script, taking examples from real cases of decipherment (successful or unsuccessful).
4. Examine writing systems for sign languages, and discuss the practical implications of adequately expressing a signed language using written script.
Assignment Two: Other Aspects of Written Language
5. Detail the role of the printing press with movable alphabetic type in the standardisation of languages. Discuss the role writing plays in standardising spoken language.
6. Critically review the arguments in favour and against the claim that literacy crucially alters the way humans think (the “Great Divide” theory).
7. Discuss the processes involved in reading, and the pedagogical implications of bottom-up, top-down, and integrated models of reading.
8. Discuss the issues surrounding literacy for deaf children in Ireland (or elsewhere). Issues may include challenges of learning a phonetic script, and learning to write in a second language.
9a. Record and transcribe a short piece of real (i.e., not fictional or scripted) speech (one speaker or several) from the media, and compare and contrast the use of language with that of a piece of written text on the same or a similar topic. The recording should be two to three minutes long, and transcribed in as much detail as possible. Do not ‘edit out’ hesitations, false starts, stutters, ungrammatical utterances, etc.
9b. Discuss the differences of spoken, written, and signed modes of communication. Drawing on the differences between written and spoken discourse, what further differences are there between written and signed modes of communication. Draw on real examples where possible, by analysing (for example) recordings of printed English news stories, spoken English news stories, and ISL news stories on the same topic and discuss differences between the three.
10. Discuss the language of one electronic communication technology that uses chiefly writing: e.g., SMS, webchat, instant messaging, blog comments, bulletin boards, etc. Discuss how the technology adheres to, or deviates from, standard/traditional written conventions. Illustrate your points with real extracts.