S0915 One World, One Language?

The aim of this course is to examine the increasingly dominant role of English as the language of international communication in a world in which international relations - and relationships - have become everyday events in the lives of global citizens everywhere. It aims to provide students with insights into the present status of English as a lingua franca, and the notion of \'ownership\' of the language, and to point towards possible future scenarios for the language.
Questions the course will address include:
How did English get to be the world\'s lingua franca, and does it deserve to be it?
Whatever happened to \'standard English\' and the notion of correctness?
Is there such a thing as World English, and can it uphold the values of multiculturalism?
How do the media use English to speak to the world?
In keeping with the VIU mission statement, the approach will be eclectic and cross-disciplinary, drawing from backgrounds as diverse as linguistic theory, language teaching methodology, media studies and post-colonial literatures in English. It will provide students with the opportunity to reflect upon their own relationship with the language, and how it permeates their own immediate environment, as well as to assess its suitability as a global language of communication in an increasingly complex world, where fast and efficient communication between countries and across cultures is vital to peace and progress.

Course outline
The first lesson each week will introduce a theme (see syllabus below), and will be presented in a traditional lecture style. It will end with a short task which students should carry out before the next lesson. This task will not be demanding in terms of time (e.g. a reflective questionnaire or a short piece of Internet-based research); its purpose is to create a focus for the second lesson of the week, which will continue to explore the theme of the first lesson through classroom debate, analysis of materials, feedback on the task etc.
Course evaluation will be through continuous assessment, and a research project into an aspect of the course chosen by the student, including a brief discussion of the research. Although the research project is preferred (and there are excellent opportunities for research into lingua franca English within the VIU context), a descriptive dissertation may be acceptable as an alternative.
No preliminary knowledge is needed to follow the course, only an interest in the topic.