Fall 2018 Graduate Course Descriptions

If you want more information about a course, please contact the faculty member.


ENGL 500. Teaching Multimodal Composition

Instructor: Barbara Blakely

Required of all new English Department teaching assistants teaching ISUComm Foundation Courses. Introduction to the teaching of ISUComm Foundation Courses. Foundational and relevant newer composition theory and pedagogical methods related to ISUComm Foundation Courses objectives and their classroom enactment, including development of assignments and supporting activities, and evaluation of student projects.


ENGL 503/603. Seminar in Composition Theory

Instructor: Lesley Bartlett

Our course will examine composition theories and pedagogies that are informed by antiracist rhetorics, cultural rhetorics, disability studies, ecocomposition, feminist rhetorics, queer rhetorics, WAC, and writing center studies, among others (guided by students’ interests). We will begin with foundational composition theories and pedagogies, briefly surveying the history of the field to understand the precursors to the contemporary work on which we’ll focus for most of the course.
Throughout the course, we will consider what it means to be(come) a critically reflective teacher. Our attention to critically reflective practice will allow students to leave the course with a better understanding of—and ability to articulate—why they do what they do as teachers and the theories underpinning their practice. We’ll also consider the complications and limitations of critically reflective practice as we currently understand it.
Students will complete short written assignments throughout the course in response to our readings; prepare questions for guest teacher-scholars (authors of some of our course texts who will visit the class virtually); do supplementary reading and lead discussion on a topic related to our course; and complete a final project that aligns with their scholarly interests and goals (developed in consultation with me). Students enrolled for 600-level credit can expect to complete more extensive final projects than those enrolled for 500-level credit.
Our focus is composition theories and pedagogies, but the critical lenses we take up will help students become more critically reflective teachers regardless of their subject matter. If teaching is part of your professional future, this course may well be for you. If teaching composition is part of your professional future, this course is almost certainly for you.
Prior course work in composition theory and pedagogy is not required.
Possible texts include:

  • Stacey Waite’s Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing (2017)
  • Asao Inoue’s Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future (2015)
  • Stephanie Kerschbaum’s Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference (2014)
  • Frankie Condon and Vershawn Ashanti Young’s Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication (2016)
  • Shari Stenberg’s Composition Studies Through a Feminist Lens (2013)

ENGL 504. Teaching Advanced Communication

Instructor: Jenny Aune

Teaching business and technical communication in university, community college, and industry settings. Emphasizes curriculum planning, materials development, assignment design, responding to student work, assessment of student work, and distance (online) teaching.
The course may have a broader interest to graduate students who have an interest in teaching at a university, but whose department does not offer specific pedagogy courses.


ENGL 506. Professional Communication Theory

Instructor: Jo Mackiewicz

English 506 introduces students to the theoretical approaches that undergird the field of technical and professional communication. We read germinal and recent works to understand the field’s history and current trends in research. The course begins with the field’s history, covers different rhetorical and philosophical approaches, examines perspectives from linguistics, investigates the state of research methods, and delves into ethics and visual communication. Students analyze assigned readings and carry out a major research project that might lead to a publishable article. Students in other areas of the department might find that this course’s coverage of approaches to technical and professional communication opens up new research possibilities.


ENGL/LING 510. Introduction to Computers in Applied Linguistics

Instructor: James Ranalli

The goal of English 510 is to make you familiar with applications relevant to language learners, teachers, applied linguistics researchers, and language program administrators. You will, therefore, be exposed to a wide variety of digital applications, including the more conventional and familiar (e.g., MS Excel) as well as newer online and mobile applications. Through this exposure, you will have opportunities to:

  • become more familiar with digital tools in general;
  • explore current and potential applications of technology for teaching, testing, administration, research, and, in particular, computer‐assisted language learning (CALL);
  • conduct basic statistical and linguistic analyses of representative types of data; and
  • locate, develop, implement, and evaluate computer‐assisted language learning activities.

Through guided and self-directed exploration of technologies and their specific applications, as well as course readings and participation in interactive lectures, discussions, pair- and group-based collaboration, you will gain knowledge and skills to help you use computers for language instruction and research, including the identification of possible focuses for thesis, creative component, or dissertation projects.


ENGL/LING 511. Introduction to Linguistic Analysis

Instructor: Elena Cotos

Introduction to the foundations of human language as a system. Principles and methods of linguistic analysis with emphasis on morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics. Description of language variation in different contexts and speech communities. Theoretical and pedagogical approaches to first and second language acquisition.


ENGL/LING 512. Second Language Acquisition

Instructor: Carol Chapelle

This course introduces students to the objectives, methods, and findings of research investigating how people learn a second (or additional) language.  It will help to orient students to the perspectives of those who investigate questions about second language acquisition (SLA) and help students to examine the published research on topics such as the role of linguistic input for acquisition of vocabulary, the value of conversation for language development, individual differences in SLA, and SLA in classroom contexts.  The course will include topics such as SLA research questions, methods of data elicitation, linguistic data analysis, research on interaction, and the theory-practice interface.  Perspectives to SLA to be introduced will include cognitive, linguistic, interactionist, sociocultural, and emergentist. The role of technology in shaping current issues will also be discussed.  Students will be asked to read several books and research articles as well as to present to the class. Five papers including an annotated bibliography will provide opportunities for application of the concepts and practices by requiring students to analyze language learner data, appraise a research article, present a book report, conduct and report on a small-scale SLA study, and explore an area of interest.  Opportunities for face-to-face and online discussion of issues as a class and in small groups will also be provided. The course is of interest to anyone wanting to learn more about how people learn a language that is not their primary one while learning about the research methodologies and writing conventions in applied linguistics.


ENGL/LING 513. Language Assessment Practicum

Instructor: Gary Ockey
Arranged

Advanced practicum in language assessment.


ENGL/LING 520. Computational Analysis of English

Instructor: Evgeny Chukharev

This course introduces concepts and methods for performing computational analyses of human language. The emphasis will be on gaining conceptual and practical experience with respect to using natural language processing methods for solving problems relevant to applied linguistics such as corpus linguistics, computer assisted language learning and language assessment. Since there is an increasing amount of textual data available everywhere on and off the web now, the methods taught in this course are relevant and useful for everyone who is interested in quantitative analyses of large collections of texts. Prior knowledge of computer programming in any one language is a pre-requisite.


ENGL 521. Teaching of Literature and the Literature Curriculum

Instructor: Brandon Sams

How do I begin to visualize and create a semester’s literature course? Should I teach chronologically or thematically? Should I use literature circles, literature portfolios, dialogue journals, or online exchanges? How do I incorporate diverse and inclusive texts into the curriculum? How do I assess students’ literary knowledge?
The purpose of this course is provide you with a theoretically-informed toolkit for literature course design and literature instruction at a variety of levels. Taking a playful cue from Vickie Gill’s (2007) The Ten Students You’ll Meet in Your Classroom, we’ll read several literary texts, including canonical works, graphic and wordless novels, and young adult fiction, that feature unique adolescents, diverse across race, class, and gender spectrums—young people we may indeed teach in our current and future classrooms. These texts, and the youth featured in them, will help us think critically and generously about the students we may teach and the inclusive literature pedagogies that might support them. Alongside reading fiction, we will build a methodology of critical reading practice by turning to contemporary literary theory and cultural studies to learn tools to critically engage our course texts.
You can expect to complete short written assignments throughout the course in response to class discussions and course readings; complete a teaching demonstration on a literary text; complete a final project that aligns with your scholarly and teaching interests (e.g., a research-supported syllabus and teaching unit; a scholarly article suitable for publication). Final projects will be developed in consultation with me. This course is appropriate for individuals who are—or may someday be—teaching at the middle school, high school, community college, or college/university level. Your background, expertise, and developing interests are welcome.
Possible theoretical texts include:

  • Alsup, J. (2015). A Case for Teaching Literature in the Secondary School: Why Reading Fiction Matters in an Age of Scientific Objectivity and Standardization. New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Appleman, D. (2014). Critical Encounters in Secondary English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents. New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Linkon, S. L. (2011). Literary Learning: Teaching the English Major. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
  • Blau, S. (2003). The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Possible literary texts include:

  • Tan, S. (2014). The Arrival. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levin.
  • Bell, C. (2014). El Deafo. New York, NY: Amulet Books.
  • Konigsberg, B. (2015). Openly Straight. New York, NY: Scholastic.
  • Tamaki, M. & Tamaki, J. (2010). Skim. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
  • Magoon, K. (2014). How It Went Down. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

ENGL 524. Literacy: Issues and Methods for Nonnative Speakers of English

Instructor: Tammy Slater

This seminar course begins with an exploration into the various definitions and types of literacy, and continues with a discussion of socially situated views of literacy, including the role of indigenous literacy in language learning, multiliteracies and digital literacy, biliteracy, disciplinary literacy, and critical literacy. The course responds to issues, both theoretical and practical, in teaching English literacy skills to people of any age or language level who are learning English as a second or foreign language (or even a first!). Because of the critical connection between teaching and research, the course aims to raise and consider interesting research questions of interest to participants as well as the classroom events that may necessitate looking at these questions to inform both theory and practice. Theory-related topics include the development of first and second language reading and writing processes, including differences in oral and written language development; factors influencing literacy practices; and frameworks that may be useful for researching literacy development as well as developing curriculum and evaluation plans for literacy programs (e.g., Systemic Functional Linguistics). Practical topics include examining the practice of teaching language across the curriculum versus disciplinary literacy, the match between materials and students, and developing strategies and materials that enhance academic literacy learning in particular. Because the course aims to connect the practice of teaching literacy with methods of research used to explore literacy development, it will be of interest to both MA and PhD students in any discipline that wants to examine how literacy is constructed and developed within that discipline. This course is also one of the few to offer an introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics in a user-friendly way to facilitate and stimulate thinking about both research and practice. Through written assignments, discussions, presentations, and small projects, we will analyze, adapt, and apply theories, methods, and techniques for language learning situations with a focus on academic literacy needs.


ENGL 530. Technology in Oral Language

Instructor: John Levis

Structure and description of oral language and discourse. How spoken language is linguistically described, analyzed, and taught for research and for education. Using technology to record, transcribe, and analyze spoken language at all levels of linguistic structure.


ENGL 533. British Literature to 1830

Geoffrey Chaucer—In His Time and Ours

Instructor: Susan Yager

In this course, we will study one of the earliest and greatest storytellers in English, Geoffrey Chaucer, considering Chaucer as both an early English poet and as a cultural influence today. The course will have three major sections: First, we’ll learn to read Chaucer’s Middle English through brief lyrics such as “To Rosemounde” and “Chaucer’s Complaint to His Purse.” We’ll then read (in Middle English, with facing-page modernization), three kinds of narrative: one of Chaucer’s dream poems, several of the Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer’s great romance, Troilus and Criseyde. In the third portion of the class, we will explore and write about the intersection of Chaucer with our own literary or cultural interests. Topics that could be explored include feminism; disability studies; technical writing; creative writing (personal or canonical); Chaucer’s rhetoric; Chaucer’s text as linguistic corpus; children’s literature; allusion, adaptation, and influence; pedagogy; Chaucer’s works onstage; Chaucer as a fictional character, and more. Students in literature, rhetoric, linguistics, and creative writing, as well as in education and history, can profit from, as well as enjoy, reading Chaucer. Course requirements will include a brief close reading exercise, a book review, annotated bibliography, and a researched and/or creative project.


ENGL 534. American Literature 1865 to the Present

Banned Books and the American Canon

Instructor: Brianna Burke

This seminar will be a straightforward tour of the major American novels of the late 19th and 20thcenturies, with special attention to the American Canon and Banned Books.

Often, literature seminars in graduate school focus on a narrow, specialized topic of interest to the professor, and there is strength in learning a theme from someone deeply steeped in that knowledge. However, this seminar is designed to impart a broad understanding of the American Literary canon and increase your knowledge of literary movements, genres, and key authors within these movements. We can throw terms such as “Modernism” around without fully understanding what they mean, or without knowing the historical influences that produce it, and this class is designed to correct the assumption that everyone already has a comprehensive knowledge of literary movements. In discussing these movements, we will also think about how the American Canon is formed and do a project that investigates why certain books are banned, as well as read some of these books (including The Sun Also Rises, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Invisible Man, and Lolita). At the end of the semester, I would like you to leave this seminar with a foundational understanding of American Literature of the 20th-century.
Texts will include Pudd’n Head Wilson (1896) by Mark Twain, Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Stories(1914) by Sui Sin Far, The House of Mirth (1905) by Edith Wharton, The Sun Also Rises (1926) by Ernest Hemingway, As I Lay Dying (1930) by William Faulkner, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston, Invisible Man (1946) by Ralph Ellison, Lolita (1958) by Vladimir Nabokov, Ceremony (1977) by Leslie Marmon Silko, Native Speaker (1995) by Chang-Rae Lee, and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) by Junot Diaz.


ENGL 550. Creative Writing: Craft and Professional Practice

Instructor: K. L. Cook

A multi-genre craft course required of all incoming students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment.  Students develop an understanding of aesthetics, technique, and professional practice across genres (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and scriptwriting) as well as learn about editing and publication practice through the lens of the program’s graduate student-run literary journal, Flyway: A Journal of Writing and Environment.  Other course activities may include environmental and publishing field trips.  (Note: This course is restricted to the incoming cohort of MFA in CWE students.)


ENGL 551. Master Workshop

Instructor: Barbara Haas

Our Master Workshop is a place to prod and poke the thesis-in-process, to wonder and marvel, to interrogate and dream, to experiment and (where applicable) polish.
The essence of this class is to stretch forward into the body of this book-length project, your thesis.  Whether completing that first draft or writing more deeply into additional drafts, everyone is likely to be at a different point in their own particular process.  We’ll tailor specific goals to needs.
The objective is to move at a brisk clip in generating a quantity of work and to examine it in our multi-genre workshop at a meaningful enough rate to spur each author toward important breakthrough moments.
The aim is to generate a volume of writing as a means of A) delineating one’s creative vision and B) shaping the arc and orbit of that vision.  Ultimately a body of work with which to move ahead will be the product.
The Master W’shop is a place for taking up space.  Our semester-long experience will be one of amplitude and discernment, generating as much writing with the heat of vaulting inspiration as is possible and then working judiciously toward a quality thesis.
(This class is designed for CWE MFA students in their fifth semester and is not open for other students.)


ENGL 552X. Workshop Scriptwriting

Stage and Screen: Scripting Dramatic Action

Instructor: Charissa Menefee

Unlike other forms of literature, scripts have dual lives.  They exist on the page, to be read, but also carry the potential to become something else, to transform into another piece of art that will require the collaboration of other artists and ultimately have another life in front of an audience.  How this second life manifests depends on the quality of the communication on the page.  In this graduate seminar, we will read, study, and write stage plays and screenplays, paying close attention to the techniques successful writers use to create dramatic literature that lives both on the page and beyond.


ENGL 555. Workshop. Nonfiction

The Fragmentary Imagination: New, Ancient, and Experimental Forms of Nonfiction Writing

Instructor: Debra Marquart

The sub-genres of nonfiction writing are complex and myriad. The variations and inventions in form—old and new—can make it difficult for a nonfiction writer to find his/her own voice, form, and approach to getting material onto the page.
In this writing-intensive workshop, we’ll survey the spectrum of the genre by looking briefly at the sub-forms that fall more formally under the heading of nonfiction writing (autobiography, memoir, personal essays, philosophical essays, research nonfiction, reportage, and immersion journalism), then we’ll read and discuss more experimental variations (fragmentary and braided essays, lyric and associative essays, revisionist fairy tales, and faux-memoirs).  Class participants will generate new nonfiction material using any of the above-listed approaches and receive feedback through a series of intensive workshops.
Each variation has its own purposes and effects. For example, some of the most exciting environmental writing today utilizes a combination of reportage and research nonfiction; and some of the most elegiac narratives about the fractured and despoiled natural world have emerged in braided, fragmentary, and lyric forms.  Throughout the semester, we will consider how the variations and combinations—and the flexibilities they afford—can be useful to class participants as they explore the stories they are dreaming into writing.
A PDF of short samples from the following anthologies will be provided for class discussion:

  • Nothing to Declare: A Guide to the Flash Sequence (Alexander, Braun, Marquart, Eds.)
  • The Next American Essay, which focuses on experimental forms of nonfiction (D’Agata, Ed.)
  • The Lost Origins of the Essay, which focuses on nonfiction writing dating back to 1500 B.C.E. (D’Agata, Ed.)

We will also look at examples of hybrid and performative texts such as the video essays of Claudia Rankine/John Lucas (http://claudiarankine.com/) and John Bresland (http://bresland.com/).


ENGL 560. Environmental Field Experience

Instructor: Debra Marquart
Arranged

Students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment register for three credits and spend a term on a project that requires environmental fieldwork. Fieldwork experiences might include the following kinds of activities: working for a federal, state, or private non-profit environmental organization; partnering with an environmental activism organization or advocacy organization working toward a cause of interest for the student’s research; or living and working in a specified natural area and engaging in environmental fieldwork that enhances the student’s understanding of environmental issues.
A proposal must be submitted to and approved by the English 560 field experience coordinator prior to the commencement of fieldwork. Students should confer with their advisors or the field experience coordinator prior to writing the proposal. An informational document, “MFA Guidelines for Completion of English 560,” and the approval form, “MFA Environmental Field Experience Proposal,” are both available for download on the following website:
http://www.engl.iastate.edu/graduate-students/resources-for-current-students-faculty/forms-2/. (On this webpage, see the links for the two 560 documents under the subheading, “Program Specific POS Forms.”)
The 560 field experience culminates in a formal public presentation of the student’s experience and a short creative reading of work that demonstrates the way the field experience has informed the writer’s work. A final portfolio of the writing samples and other documentation will be submitted to the field experience coordinator as a final requirement of the 560 Environmental Field Experience.


ENGL 587. Internship in Business, Technical, and Professional Communication

Instructor: Charles Kostelnick
Arranged

Prereq: ENGL 507 plus 3 additional graduate credits in business and technical writing or composition and rhetoric, permission of instructor. Limited to master’s and doctoral degree candidates in the field of rhetoric and professional communication
An opportunity to write, edit, and design business and technical documents in a professional setting.


ENGL 588. Supervised Practice Teaching in TESL

Instructor: Tammy Slater
Arranged

The purpose of this course is to provide a supported practice teaching experience at the culmination of one’s studies in TESL. It is an opportunity to put theory into practice and critically reflect on what has been learned throughout the program, and to articulate a philosophy of teaching. In addition to regular meetings during which an approach to integrating language and content will be taught, students will have an opportunity to observe a variety of ESL classes designed for various purposes and audiences. Subject to availability, students may also be placed in a classroom context during which they will observe, help out, and teach (or co-teach) a number of lessons in consultation with the course’s regular instructor. It is expected that all participation activities in ENGL 588 will be logged and reflected on in writing. At least one lesson designed by the student teacher should be presented at a regular meeting for feedback prior to being taught, then videotaped while being taught, and finally a written critique done afterwards using the video to describe the choices and justifications taken, along with potential alternatives for future teaching. The written critique may also be presented orally at one of the regular meetings. The rationale for this cyclical style of planning, execution, and reflection is to help participants not only improve their own teaching but to learn how to better critique their own teaching and to offer support for improving others’ teaching practices. ENGL 588 is typically reserved for students in the MA-TESL program; others who are interested should meet and discuss possibilities with the course instructor.


ENGL 589. Supervised Practicum in Literary Editing

Instructor: Debra Marquart
Arranged

English 589 provides MFA students an opportunity to edit literary texts and gain experience in a literary publishing setting. Credits are also available each semester (F, S, SS) for variable credits (1 – 3) for literary editing practicum opportunities such as internships with publishing houses, small presses, or other literary editing experiences. Application process and permission of instructor required for all English 589 coursework.
Each Spring semester, this course is available for three credits to MFA students in their second semester who serve as editors for the MFA Program’s nationally-known literary journal, Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment. Arranged Flyway coursework activities include screening submissions, meeting in a roundtable discussions with fellow editors to discuss top tier submissions, corresponding with authors, editing and proofing accepted submissions, assisting with artwork selection and layout, overseeing literary contests sponsored by the journal (Iowa Sweet Corn Prizes in Poetry & Fiction, the Notes from the Field Prize in Nonfiction). Class participants also promote the magazine on social media and in other venues such as the Associated Writing Programs annual conference.


ENGL 592A. Core Studies: Rhetoric

Rhetorics of Space, Place and the Environment: Locating Symbols of Community, Identity, Connection and Transgression

Instructor: Margaret LaWare

In this graduate class we will consider both the rhetorical implications of space and place and the environment and the rhetorical construction of place.  We will look at the ways physical and digital spaces and the environment provide symbols that shape understandings of community, identity and opportunities for connection between people in terms of social and political locations and between people and the natural world.  Urban and suburban spaces as well as digital spaces are constructed to both bring people together and to divide and separate people. We will consider how these divisions are rhetorically constructed through material, visual and discursive means. And, we will also consider the rhetorical significance of spatial transgressions and how transgressions have been used rhetorically, for instance, in acts of protest.
We will read from theorists in geography studies, environmental studies, psychology, sociology, critical race theory and architecture studies as well as rhetorical studies.  Some questions to be addressed include: What does it mean to feel rooted to and connected to a place? What happens when places disappear or are destroyed? What happens when we cross boundaries or borders between spaces and places or blur boundaries? What histories become visible as markers of place and what histories are erased? What rhetorical processes make these histories visible (or invisible)?  We might do some field trips to examine the rhetorical significance of local spaces and places such as the World Food Prize building in Des Moines and a reconstructed prairie.


ENGL 592C. Core Studies: Professional Communication Accounting majors only

Instructor: Charles Kostelnick

Seminar on topics central to the fields of rhetoric and professional communication or composition.


ENGL 603/503. Seminar in Composition Theory

Instructor: Lesley Bartlett

Our course will examine composition theories and pedagogies that are informed by antiracist rhetorics, cultural rhetorics, disability studies, ecocomposition, feminist rhetorics, queer rhetorics, WAC, and writing center studies, among others (guided by students’ interests). We will begin with foundational composition theories and pedagogies, briefly surveying the history of the field to understand the precursors to the contemporary work on which we’ll focus for most of the course.
Throughout the course, we will consider what it means to be(come) a critically reflective teacher. Our attention to critically reflective practice will allow students to leave the course with a better understanding of—and ability to articulate—why they do what they do as teachers and the theories underpinning their practice. We’ll also consider the complications and limitations of critically reflective practice as we currently understand it.
Students will complete short written assignments throughout the course in response to our readings; prepare questions for guest teacher-scholars (authors of some of our course texts who will visit the class virtually); do supplementary reading and lead discussion on a topic related to our course; and complete a final project that aligns with their scholarly interests and goals (developed in consultation with me). Students enrolled for 600-level credit can expect to complete more extensive final projects than those enrolled for 500-level credit.
Our focus is composition theories and pedagogies, but the critical lenses we take up will help students become more critically reflective teachers regardless of their subject matter. If teaching is part of your professional future, this course may well be for you. If teaching composition is part of your professional future, this course is almost certainly for you.
Prior course work in composition theory and pedagogy is not required.
Possible texts include:

  • Stacey Waite’s Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing (2017)
  • Asao Inoue’s Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future (2015)
  • Stephanie Kerschbaum’s Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference (2014)
  • Frankie Condon and Vershawn Ashanti Young’s Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication (2016)
  • Shari Stenberg’s Composition Studies Through a Feminist Lens (2013)

ENGL/LING 630A. Seminar in Applied Linguistics

Corpus Linguistics and Language Teaching

Instructor: Bethany Gray

Topic changes each semester. Topics include advanced methods in natural language processing, technology and literacy in a global context, feedback in CALL programs, technology and pronunciation, and advances in language assessment.


630A. Seminar in Applied Linguistics

Corpus Linguistics & Language Teaching

Instructor: Bethany Gray

This seminar focuses on corpus linguistics and its applications to language teaching, considering theories regarding how corpora can inform language pedagogy along with practical applications to the development of language learning materials and the use of corpora by learners in the language classroom. The course will undertake a critical evaluation of the range of ways that corpus linguistics is applied to language teaching (for L2 learners generally, for L1 and L2 academic writing, and for English for Specific Purposes), with a focus on current issues in the field. The course will center on the following main topics:

  1. applying corpus-based research to classroom materials development, through such tasks as undertaking a survey of language resources that have been informed by corpora (e.g., dictionaries, grammars, ESL/EFL textbooks); critiquing and developing language-based activities based on students’ own corpus investigations, as well as based on published corpus research; and considering the role of learner corpora (or novice writer corpora) in informing language pedagogy
  2. designing and critiquing corpus-based classroom instruction in which language learners use corpora in the classroom (e.g., data-driven learning)
  3. evaluating and researching the effectiveness of corpus-based materials and corpus use in the language classroom

Students in the course will gain practice in evaluating/critiquing corpus-based materials and classroom activities, as well as in applying corpus-based findings and/or methodologies to develop their own materials/activities. They will also develop a proposal for researching the implementation of their materials/activities.
Corpus linguistics methods and findings can be applied to any classroom where language is the focus, from first-year or advanced writing courses for native speakers to ESL courses for non-native speakers. Students will be encouraged to connect course content to their own teaching experiences and goals.
Notes:
1. Having a good grasp of the basics of corpus linguistics will be beneficial in this course. If you are new to corpus linguistics, you might consider using the following book as a resource:

McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Tono, Y. (2006). Corpus-based language studies: An advanced resource book. New York: Routledge.
Weisser, M. (2016). Practical Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction to Corpus-Based Language Analysis. Wiley-Blackwell.

2. Computer programming knowledge is not required for the course. However, students with this experience may have opportunities to apply and build on programming skills they may have been developing in courses such as English 516, 517, 520, and 630 (NLP-based CALL Tool Development).


630B. Seminar in Applied Linguistics

Validation of Language Assessments

Instructor: Carol Chapelle

Everyone would agree that language assessments and tests should be valid, but how does one go about establishing validity?  The answer to this question is not completely straightforward, particularly if we recognize what validity actually means in educational measurement and language testing:  “an overall evaluative judgment of the degree to which evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of interpretations and actions based on test scores” (Messick, 1989, p. 13).  In this course we will explore how a test developer or testing researcher can develop an argument that will allow prospective test users to make such a judgment.  Drawing upon the research and practice in language testing and educational measurement, we will study examples of how validation research is conceptualized and conducted as well as how results are interpreted and used to support a validity argument.  We will study the modern history of validation principles up to the most recent developments as represented by Kane’s (2006) presentation of interpretive arguments and validity arguments, their use in language testing, as well as Bachman and Palmer’s (2010) assessment use arguments.  Students will be required to contribute to the class through their presentation of research papers and technical manuals reporting validation studies as well as their development of an interpretation/use argument and research plan for a language test that they are studying.  Validation is relevant to any student who uses language assessments for their teaching and research because it encompasses the professional expertise required to create, select, use, and evaluate assessments.


SP CM 590 (513). Proseminar: Teaching Fundamentals of Public Speaking

Instructor: Anne Kretsinger-Harries

In this seminar, SpCm 212 graduate teaching assistants will explore pedagogical theories and methods related to SpCm 212 objectives, pedagogical approaches to teaching public speaking, lesson planning, assignment development, and evaluation of student projects.  All new SpCm 212 English Department graduate teaching assistants are required to enroll for 3 credits of this graduate seminar.  Returning SpCm 212 graduate teaching assistants may enroll in this course for 1-2 credits, if needed.  For additional information, please contact Dr. Anne Kretsinger-Harries, Director of SpCm 212 (akh@iastate.edu).