Winter 2009

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Syllabus (course plan) with reading assignments	Course Objectives (study guide)
Faire Project Information and Instructions	Faire Gallery: Photos of Projects from Faires Past
Class slide presentations are available under the "Course Materials" section of the course site on Blackboard

 

Course Information:

Schedule:  Sec. 01: TR 10:10 am-Noon, 10-226 Prerequisite: ENGL 145 (Reasoning, argumentation, and writing) or equivalent English Department Office: 47-32 English Department Phone: 756-2596 English Department Fax: 756-6374

Instructor: Dr. Johanna Rubba Office: 47-35B * E-mail: jrubba@calpoly.edu Office phone: 756-2184 Office Hours: T 2:10-3 pm; R 10:10-11 am & 3:10-4 pm and by appointment. Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

The best way to contact me and get a prompt response is through personal visits in office hours or e-mail. To see my full schedule, please click here. To make an appointment, go to my schedule, find a few times that are open for both of us, and send me an e-mail with those times. I will respond within minimum 24 hours (during the week) and confirm one of those times.

Course Description:
How did English get to be the way it is today? Has it always been pronounced as it is today? If not, what caused the change? Why is English different in different English-speaking countries, such as England, Australia, the USA, and Canada? Why is English spelling so #@#!!# crazy? Does English come from Latin? Where do our words come from? Who decides which kind of English is 'best'? Will English always be the main international language? What is the relationship between English and other languages, like Spanish, German, or Japanese? 

These questions are answered in this course, which traces the development of English, in less than two thousand years, from an obscure Germanic dialect of Northern Europe spoken by a few thousand people to a world language spoken and used daily by hundreds of millions. Many of its most dramatic changes reflect the collision and intermingling of cultures in conquest, trade, and migration. We will study the physical changes in the language's systems within this rich framework of social, political, and cultural history. The course will teach you, not only about the particular history of English, but also about the linguistic and social consequences of the contact of peoples of different cultures, and about patterns of change that apply to all languages.

Texts:
(1) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, by David Crystal. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Second Edition.
(2) Online reserve readings will be available by the start of classes on the course's Blackboard site.

Course Requirements: READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY!

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