Prescribing and Describing English

FaculteitFaculty of Humanities

NiveauBachelor

Studiejaar2026-2027

Beschrijving

Course goals

After successful completion of the course, students:

can apply the most important rules of modern-day prescriptive grammar
have improved their academic writing in the field of linguistics
have gained an understanding of standard versus non-standard English grammar, how English grammar has developed over time, and how this has affected different varieties of English
have improved their (academic) vocabulary and fluency
are able to localise a number of representative accents based on their features

Content

This course approaches English grammar and pronunciation from both a prescriptive and a descriptive point of view. We will discuss grammar from a modern-day prescriptive perspective, which will enable students to improve their grammar proficiency, as well as their academic writing skills. Furthermore, students will expand their (academic) vocabulary. The descriptive side of the course will introduce students to the grammatical variation found in different varieties of English and to accent variation within a World Englishes framework. Students will also learn how English grammar and pronunciation have developed over time and how this is related to modern-day variation in accent and grammar.

Additional information

This course is the second course in the minor English Language and Culture.

This course is equivalent to the following course:
Prescribing and Describing English (EN1V13003)

If you have already completed this course, you may not take Prescribing and Describing English due to too much overlap in content.

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