In this course, students would be required to read, analyze, discuss, and evaluate in depth an area of English Studies which interests them and which is otherwise not explored in
any of the courses available. Areas may include Stylistics, Teaching of English Language, Language Acquisition, etc. Students will be required to seminar presentations in class
This course focuses on the relationship between the context of situation and both written and spoken language. Topics to be covered include the difference between spoken and written language, speech acts, faculty conditions, theme and rhyme, information structure, and participant relations. The course should appeal to candidates with a wide range of interests including those whose work involves contact with the public (e.g. administrators, public relation officers) and those involved in teaching oral and written skills.
This course is particularly suited to candidates who are interested in the relation between language and social interaction as well as language form and function.
It is concerned with the issues of who uses English, to whom, in what situation and how in a second language context. The emphasis is on the Ghanaian situation.
This course surveys different theories of meaning and then looks at lexical meaning, sentence meaning and utterance meaning.
All Ph. D. candidates are required to report their supervised research in the form of a thesis written in accordance with the relevant regulations published in the University of Cape Coast
School for Graduate Studies Brochure. The thesis will be examined both in its written form and orally (viva voce) in accordance with the rules and regulations governing the Ph. D. degree.
The course equips students to explore the social perspectives on language and literacy. The course looks at the relationship between language and literacy studies.
Issues such as changing definitions of literacy, multiliteracies, literacy practices and access to literacy are examined. These areas are studied with a focus on how language,
especially second language, impacts on literacy. Students are also introduced to contemporary ways through which researchers investigate language and literacy
practices in social as well as educational contexts.
This course introduces students to the discursive construction of identity through language. For this course, students will study different notions of identity and how
these different notions are determined through language and language use. Areas explored will include socio-cultural notions of identity, the concept of national identity,
ethno linguistic identity, issues related to language and gender, language and group identity as well as language issues related to post-modern notions of individual identity.
The course treats the application of the principles of English linguistics to the practical problems of language learning. It also describes some theories of Applied
Linguistics that are normally employed in language teaching. Topics include Second language teaching; language learning theories, e.g. habit formation, rule formation,
deficit hypothesis and Kachru’s theories.
This is a directed reading course focusing on various approaches to describing meaning including classical semantics, pragmatics, generative
semantics and Tarskian semantics. The issues guiding the readings are reference, truth, understanding, and knowledge
This course explores the processes of the spread of English around the world in contemporary times as well as its different functions and forms. The course introduces students
to contemporary varieties of English in both native and non-native contexts. It also encourages students to examine the impact that non-native varieties of English have
on the development of English. Students will also be exposed to the attitudes of native and non-native speakers towards the power and domination of English today.
Areas to be considered include nativization, acculturation, language and power, language and identity, language and culture, and the linguistic description of Englishes,
especially Ghanaian English.
