Ever wanted to just talk about your favourite movies? E-SC presents to you our very first film club! Be it critically acclaimed prize-contenders, trashy B-movies, or superhero flicks - we want to offer you a place to critically discuss pictures. The course, however, comes with a prerequisite: you need to be able to watch movies on either Netflix, Prime, or another commercial streaming platform. You can gain up to 2 Credit Points by actively participating in the meetings and preparing a discussion on one of the movies. Attendance and active participation gets you 1 CP. The film club meetings will take place on Zoom. For questions, please reach out to the tutors.

Do you like books and reading? If you do, the English-Speaking Cultures Bookclub is what you are looking for. Each month we will read a book in English, dealing with a specific topic (example: Black History Month). Those monthly choices are entirely up to you as long as they fit the theme. Once a semester we will also do a Bookclub Buddy Read.

You can gain up to two credit points by actively participating in group discussions and presenting your monthly read. Whether your favourite genre is fantasy, crime fiction or something else, all readers are welcome.

In this seminar, we will learn how to plan, develop, carry out, and write up research projects in linguistics. The focus lies on the research areas of language variation and contact. Students will be introduced to the methods and tools to obtain, process, and analyse linguistic data. Amongst others, the following topics will be addressed: literature review/sighting, research methodology and design, types of data collection, qualitative and quantitative approaches to data analysis, and academic writing. Students are welcome to develop and work on their own research projects (term papers, BA theses, MA theses) throughout the seminar.

The main goals of this class are
• to equip students with necessary research skills and competencies,
• to improve the effectiveness of the research process,
• and to ensure the success of students’ independent work.

Coursework and assessment
• regular attendance and active participation
• close reading of selected texts
• short written assignment(s)

Recommended reading

Litosseliti, L. (Ed.). 2010. Research Methods in Linguistics. London/New York: Continuum.
Podesva, & D. Sharma (Eds.). 2014. Research methods in linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wray, A. & A. Bloomer. 2012. Projects in Linguistics and Language Studies. London: Hodder Education. (E-book at http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=368803)

This seminar consists of 7 sessions only (cf. schedule

This class will be offered as a block seminar in the lecture-free period, from Monday, March 21st, to Tuesday, March 29th. We will combine synchronous and asynchronous learning structures.
We will use the topic of the climate crisis to practice speaking, debating, constructing arguments and expanding students' academic vocabulary and syntax. Students will give, and get peer and instructor feedback on, an (ungraded) presentation.