Program Options & Course Descriptions

Program

• Academic Exchange Program - 8 months
• 2nd Year Option - summer and\or an additional 8 months
• Early Arrival
• Community Placements - Optional

Term 1 Courses (September - December, 2011)

LLED 200: Introduction to Writing in Academic and Professional Registers

Instructor: Sandra Zappa-Hollman (coordinator)

Designed with the specific needs of Rits 21 students in mind, this course provides you with many opportunities to develop your writing abilities and to simultaneously increase awareness of the ways key language features vary across different academic and professional registers. LLED 200 is mandatory for Rits students.

LLED 210A: Analyzing Meanings of Images in Texts
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ryan Deschambault; Faculty, Annette Henry

This course will help you create innovative texts and explore how meaning is constructed through relationships between visual and verbal modes. The main focus will be on relationships between still images, such as photographs and diagrams, and language in print and digital texts.

LLED 211A: Field Research in Social Processes of Inclusion and Exclusion
Instructor: William McMichael

This course introduces the principles and methods of field research by exploring the roles that language plays in social inclusion and exclusion. You will be provided with opportunities to engage in conversations with Canadians from a variety of cultural groups and community organizations as you learn to apply data collection and analysis strategies. Further integrated into the lecture sessions are opportunities for you to develop specific information technology skills that will help you conduct field research.

LLED 212: Language Communities and Variation in Language Practices
Instructor: Sandra Zappa-Hollman

This course explores differences in the ways that people use languages in both conscious and unconscious ways. You will examine, through class activities and readings, some of the key factors influencing language variation in different communities of interest. As a result of this course, you will become more aware of the choices people make about how they use language, and the impact this has for their identities and communities.

LLED 213 –Intercultural Communication and Socialization in Multicultural Contexts
Instructor: Diane Potts

This course introduces the process by which individuals become competent members of society through the use of language. The course introduces theories and models concerning the experiences of immigrants and visitors in host cultures. Course assignments will include small research projects, presentations, essays and personal reflections on your own experiences of acculturation and second language socialization in Vancouver.

LLED 220A: Translating in a Globalized Society
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Kimberly Meredith; Faculty Annette Henry

This course introduces you to translation in an increasingly globalized society, and offers a forum for reflection and discussion on issues, decisions and consequences related to transferring a message from one language to another. The course presents translation as a way to increase your sociocultural understanding, intercultural communication, pragmatics, and written English. Also considered, though not as extensively as written translation, will be Interpretation, a spontaneous spoken form of translation.

Introduction to Canadian Studies (ICS) 2011

ICS Course Outline 2011

Term 2 Courses (January - April, 2012)

LLED 210B: Analyzing Meanings of Images in Texts
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ryan Deschambault; Faculty Annette Henry

This course will help you create innovative texts and explore how meaning is constructed through relationships between visual and verbal modes. The main focus will be on relationships between still images, such as photographs and diagrams, and language in print and digital texts.

LLED 220B: Translating in a Globalized Society
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Kimberly Meredith; Faculty Annette Henry

This course introduces you to translation in an increasingly globalized society, and offers a forum for reflection and discussion on issues, decisions and consequences related to transferring a message from one language to another. The course presents translation as a way to increase your sociocultural understanding, intercultural communication, pragmatics, and written English. Also considered, though not as extensively as written translation, will be Interpretation, a spontaneous spoken form of translation.

LLED 221: Language Maintenance and the Integration of Immigrants in Canada
Instructor: Sandra Zappa-Hollman

This course will focus on first and second language loss and maintenance as core concepts within the study of multilingualism. The examination of various dimensions of language loss and maintenance will enable you to learn how different patterns of multilingual practices relate to particular social contexts in which they arise, and to investigate what this can tell us about
language and about questions of culture, community and identity.

LLED 222: Public and Private Language Practices in a Globalized Society
Instructor: William McMichael

This course focuses on helping you become self-sufficient in your efforts to master English by developing your abilities to conduct personal research into how such public-private concepts as omote-ura (mind-heart), soto-uchi (outside-inside) and tatemae-honne (façade-desire) find expression in Japanese and English. By continuously comparing your intercultural language experiences in Canada and generating explanations for what happens, you will develop your own theories of language and society along with a personal “tool kit” of strategies and practices for improving your ability to become a self-sufficient language learner.

LLED 223: Introduction to the Nature of World Englishes
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Joel Heng Hartse; Faculty Annette Henry

This course focuses on the privileged position of English varieties as a language of ‘global communication’. It examines the historical, cultural, political, and geographic reasons linked to the rise of English around the world, as well as key debates, controversies and questions linked to tensions between English’s post-colonial nature and its proposed role as a neutral, or desirable tool for global communication. By studying specific cases drawn from the literature on world Englishes, you will explore factors linked to global languages and their relationships with language policies and language planning, including, for example, educational policies. You will also explore at the micro level the way specific local discourses (such as language school posters) can also influence ultimate ownership of world Englishes.

ASTU 201: Canada, Japan and the Pacific: Cultural Studies (3.0 Credits)

ASTU 202: Canada, Japan and the Pacific: Political, Economic and Geographical Perspectives (3.0 Credits)