2011/12 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3201 Old English!

20 creditsClass Size: 20

School of English

Module manager: Dr Alaric Hall
Email: a.t.p.hall@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2011/12

Pre-requisite qualifications

Please note: this module is restricted to Level 2 and 3 students.

Module replaces

ENGL3261

This module is approved as an Elective

Module summary

Old English (spoken between about 500 and 1100) is at once both familiar 'even homely' and strange and challenging. Different enough from our own English to be a foreign language, it is nonetheless one of the easiest languages for an English-speaker to learn. Accordingly, this course will give you a clear sense of progress as, week by week, Old English texts resolve themselves into some of the first, and finest, literature in English.The True Cross speaks; a woman sits and weeps; an archbishop, faced with Viking invaders, calls on his nation of sinners to repent; exiles ply the icy sea. No previous experience of language-learning is assumed.Texts read will include (passages from) 'Wulf and Eadwacer', 'The Dream of the Rood', 'Deor', 'The Sermon of the Wolf to the English', 'The Seafarer', the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', 'Genesis B', and 'Beowulf'.

Objectives

1. To enable students to gain a reading knowledge of Old English, in a range of genres.
2. To help students to reflect on the grammatical structuring of their own language(s).
3. To help students to use their understanding of Old English texts in the original to underpin discursive, analytical writing on Old English language and/or Old English literature.

Learning outcomes
Students will have developed:
- the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
- the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse;
- the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way;
- the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
- critical reasoning;
- research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance;
- IT skills;
- efficient time management and organisation skills;
- the ability to learn independently.

Skills outcomes
- Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
- Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
- Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
- Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
- Critical reasoning.
- Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
- IT skills.
- Time management and organisational skills.
- Independent learning.

Syllabus

Thonne hit wæs renig weder ond ic reotugu sæt.
Then it was rainy weather; and I sat, weeping.

Old English (spoken between about 500 and 1100) is at once both familiar 'even homely' and strange and challenging. Different enough from our own English to be a foreign language, it is nonetheless one of the easiest languages for an English-speaker to learn. Accordingly, this course will give you a clear sense of progress as, week by week, Old English texts resolve themselves into some of the first, and finest, literature in English.

The True Cross speaks; a woman sits and weeps; an archbishop, faced with Viking invaders, calls on his nation of sinners to repent; exiles ply the icy sea. Learning Old English will also help you to understand how language works more generally, giving you perspectives valuable for other literary and linguistic studies, and a framework which will make it easier to learn other languages in future.

Workshop discussions and essays will allow you to build on seminar-based language learning to pursue interests in Old English literature, linguistics, and the influence of Old English on twentieth-century writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien, W. H. Auden and Seamus Heaney.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	5	1.00	5.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Reading, preparation for seminars, essay writing and take-home translation exam.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Seminar contribution
- Translation portfolio.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	2,750 words	66.70
Portfolio	Translations selected from work done for seminars	33.30
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 03/08/2012

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