Last updated by bartek on 2022-02-11. Originally submitted by mjekiel on 2021-09-24.
3BA proseminars: summer term 2021/2022
The descriptions are sorted by the teachers' surnames.
dr Anna Basińska
dr Stan Breckenridge
dr Katarzyna Burzyńska
dr hab. Anna Ewert, prof. UAM
dr hab. Jacek Fabiszak, prof. UAM
dr Jack Hutchens
dr Anna Jelec
dr hab. Marcin Kilarski, prof. UAM
dr Urszula Kizelbach
dr Agnieszka Lijewska
dr Magdalena Perdek
dr hab. Monika Połczyńska-Bletsos
prof. dr hab. Liliana Sikorska
prof. dr hab. Przemysław Tajsner
dr hab. Bartosz Wiland, prof. UAM
Key competences and active learning in primary education. How to create efficient learning environments and develop key competences in students?
dr Anna Basińska
The objective of this proseminar is to learn about what key competences are and experience some active learning approaches (such as Project Based Learning, Storyline, Critical Thinking, tools (e.g. lapbooks, graphic organizers, games) and technology (educational apps, online tools) that can make teaching and learning more effective and attractive as well as to broaden the knowledge and skills in planning lessons with the use of innovative methods that support developing the key competences of the students.
Participants are going to analyze and assess different approaches and tools in the context of primary education learners’ development opportunities, key competences and language learning.
For a successful completion of the course, students are required to actively participate in all activities (yes, we are going to use sometimes markers, scissors and glue but no art talent needed ;), read the assigned materials as well as prepare a lapbook and present a project or a Storyline plan for primary education students of English.
All teaching specialization students who are interested in learning active approaches to education are welcome to the seminar. Your own laptop will be required at some classes.
Bibliography:
Bodrova E., Leong D.J., Tools of the Mind. The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education, Pearson, 2007.
Helm J. H., Becoming Young Thinkers. Deep Project Work in the Classroom.
How people learn. Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (2004), [ed.] Bransford J.D., Brown A.L., Cocking R.R., National Academy Press, Washington DC.
Kalantzis M., Cope B., New Learning. Elements of a Science of Education, book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139248532
Engaging Children’s Minds. The Project Approach, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York and London 2015.
Helm, Judy Harris. Becoming Young Thinkers: Deep Project Work in the Classroom (Early Childhood Education Series) (p. iii). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition.
Khan S., Akademia Khana. Szkoła bez granic, Media Rodzina, Poznań 2013.
Uczenie metodą projektów, red. B. Gołębniak, WSiP, Warszawa 2002.
Today, a number of scholars often ponder whether African American culture would have been more exuberant if a majority of Africans had journeyed to the New World on their own accord. Similarly, some postulate that were it not for the hideous conditions that Africans faced during their forced migration to the New World as slaves, themes of perseverance, persistence, resilience, and even salvation would not be ever-so-present in African American literary and artist works? Though these inquiries may never be fully verified, we can, however, investigate the development and plight of African American culture as a distinct culture within the greater context of American society. To achieve such understanding, this monographic course uses film to contextualize the complexities of African American Identity, and to reveal important aspects of its significance to American Studies. Therefore, it is through the performing art of film and their relevance to American society that students will be able to explore and gain an ameliorative understanding of the complexity of African American culture.
Shakespeare, otherness and the exigency of today
dr Katarzyna Burzyńska
This course is concerned with social justice: how we can talk about it, work for it and embody the change we wish for in the world by investigating canonical literary texts of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Drawing on (eco)feminism, disability studies, critical race theory and animal studies, we will interrogate the so-called -isms of difference e.g. racism, sexism, ableism and speciesism at their inception – in the early modern texts that still resonate with modern audiences. You will be introduced to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, their works and lives, their social and historical context but our key goal is to build bridges between images of otherness and the current social crises. If you go on social media and feel overwhelmed by instances of systemic violence, homophobia and continued oppression, this course is for you. If you struggle to understand the origins of injustice, this course will enable you to place them in a historical and social context. Understanding is a first step to meaningful agency.
Basic requirement: You will be asked to read up to 6 dramas in their entirety (in English or in translation).
Content warning: explicit images of sexual nature, violence, animal cruelty, mental issues.
(co-taught by dr hab. Aleksandra Wach, prof. UAM and dr hab. Michael Hornsby, prof. UAM)
Europe is becoming increasingly multilingual due to language policies implemented in education, but also in result of migration both within and from outside the EU. In this context, understanding multilingualism as a complex and multi-faceted concept is key to building sustainable and resilient communities. Therefore, the course will integrate perspectives from linguistics, psychology, sociology and education studies to provide an overview of up-to-date bi-/multilingualism research, preparing the student to engage with real-life complexities in a variety of professional contexts.
During the course we will look at different social contexts of bi-/multilingualism and examine different bilingual populations, e.g., migrants and refugees, heritage language speakers, bidialectal speakers and new speakers of minority languages. We will discuss individual differences between bilinguals and explore how different extralinguistic factors may affect bilingual outcomes. We will examine the relationship and interaction between the different languages in the bilingual mind and look into how bilingualism may affect the acquisition of subsequent languages. Moreover, we will outline some cognitive advantages of bilingualism and examine the issue of language and thought to see how different languages and cultures perceive the world. This course aims to demonstrate that a bilingual is more than the sum of two monolinguals and will present bi-/multilingualism as a lifetime experience.
The course will make use of materials developed as part of the ongoing EU-funded international TEAM project (http://team.amu.edu.pl) and will include classes guest-taught by other members of the project team.
The seminar will be devoted to a most peculiar theatrical form: television theatre, which must not be confused with TV broadcasts of staged performances (TV functions then as a mere medium for theatre). We will discuss the aesthetics of TV theatre and history in the context of technologically changing nature of television and challenges of other media (film, Internet, etc.) and then focus on selected adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays (Polish and British) and analyse them with reference to a TV film (e.g. an episode in the BBC ShakespeaRetold miniseries), other forms of telegenic broadcast and theatrical stagings. The productions to be consulted include Andrzej Wajda’s Macbeth (1969), Jane Howell’s The Winter’s Tale (1981), Jan Englert’s Hamlet (1985), Grzegorz Jarzyna’s 2007: Macbeth (2006) and Mark Brozel’s Macbeth (2005).
Requirements:
- read the assigned material for class (10%)
- come regularly to classes (only one uncertified absence is allowed) (10%)
- take active part in class discussions (40%)
- write a short essay (1000 words) at the end of the semester devoted to selected aspects of television theatre and Shakespeare; deadline: end of June (40%)
1. Introduction: explaining the aims of the course; survey of the contents; brain-storming: theatre, television, film + Shakespeare.
2. Nature of television: its origins, historical development; television vs. radio, film and the Internet
3. Television theatre: its characteristics, growth and the challenges of the 21st century (television film and the Internet).
4. Electronic Shakespeare: television and Internet adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.
5. The BBC/Time-Life Shakespeare series (1978-1985)
6. Shakespeare on Polish television: landmarks in the history of televised Shakespeares
7. Cases-studies:
a. Andrzej Wajda’s Macbeth (1969)
b. Jane Howell’s The Winter’s Tale (1981; comparison with Zofia Mrozowska’s Zimowa opowieść, 1977)
c. Jan Englert’s Hamlet (1985)
d. Grzegorz Jarzyna’s 2007: Macbeth (2006)
e. Mark Brozel’s Macbeth (2005)
Select references:
Fabiszak, Jacek. 2005. Polish televised Shakespeares. Poznań: Motivex.
Huertas Martín, Victor. 2019. “Theatrum Mundi and site in four television Shakespeare films”, Cahiers Élisabéthains 99, 76-88.
Limon, Jerzy. 2004. Trzy teatry. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
Limon, Jerzy. 2008. Obroty przestrzeni. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
Willis, Susan. 1991. The BBC Shakespeare Plays. Making the televised canon. Chapel Hill – London: The University of North Carolina Press.
This course is meant to spark students’ literary interests, talents, and inclinations. This applies to all students: from those who have never written before, to those who are fairly certain of their own preferred forms of writing, and everyone in between. Students will read a number of short stories and poems, and then write their own. As students will need to produce at least one work a week, those who wish to write fiction will be limited to the flash fiction genre. As this is a workshop, students will be expected to read their work aloud, to critique the works of their classmates, and listen to the (kind) critique of their own work by others all with the goal of helping one another on the path of self-discovery and skill improvement. By the end of the semester, students will compile and turn in a portfolio of 5-6 of their favorite works and submit them to a literary journal of their choice to be considered for publication.
Cognitive Analysis of Discourse
dr Anna Jelec
Words can change the world, or at the very least the way we see the world. Whether you are talking to friends, reading articles or listening to the radio, every word you encounter is connected to entire networks of ideas. Cognitive Analysis of Discourse focuses on the processes already identified by Cognitive Linguistics (metaphor, metonymy, framing, image schemata, blending) and applies that knowledge to analyse various types of discourse. During this class, we learn how language affects the way we see the world, and how our view of the world affects the way we talk and write.
Conceptual metaphor and metonymy, semantic frames, blends and image schemas: these processes are unconscious, but their effect can be very powerful. This is why Cognitive Analysis of Discourse also teaches you to understand how they are used to manipulate meaning; how words influence emotions; and how to protect yourself against this. For each topic, we will learn the theory and use the knowledge for practical media analysis. We will analyse speeches, articles, books, conversations, and advertisements using the framework of cognitive discourse analysis (CODA).
To find out more about this proseminar, take a look at our website: link.
This course is an overview of the various ways in which the languages of the world differ in their sounds and word structure. We are going to ask and answer such questions as “What are the common features that languages share?” and “How can we account for differences among languages?”. The course will consist of five parts: a) an introduction to linguistic typology; b) sound systems; c) types of word structure and grammatical categories; d) language change; and e) role of cultural, socio-demographic, and environmental factors. In each part an introductory class will be followed by a case-study analysis of a language, including Mohawk (Iroquoian), Tének (Mayan), Kilivila (Oceanic) and Nepali (Indo-Aryan). The course can serve as a starting point for future explorations of such issues as the role of demographic factors in the development and loss of language structure; the extent to which patterns in language are universal or culture-specific; and the degree to which more familiar languages such as English and Polish share features found in other languages. The final grade will be based on a 20-minute presentation (90%) and participation in discussion (10%).
Ian McEwan: Style in the New British fiction
dr Urszula Kizelbach
This proseminar aims to acquaint students with the works of fiction representing the key stages of Ian McEwan’s development as an author. McEwan has evolved as a writer, adopting different styles and genres to suit the ideas and situations he finds most urgently in need of expression and writing prose that gains him international respect for its ‘technical beauty, emotional timbre and intellectual depth’ (Wells 2010: 11). As a writer, he is known for engaging his readers in social and ethical debates as in Amsterdam (1998), which invites us to step into the shoes of Vernon Halliday, who suddenly loses his position as Chief Editor of The Judge. McEwan is both loved and hated by critics, and much as the reviews of his works may have been ‘laudatory’ or ‘unfavourable’, they have never been ‘neglectful’ (Dobrogoszcz 2019: 3). This course is designed to analyse McEwan’s writing style and the modes of readers’ engagement in fiction. Above all, the aim is to engage its participants in a series of debates concerning current social, political and ethical issues, e.g. Brexit, climate change, sensationalism in the media, AI and various other ethical and social problems in the modern world.
Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz. 2019. Family and Relationships in Ian McEwan’s Fiction. Lexington Books.
Wells, Lynn. 2010. Ian McEwan. London: Palgrave MacMillan (New British Fiction Series).
Language in the mind: an brief introduction to psycholinguistics
dr Agnieszka Lijewska
For decades psycholinguists have been trying to uncover the mysteries of the human mind with respect to language. During this proseminar we will look into the results of their research as we will be exploring the processes taking place in our minds and brains when we learn and use a language. Topics to be discussed include memory, the human word store, processes related to language comprehension and production at the word level and beyond. We will also devote some time to issues related to how children learn various aspects of language. Additionally, during a visit to the EYE-LANG Laboratory, you will have a chance to learn how looking at a person’s eye-movements (e.g. during reading or translation) may help us discover how the mind and brain work. In-class discussions will be based on assigned short texts complemented by practical tasks and videos. During the course you will be expected to read the assigned material for each class, actively participate in the discussions as well as to prepare a short presentation. The course will end with a short test.
Bibliography
Field, John. 2005. Language and the mind. London ; New York: Routledge.
Ludden, David. 2016. The psychology of language: an integrated approach. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Sedivy, Julie. 2014. Language in mind: an introduction to psycholinguistics. First Edition. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Warren, Paul. 2013. Introducing psycholinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Terminology is crucial in the technological and scientific advancements. Every invention or discovery - be it an object, machine, process, drug or method needs to be described, explained and named. During this proseminar we will discuss terminology as an interdisciplinary field and will explore theoretical approaches connected therewith, from the General Theory of Terminology proposed by Wüster to the modern theories by Cabre (communicative theory), Temmerman (socio-cognitive approach) and Faber (frame-based theory). We will also analyze terms as units of knowledge, or units of understanding and take a closer look at links between terminology, lexical semantics and lexicography. Some practical aspects of terminology will also be explored such as term formation, neology, terminological variation, terminographic definitions, equivalence, term extraction and terms in specialized discourses and translation (between Polish and English). All students genuinely interested in words, dictionaries and translation are welcome to enroll.
Course credits will be given based on timely readings of articles on a given topic (2-3 per week), critical analysis of selected issues discussed in the articles, active participation in class discussion, timely completion of short written assignments
Selected bibliography:
Cabre, T.M. 1999. Terminology: Theory, methods and applications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Faber, P. 2012. A Cognitive linguistics view of terminology and specialized language. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Temmerman, R. 2000. Towards New Ways of Terminology Description: The sociocognitive approach. John Benjamins.
Mapping language functions in the brain
dr hab. Monika Połczyńska-Bletsos
During this proseminar, we will discuss how language is organized in the brain. We will start with basic neuroanatomy and we will then transition to covering language-related neuroanatomy. Key language areas in the brain will be presented, along with their function. We will review the structural and functional changes in the developing and aging brain. Another topic that will be discussed is language mapping techniques (e.g., functional MRI, awake brain surgery) and challenges associated with mapping language in patients (e.g., individuals with brain tumors). Finally, we will talk about the impact of bi- and multilingualism on the structure and function of the brain, and cognitive reserve. Students will receive hands-on experience identifying key language regions in the brain using functional MRI scans. Toward the end of the course, students will read and present research papers related to the topics covered during the class.
Irish and English literature and culture: Themes, forms, adaptations
prof. dr hab. Liliana Sikorska
Irish and English literatures stem from the same Celtic roots. These ancestries have been used creatively by writers and filmmakers. This seminar is devoted to the study of the two cultures recorded both in earlier as well as more contemporary texts. The works selected for further analysis should help us discover the common ideas as well as the points of divergence. During this seminar we will look at shorter texts and one novel as well as a number of film adaptations connected with the topic. Analyzing different genres and reading around the area of the seminar will give us some insight into the themes and preoccupations of Irish and English literatures and cultures.
Select bibliography:
Conliffe, Barry. 2001. The Celts. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP.
Deane, Seamus. 1986. A Short History of Irish Literature. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Mercier, Vivian. 1991 [1962]. The Irish Comic Tradition. London: Souvenir Press.
Welch, Robert. (ed.). 2001 [1996]. The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
The title of this proseminar is inspired by a recent book by David Adger (2019) Language unlimited. The science behind our most creative power. The discussions will revolve around an idea that human language displays three major properties which make it special and specifically human: (i) it is structured, (ii) it is hierarchical, and (iii) it is recursive. These are the limitations imposed on language by the mind and our biology. This view will be confronted with an opposing one by which language grows essentially from experience and is stored in memory in the form of fixed patterns. In the first part, discussions will be based on a selection of readings from Adger’s book. In the second part, every participant will give a 25-30 minutes presentation on a topic, individually selected, from a very wide range of themes related to language. There are no special prerequisites for the course – it is recommended to anyone interested in language and linguistics. Though touching upon syntax, the course will not include any formal syntactic analysis. The final assessment will be based on the activity in class, individual presentations and the end-term achievement test.
The inner world
Nanosyntax is a new and developing approach to lexicon and grammar, which shows us that morphemes are not the smallest units of language –– instead, they are often much bigger than grammatical phrases. (
Yes, this is exactly opposite to what you read in your introduction to linguistics or II BA syntax textbooks!) This leads to a completely new discovery in the history of studies of language: the mental Lexicon stores the pieces of grammar. Such a reverse set up provides a powerful and accurate tool of analyzing similarities and differences between languages ("what is universal" vs. “what needs to be memorized”).
The intro
This course is a beginner’s guide to the theory and practice of Nanosyntax. (No prior knowledge of syntax or morphology is expected).
The teaching method
lecture + class discussion
The assessment
Regular attendence and active participation (asking smart questions, etc.). There is not going to be any written test, quiz, or a term paper (unless you really really want to).
Who is this seminar for?
For students interested in what is stored in our memory (the mental Lexicon) and in learning how to analyze the data correctly (also in languages we don't speak) -- a necessary skill in psycho- and neuro-linguistics, language acquisition, comparative and historical linguistics, linguistic computer coding.
Selected sources
Baunaz, Lena & Eric Lander. 2018. Nanosyntax: the basics. In Exploring Nanosyntax, New York: Oxford University Press.
Starke, Michal. 2009. Nanosyntax: a short primer to a new approach to language.
