English Studies is the scholarly investigation of the English language and its many uses in social and historical contexts. It prominently includes the study of literature(s) written in English, as well as creative writing. Both the language and the literatures are studied from multiple perspectives, linguistic ones and literary ones, and also including critical and cultural theory. Our English Studies programme has a strong cross-cultural orientation, recognizing English as a language of global communication and world literature, a language which people make their own, creatively and habitually, all over the world. It offers students both a solid foundation and a wide range of choices in various concentrations. Introductory courses emphasize the practice of critical reading, analysis and writing, as well as the development of historical and theoretical knowledge. Advanced courses focus on English language and literature as representations of culture and society in diverse historical contexts, on the production of meaning in different discursive contexts, genres and media, and on the place of English in relation to histories of colonization and globalization with special reference to Hong Kong and the region. A range of capstone courses, including research seminars, internships and senior colloquia, offer students opportunities to integrate and deploy their learning in the major while considering their options upon graduation.
The courses of the English Studies programme incorporate a variety of teaching and learning methods, including formal lectures, seminars, small group tutorials, workshops, and online learning. They are mostly assessed by coursework, including oral presentations, in-class tests and quizzes, essays and research projects and portfolios. They are designed to provide students with skills of accurate and historically sensitive analysis, critical reading and thinking, and clear and coherent argument in both writing and speaking.
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On successful completion of the major or minor in English Studies, students should be able to:
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Below is a summary of the full syllabuses. For the full syllabuses with course descriptions, please check at the table below.
Cohort(s) admitted in |
2020-21 and before |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
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Syllabuses |
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Major(s) and minor(s) programmes offered |
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Other features (if any) |
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English Studies major students who have successfully passed at least seven courses (three introductory courses and four advanced courses) with a literature OR language and communication focus, respectively, will be given a School of English certification, upon request, which attests to this specialization in the “Literature Stream” or “Language and Communication Stream.” If applicable, a dual recognition in both the “Literature Stream” and “Language and Communication Stream” is possible. Please note that the declaration and certification of specialization stream(s) is optional and students can graduate with a major in English Studies without declaring any specialization stream(s). Notes:
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*New courses added to the relevant course list shall also be counted towards the major/minor for students admitted in the earlier cohort(s).
Students intending to declare a major or minor in English Studies in the second year must pass at least one introductory ENGL course from List A “Historical and Theoretical Foundations” (6 credits) in the first year.
Admission to all introductory courses is on the basis of academic record including a minimum Level 5 in English Language in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination, or an equivalent score in another recognized English proficiency test.
To complete the requirements of the major, students must take:
1. 30 credits of introductory courses (including the first-year prerequisite), normally taken in the first two years of study, which consist of:
2. 48 credits of advanced courses, which must include a capstone course to be taken preferably in the final year.
To complete the requirements of the minor, students must take:
1. 18 credits of introductory courses, which consist of:
2. 18 credits of advanced courses.
List A: Historical and Theoretical Foundations
The courses in this list will introduce students to the history and organization of diverse areas of literary and linguistic scholarship. Students will acquire a general overview of selected areas and issues, culminating in their application by the students to texts or linguistic data, including major theoretical distinctions or classifications and their historical development over time.
COURSE CODE | PROGRAMME | |
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ENGL1011 | An introduction to the study of meaning (6 credits) | |
ENGL1013 | 20th century literature and culture (6 credits) | |
ENGL1015 | Introduction to English linguistics (6 credits) | |
ENGL1017 | Introduction to sociolinguistics (6 credits) | |
ENGL1020 | Nineteenth-century literature and culture (6 credits) | |
ENGL1022 | Poetry past and present (6 credits) | |
ENGL1024 | World literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL1025 | Understanding narratives (6 credits) | |
ENGL1031 | English grammar(s) (6 credits) | |
ENGL1042 | World Englishes (6 credits) | |
ENGL1044 | Introduction to literary theory (6 credits) | |
ENGL1047 | The English lexicon (6 credits) | |
ENGL1051 | English sounds (6 credits) | |
ENGL1056/ LCOM1001* | Introduction to language and communication (6 credits) | |
ENGL1057/ LCOM1002* | Language, communication, society, field (6 credits) | |
ENGL1058/ LCOM1003* | Theorizing communication (6 credits) | |
ENGL1059/ LCOM1004* | Introduction to pragmatics (6 credits) | |
ENGL1060 | Performance Studies and everyday life (6 credits) | |
*Note: Students admitted in 2020-21 or before may choose either the ENGL/ LCOM course codes according to their study plans. Students admitted in 2021-22 and thereafter may only choose the ENGL course codes.
List B: Critical Reading, Analysis and Writing
The courses in this list will introduce students to the practice and methods of critical reading, analysis and writing, focusing on different areas of literary and linguistic study. Students will acquire a basic grasp of analytical distinctions and terminology, and learn to ask questions and construct critical arguments.
COURSE CODE | PROGRAMME | |
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ENGL1014 | Imaginary geographies: The art of writing place (6 credits) | |
ENGL1018 | Language and gender (6 credits) | |
ENGL1026 | Adaptation: From text to screen (6 credits) | |
ENGL1027 | Analyzing discourse (6 credits) | |
ENGL1028 | Awakenings: Exploring women’s writing (6 credits) | |
ENGL1030 | Dramatic changes: Versions of Renaissance literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL1032 | Late Victorian Texts and Contexts (6 credits) | |
ENGL1033 | Intercultural communication (6 credits) | |
ENGL1034 | Language and prejudice (6 credits) | |
ENGL1035 | Language crimes (6 credits) | |
ENGL1036 | Meaning and metaphor (6 credits) | |
ENGL1038 | Practice of criticism (6 credits) | |
ENGL1039 | Realism and representation (6 credits) | |
ENGL1040 | Rewriting and writing back (6 credits) | |
ENGL1041 | Modernity and literary modernism (6 credits) | |
ENGL1043 | An introduction to 20th-century English poetry (6 credits) | |
ENGL1045 | “Community” in sociolinguistics (6 credits) | |
ENGL1048 | Crime stories (6 credits) | |
ENGL1049 | Early English sonnets (6 credits) | |
ENGL1050 | An introduction to research methods in sociolinguistics (6 credits) | |
ENGL1052 | Introduction to theatre studies (6 credits) | |
ENGL1053 | Eighteenth century drama: The rise of celebrity culture (6 credits) | |
ENGL1054 | Writing disaster: Literature, trauma, memory (6 credits) | |
ENGL1055 | Language myths and realities (6 credits) | |
ENGL1061 | Introduction to psycholinguistics (6 credits) | |
In order to enroll in any advanced course in English Studies, students must normally have completed 18 credits of introductory courses, with at least 6 credits from both List A and List B.
COURSE CODE | PROGRAMME | |
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ENGL2002 | Language in society (6 credits) | |
ENGL2004 | English syntax (6 credits) | |
ENGL2007 | Literary linguistics (6 credits) | |
ENGL2010 | The novel (6 credits) | |
ENGL2012 | Advanced literary theory (6 credits) | |
ENGL2030 | New Englishes (6 credits) | |
ENGL2035 | Reading poetry (6 credits) | |
ENGL2039 | Gender, sexuality and discourse (6 credits) | |
ENGL2045 | Travel writing (6 credits) | |
ENGL2047 | English discourse structures and strategies (6 credits) | |
ENGL2048 | Language and jargon (6 credits) | |
ENGL2050 | English corpus linguistics (6 credits) | |
ENGL2055 | American Gothic: Haunted homes (6 credits) | |
ENGL2057 | Text and image (6 credits) | |
ENGL2074 | Postcolonial readings (6 credits) | |
ENGL2075 | The idea of China (6 credits) | |
ENGL2076 | Romanticism (6 credits) | |
ENGL2079 | Shakespeare (6 credits) | |
ENGL2080 | Women, feminism and writing (6 credits) | |
ENGL2085 | Creative writing (6 credits) | |
ENGL2089 | Making Americans: Literature as ritual and renewal (6 credits) | |
ENGL2097 | Imagining Hong Kong (6 credits) | |
ENGL2103 | Language and digital media (6 credits) | |
ENGL2104 | Language in the USA (6 credits) | |
ENGL2112 | History of English (6 credits) | |
ENGL2115 | Theories of language acquisition (6 credits) | |
ENGL2117 | English phonology and morphology (6 credits) | |
ENGL2118 | Law and literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL2119 | English in Hong Kong: Making it your own (6 credits) | |
ENGL2120 | Science fiction (6 credits) | |
ENGL2122 | Global Victorians (6 credits) | |
ENGL2123 | Language and identity in Hong Kong (6 credits) | |
ENGL2125 | English construction grammar (6 credits) | |
ENGL2126 | Law, meaning, and interpretation (6 credits) | |
ENGL2127 | Language and the law (6 credits) | |
ENGL2128 | Modernism (6 credits) | |
ENGL2129 | English as a language of science (6 credits) | |
ENGL2130 | Signs, language and meaning: Integrational reflections (6 credits) | |
ENGL2131 | The critic as artist (6 credits) | |
ENGL2134 | World literature and theory (6 credits) | |
ENGL2135 | The cosmopolitan imagination (6 credits) | |
ENGL2136 | Cross-cultural discourses (6 credits) | |
ENGL2137 | The profession of playwright in early modern England (6 credits) | |
ENGL2138 | Language and globalization (6 credits) | |
ENGL2139 | American modern (6 credits) | |
ENGL2140 | Ideologies of language past and present (6 credits) | |
ENGL2141 | Doing discourse analysis (6 credits) | |
ENGL2142 | Milton (6 credits) | |
ENGL2143 | Religion and the flourishing of English (6 credits) | |
ENGL2144 | Forms of contemporary literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL2145 | Post-1945 English drama (6 credits) | |
ENGL2146 | Cognitive semantics (6 credits) | |
ENGL2147 | Joyce’s voices (6 credits) | |
ENGL2149 | American dreaming (6 credits) | |
ENGL2150 | The city and modernity (6 credits) | |
ENGL2152 | Theory of the novel (6 credits) | |
ENGL2153 | Literary London (6 credits) | |
ENGL2156 | Eighteenth-century British literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL2157 | Representations of justice in law and literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL2158 | Language processing and learning (6 credits) | |
ENGL2159 | Twenty-first century English poetry (6 credits) | |
ENGL2160 | Sovereignty in law, theory and culture (6 credits) | |
ENGL2161 | Language rights and linguistic justice (6 credits) | |
ENGL2162 | Where the wild things are: Children's literature and the law (6 credits) | |
ENGL2163 | Comics, graphic novel and theory (6 credits) | |
ENGL2164 | The beginnings of English law and literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL2165 | Legal fictions: United States citizenship and the right to write in America (6 credits) | |
ENGL2166 | English phonetics (6 credits) | |
ENGL2167 | Theatre and the world (6 credits) | |
ENGL2168 | The law of signs: Interpretative controversies in legal semiotics (6 credits) | |
ENGL2169 | Writing and violence (6 credits) | |
ENGL2170 | Cringy: The aesthetics of discomfort (6 credits) | |
ENGL2171 | The right to the city: Cultural politics in Hong Kong and London (6 credits) | |
ENGL2172 | The police in literature and culture (6 credits) | |
ENGL2173 | Magic, Monsters and Maidens Fair: Medieval English Literature (6 credits) | |
ENGL2174 | Shakespeare and the law (6 credits) | |
ENGL2175 | Bad identities (6 credits) | |
ENGL2176 | Writing Asian diasporas (6 credits) | |
ENGL2177 | Reading and rereading Jane Austen (6 credits) | |
ENGL2178 | Language and art (6 credits) | |
ENGL2179/ LCOM2001* | Theories of language and communication (6 credits) | |
ENGL2180/ LCOM2002* | Language in the workplace (6 credits) | |
ENGL2181/ LCOM2003* | Language and politeness (6 credits) | |
ENGL2182/ LCOM2004* | Language, communication and the media (6 credits) | |
ENGL2183/ LCOM2005* | Language, communication and globalization (6 credits) | |
ENGL2184/ LCOM2007* | Visual communication (6 credits) | |
ENGL2185/ LCOM2008* | Health communication, ‘healthy’ communication (6 credits) | |
ENGL2186/ LCOM2009* | Language and religion (6 credits) | |
ENGL2187/ LCOM2011* | The language of news media (6 credits) | |
*Note: Students admitted in 2020-21 or before may choose either the ENGL/LCOM course codes according to their study plans. Students admitted in 2021-22 and thereafter may only choose the ENGL course codes.
Capstone Courses
COURSE CODE | PROGRAMME | |
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ENGL3040 | Internship in English studies (capstone experience) (6 credits) | |
ENGL3041 | Senior colloquium in English studies (capstone experience) (6 credits) | |
ENGL3042 | Extended essay in English studies (capstone experience) (6 credits) | |
Major students who have successfully passed at least seven courses (three introductory courses and four advanced courses) with a literature OR language and communication focus, respectively, will be given a School of English certification, upon request, which attests to this specialization in the “Literature Stream” or “Language and Communication Stream.” If applicable, a dual recognition in both the “Literature Stream” and “Language and Communication Stream” is possible.
Please note that the declaration and certification of specialization stream(s) is optional and students can graduate with a major in English Studies without declaring any specialization stream(s).
Notes:
Students are encouraged to discuss their study plans and course selections with the UG Coordinator, their Academic Advisers, or any teachers in the English Studies programme.
In the Literature Stream the School allows for flexibility and choice, therefore it is recommended that you discuss your literature pathways with your Academic Adviser or any teachers of our School.
Here is a possible pathway for English Studies students who aspire to pursue research postgraduate (RPG) studies in literary studies. In addition to fulfilling the basic requirements of the major, you may wish:
ENGL3041 Senior colloquium in English studies (capstone experience)
ENGL3042 Extended essay in English studies (capstone experience)
In the Language and Communication Stream the School allows for flexibility and choice, therefore it is recommended that you discuss your Language and Communication pathways with your Academic Adviser or any teachers of our School.
Below are two possible pathways of suggestive nature only. Students may choose courses without following the pathways.
Theorizing Language Pathway
List A
List B
Advanced
Language Use in Society Pathway
List A
List B
Advanced
For more information, please refer to https://cics.hku.hk/the-list-of-badged-courses/
Please check here for course offerings and time-table of 2022-23.
Dr Elizabeth Ho
School of English
The University of Hong Kong
Tel.: (852) 3917 2766
Fax: (852) 2559 7139
E-mail: lizho@hku.hk