Course descriptions

Approaches translation as a wider extra-textual phenomenon that considers cultural encounters as acts of translation. Introduces functionalist, cultural approaches to translation and the critical methods of cultural studies. Covers major historical processes including orientalism, colonialism, post-colonialism, and globalization. Focuses on issues of identity, gender, representation and authenticity of source cultures, and cultural appropriation by the target culture. Requires competency of both Arabic and English to read, analyze, and translate key texts in travel writing.

Provides students with an introductory theoretical background of the study of meaning reinforced by practical exercises in a way that helps the students to grasp the idea of meaning and acquire some critical and analytical thinking toward meanings in the language.

Introduces students to the process of making meaning and the possibility of communication in the English language. Topics include Speech act theory, politeness theory, and relevance theory.

Focuses on the application of the outcomes of linguistic theory upon the many social practices involving language understanding.

Investigates the correlation between form and function in English. The framework of study is based on Critical Discourse analysis, as advocated by Norman Fairclough and Teun Van Dijk.

Helps students to work closely with his/her instructor on the production of an extended translation related topic of the student's own choice. Assists students to improve their expertise in examining texts and analyzing the academic, theoretical, linguistic, and socio-cultural issues underlying communication across cultures. Enhances student's ability to conduct professional translation both in English and Arabic texts. Helps students conduct an advanced project in translating texts from English into Arabic and vice versa.

Examines the ways in which relationships and structures in society influence language and vice versa. Explores variations in language that are determined by region, gender, socio-economic level, and cultural background. Introduces major sociolinguistic theories. Explores methods of analyzing language issues in the students' own lives to help them establish positions in the light of findings of sociolinguistic research

Provides theoretical and practical resources and skills necessary for exploring the theories and applications of second language acquisition of phonology, morphology and pragmatics. Provides an in-depth understanding of the theoretical foundations and practical application for teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Introduces basic theories and findings in the study of the psychological process of language use, with a focus on the comprehension, production, acquisition, and representation of the language. Psycholinguistics is an area of specialization in cognitive psychology that focuses on the psychological components of the langauge processor. This course emphasizes the commonalities that underline human language everywhere, and we will focus on what these commonalities tell us about the basic nature of the human language capacity.

Serves as a seminar for advanced students of linguistics and translation. Examines advanced topics within the study of language and linguistics. Aims to build on the knowledge of linguistic theories acquired in earlier ENGL courses. Explores the theoretical foundations of one or more modern/ dominant theories of language and linguistics, with special reference to their methodological assumptions and applications as manifested in investigations of the core areas of phonetics/ phonology, morphology and semantics.

Provides student with a broad overview of classical literature as it bears on English literature. Also aims to acquaint students with the cultural, religious, political background of the Greek and Roman worlds by perusing a broad range of texts. Examines classical texts by different authors, such as Homer, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Virgil and Horace, in order for students to be exposed to a wide selection of perspectives, rationales and contexts.

Surveys Old and Middle English literature from Beowulf to Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, exclusive of Chaucer. All works are read in modern English translations.

Examines the development of Shakespeare’s concept of tragedy and tragicomedy from Titus Andronicus to The Tempest. The plays will be related to the social and literary milieu of the period.

Examines Shakespeare’s early work for the theatre with some attention to the sonnets and longer poems. Provides historical background for a study of all the plays, including discussions of Elizabethan society, the world of the stage and Shakespeare’s biography.

Studies some of history's most famous dramas both as literary forms and as cultural expressions. Students will read and discuss a wide variety of well-known plays from ancient Greece and Rome, the early modern English stage, and explore the global influence of drama.

Explores the factors contributing to the rise of the 18-century novel and discusses in-depth the two central issues in 18th-century fiction - class and gender.

Novels of the Romantic and Victorian periods, from Austen to George Eliot.

Explores the factors contributing to the rise of Gothic ism in the 18th century, and discusses Gothic literary aesthetics and cultural politics.

Examines literature of the period between 1870 and the First World War, including works by writers such as Hardy, Conrad, James, Wilde, Stevenson, Shaw, Jefferies, and Wells.

Focuses on critical reading and analysis of British fiction of the twentieth century.

Examines American literature of the nineteenth century: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and others.

Examines American literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: James, Twain, Stephen Crane, Dreiser and others.

Studies the development of the novel and short story in America.

Examines the novel and short story in America since World War I.

Analyzes representative works of world literature, Western and non-Western, from Antiquity to modern times. Highlights certain periods (e.g. from Antiquity to the Renaissance, the 18th century to the late 19th century, or the modern and post-modern periods) or certain thematic concerns. Analyzes works in their cultural/historical contexts and their enduring human values which unite the different literary traditions. Promotes critical thinking and writing within a framework of cultural diversity as well as comparative and interdisciplinary analysis.

Examines modern movements and ideas including Symbolism, Imagism, the Harlen Renaissance, the Beat generation, Confessionalism, Formalism, Martian poetry, Postmodernism, Performance and Slam.

Introduces students to film theory and issues of cinematic adaptation. Highlights text and film as different mediums, and focuses on the creative transformation that takes place in the process of adapting literary texts. Explores and eclectic selection of literary texts and their cinematic counterparts from different traditions and eras.

Focuses on plays and ideas that have influenced or modified the direction of drama in the modern period. Representative plays from the 1880s to the present day are analyzed and reviewed in the class, both critically and in performance.

Acquaints students with a range of critical methodologies that have gained the currency since the 1960's. Includes the following critical theories: formalist (New Critical, Russian, and Aristotelian), structuralism, post-structuralism, Marxist, reader response, feminist, postcolonial, psychoanalytic, postmodern, cultural, ecocritical and aesthetic.

Explores the novels of major twentieth-century Anglophone writers and discusses them from a variety of critical perspectives (Marxist, postcolonial, feminist, psychoanalytic). Emphasises the importance of reading the modern novel in the context of its pertinent literary movements (modernism, postmodernism), as well as in the context of its global, transnational reception.

Introduces theories that have defined cultural studies. Focuses on the dynamics of culture regionally and globally, through interdisciplinary cultural critique and analysis, from literature to other media generally.

Examines topics and texts not covered in other courses at an advanced level. Topics vary per semester and enrollment limited to twelve students.

Examines the role of gender in literature, including the transformation of literary genres by women writers, writings by women during a particular historical period, and gender relations in literature. Specific topics vary from semester to semester. The course may be repeated for credit with departmental approval.

Focuses on topics in literature that are not covered in other 400-level English courses.

Explores literature and other forms of cultural expression across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Presents a genrous range of literary works to develop a focused critical understanding of how cultures differ from one another. Focuses on the creative connections between literary texts as intertexts, as well as on the ways of reading and comparing them critically.

Surveys post-colonial literature written primarily in English in the twentieth century by authors from around the world, including Britain, America, Asia and Africa. Examines texts in their historical contexts, with due emphasis upon their interrelation.

Analyzes various world literatures as they are translated into English. Introduces students to serveral major national literatures and their transnational Anglophone reception. Texts can be selected from Arabic, African, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, South American, and other traditions.

Focuses on special topics in writing that are not covered in other writing courses.

Provides students with opportunities to explore career interests while applying knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a work settings. Helps students gain a clearer sense of what they still need to learn or how their skills can be improved and provides an opportunity to build professional networks.

This course provides students with the beginning-level reading, composition, grammar, speaking and listening skills necessary to advance to English 097. Students develop these skills through practice in the classroom and in the CALL laboratory. Reading targets the cognitive skills of sequencing, generalizing, synthesizing, summarizing, and making inferences and judgments about information. Skimming, scanning, using context clues and predicting are introduced. Students focus on writing grammatically correct sentences. Listening and speaking skills are developed through speaking and listening assignments. Academic vocabulary is developed through reading and listening as well as memorizing and using assigned vocabulary. Students earn a grade of P (pass) or NP (not pass).

This course provides students with the high-beginning level reading, composition, grammar, speaking and listening skills necessary to advance to English 098. Reading targets the cognitive skills of sequencing, generalizing, synthesizing, summarizing, and making inferences and judgments about information. Skimming, scanning, using context clues and predicting are introduced. Students are encouraged to envision writing as a process whereby they organize, compose, draft, revise and edit written work. Students are familiarized with different rhetorical patterns through completing various writing assignments with emphasis on the content, structure, and grammar of their written work. Listening and speaking skills are developed through note taking and speaking and listening assignments. Academic vocabulary is developed through reading and listening as well as memorizing and using assigned vocabulary. Students earn a grade of P (pass) or NP (not pass).

This course is for students with high intermediate English language proficiency and focuses on developing and refining the receptive and productive language skills necessary for success in the academic environment. Utilizing the lecture method, group workshop activities, and individual student-instructor interaction, the student will analyze and evaluate academically-oriented texts to enhance reading, listening, writing, note-taking and speaking skills and to produce formal essays and presentations that demonstrate readiness for university credit courses. In both in and out-of-class activities, the student will practice appropriately summarizing, paraphrasing and synthesizing information and ideas from college-level materials while at the same extending vocabulary, sentence, and communication skills, Exit exam required. Credit earned cannot be used for graduation.

Analyzes selected texts from Arabic literary tradition, starting from the pre-Islamic period up to the contemporary era. It consists of both poetry and prose texts. The analysis focuses on the aesthetic characteristics of the selected texts and the critical methods used in reading and analyzing these texts.

Improves students' written and oral communication skills drawing on non-traditional approaches. It also develops grammatical concepts and their applications in writing. The course is conducted in Arabic.

Covers all aspects of cultural and social life of Kuwait, the course will also examine Kuwaiti writers and literary tendencies, and the reasons for the emergence of every type, indicating the most prominent writers in each prose and poetry types.

Focuses on three major fields within the Arabic heritage: Culture, Society and Literature. The course studies the structures and characteristics of the Arabic societies, from the pre-Islamic society to present. For the early epochs, Cultural Encyclopedias, written during the Arabic medieval are used. For the modern era, the course focuses on studies in cultural studies and sociology, The course discusses the main genres of Arabic literature and their characteristics.

Explores the key concepts of Kuwaiti political discourses, its development and its way of dealing with local, regional and international events. The course considers the democratic experience in Kuwait and analyzes its constitution. The course will focus on reading, analyzing and critically commenting on political speeches and the local press.

Provides an introduction to the theoretical aspects of the arts including tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Students gain knowledge understanding theories on the notions of art and culture within a global context. Critical and creative thinking skills are developed through the analysis and interpretation of artwork in form of class lecture, discussions, essays, and/or reports on field work at local cultural venues or events.

Focuses on the speaking and understanding of the Chinese language and the acquisition of the fundamentals of Chinese grammar and characters. At the end of the course, the students will obtain the skills of making short conversations in Chinese, reading simple Chinese texts and writing basic Chinese characters. The curriculum also provides a brief introduction to the Chinese culture.

Aims to acquaint students with basic principles of the French language appropriate to level A1.1+ such as day to day vocabulary, introducing themselves and their families, discussing their hobbies, shopping, navigating in an urban environment, discussing the weather using simple sentences and questions. The course focuses on applying oral and writing skills, basic grammar, and cultural notions. This course is an introductory course that assumes no previous knowledge of the language. The course will familiarize students with the nature of the DELF exam.