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English studies (or simply, English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a distinct discipline. The English studies discipline involves the study, analysis, and exploration of English literature through texts.
English studies include:
- The study of literature, especially novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Although any English-language literature may be studied, the most commonly analyzed literature originates from Britain, the United States, and Ireland.[1] Additionally, any given country or region teaching English studies will often emphasize its own local or national English-language literature.
- English composition, involving both the analysis of the structures of works of literature as well as the application of these structures in one's own writing.
- English language arts, which is the study of grammar, usage, and style.
- English sociolinguistics, including discourse analysis of written and spoken texts in the English language, the history of the English language, English language learning and teaching, and the study of World of English.
English linguistics (syntax, morphology, phonetics, phonology, etc.) is regarded as a distinct discipline, taught in a department of linguistics.[1]
The North American Modern Language Association (MLA) divides English studies into two disciplines: a language-focused discipline, and a literature-focused discipline.[2] At universities in non-English-speaking countries, one department often covers all aspects of English studies as well as English taught as a foreign language and English linguistics.
It is common for departments of English to offer courses and scholarships in all areas of the English language, such as literature, public speaking and speech-writing, rhetoric, composition studies, creative writing, philology and etymology, journalism, poetry, publishing, the philosophy of language, and theater and play-writing, among many others. In most English-speaking countries, the study of texts produced in non-English languages takes place in other departments, such as departments of foreign language or comparative literature.
English studies is taught in a wide variety of manners, but one unifying commonality is that students engage with an English-language text in a critical manner. However, the methods of teaching a text, the manner of engaging with a text, and the selection of texts are all widely-debated subjects within the English studies field.[1] Another unifying commonality is that this engagement with the text will produce a wide variety of skills, which can translate into many different careers.[3]
- ^ a b c Parker, William Riley (1967). "Where Do English Departments Come from?". College English. 28 (5): 339–351. doi:10.2307/374593. ISSN 0010-0994. JSTOR 374593.
- ^ "About the MLA". Modern Language Association. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
- ^ Feeney, Sarah (2015-09-03). "It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged that an English Major Must Be in Want of a Job". Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 47 (5): 35–36. doi:10.1080/00091383.2015.1077674. ISSN 0009-1383. S2CID 146546338.