Overview of English 198
I had the pleasure of attending the new English 198 course
entitled Introduction to English Studies. As the syllabus dictates, it is a
course that “provides an introduction to the disciplines that make up English
studies, and an orientation to the study of English at Boise State. Linked by a
general interest in the study and/or application of language, the disciplines
within the larger field of English studies may specifically focus on how
language works, on the analysis and production of creative, persuasive, or
technical texts, or on the techniques of teaching English.” There is a guest
speaker from a different department virtually every week. In order to gain an
understanding of the different sub-departments, the class is structured so that
if a student is undecided on exactly which area he or she would like to go into,
they have the opportunity to hear professors from every realm of study and
decide from there where they would feel most comfortable.
Dr. Jacky O’Connor is teaching the Spring 2008 semester. Her specialty is American
Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries, with a focus on American Drama. I
asked her about her approach to teaching. “I definitely go for a student
centered classroom environment and sort of charge learning to everybody in the
classroom, students as teachers, so I expect students to actively participate in
my classes. I would say I am very focused on student writing as a big part of
what I want my classes to accomplish.”
Dr. Mike Markel, director of Technical Communication, first proposed this class
because he saw the frustration that students were having near the end of their
college experience. He wanted students to have that extra opportunity to get to
know what the other emphases were about in the department. I asked him what
responses from students have been in regards to the new class. “I think it has
been generally positive in that almost every one of the students was unaware of
the existence of at least one or two of the other emphases. Just knowing that
there is a program of study in linguistics or technical communication or English
education is good for the students. I think also as they listen to different
instructors representing the different wheels they get a sense of how
differently the fields conceive of what we call English of studies.” The
reception from the faculty has been very positive as well. “The faculty are
eager to talk to the students; its an opportunity
to interest students in their own disciplines and English teachers are never shy
talking about what they do and what they love doing, so that’s good.”
Dr Jeffrey Westover spoke concerning literature studies and gave a very
enlightening lecture on poetry. He passed out a copy of “The Waking” by Theodore
Roethke. After the class read it together, they then were given the opportunity
to analyze the work and discuss their ideas. Some of the students participated actively in this exercise
and seemed to enjoy it immensely. It also helped them to gain a bit of insight
into themselves—some of their thoughts were quite profound.
We have a very valuable addition of this class to the English Department curriculum. Thank you, Dr. Markel, for giving students more information on the different disciplines in the department and thank you to all of the professors who are and will be teaching this course in the future.