영어사 교수법

Teaching the History of the English Language: A Model for Junior Undergraduates

The goal of this study is to propose a teaching model of history of the English language (HEL) for the required introductory course of “Understanding the English Language”. This course, specifically designed for junior undergraduate students majoring in English, first and second year students in particular, leverages the history of English as a path to understanding the language and how it has become the most popular and important language in the world today. The course explores three themes: the past of English through its chronological history, the present of English through its diversity throughout different parts of the world, and the future of English through anticipated and unanticipated changes of the language in the coming years. This study first proposes and explains a detailed course design of HEL for junior undergraduates, and second investigates its effectiveness through surveying the students enrolled in the course at the beginning and the end of the semester. The students’ feedbacks are examined both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study concludes that any student who wants to understand the English language and develop their humanities refinements towards any languages and cultures needs to be equipped with the basic knowledge explored in a HEL course like the one proposed in this study.