120166 AR Advanced course in English linguistics (applied): Intercultural rhetoric (and argumentation) (2008W)

The course provides information about the theory and principles of rhetoric (Bizzell and Herzberg 1990; Crowley, and Hawhee 1999), as well as opportunities for practicing the art and technique of oral presentations. Students are expected to engage in discussions about central issues in classical and modern rhetoric (with a focus on English rhetoric and argumentation), which are relevant to post-modern society. The course offers several perspectives on the use of argumentative strategies in verbal communication and provides students with methodological tools for identifying, analysing and evaluating several types of arguments. Students are given both theoretical and practical assignments that should enable them to develop the ability to distinguish between valid, or acceptable, and invalid, or unacceptable, arguments, to argue for and against particular standpoints, as well as to build up consistent and coherent lines of argumentation, in order to motivate and persuade specific categories of audience.
Together we will be discussing and analysing the structure, content and style of famous speeches and of national/international debates by identifying culture-specific values and cross-cultural patterns of rhetorical communication, while signalling stereotypical thinking, as well as complementary, overlapping or contradictory ways of thinking across cultures and languages (Wierzbicka 1997, Kennedy,1998, Spencer-Oatey, 2000). Famous speeches, essays and controversies will be analysed and discussed in a cross-cultural perspective. The course is also meant to help students improve their public speaking skills while becoming familiar with the general and particular prerequisites for English public speaking and with the expectations of English-speaking audiences, as well as with other cultural traditions of rhetorical communication and argumentation.

Students will be expected to prepare (written) outlines of their oral presentations in English, to structure the main (sub)topics of their speech in a coherent way, to formulate consistent and convincing arguments, to use varying rhetorical strategies to pursue a particular line of argumentation and to deliver their speeches in an accessible and captivating style.