Bethlehem University - Academic Programs - Faculty of Art

The Department of English offers a baccalaureate degree in English language and literature. The program helps English majors to acquire competence in the various skills of the English language and a comprehensive knowledge of English literature. The Department of English also offers a program of service courses to all non-major freshmen and sophomore students at Bethlehem University.

A student majoring in English needs to earn a total of 122 credits distributed as follows.

The English Major consists of a total of 58 credits as in the following schedule.

ENGL 203	English Writing Skills I (3)	ENGL 301	Introduction to Linguistics (3)
ENGL 204	English Writing Skills II (3)	ENGL 303	English Grammar II (3)
ENGL 205	Oral Communication (3)	ENGL 307	Error Analysis (3)
ENGL 206	English Grammar I (3)	ENGL 312	Shakespeare (3)
ENGL 210	Introduction to Literature (3)	ENGL 313	The Novel (3)
ENGL 211	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. I (3)	ENGL 320	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. III (3)
ENGL 212	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. II (3)	ENGL 325	Literary Criticism (3)
ENGL 227	Research Methods (3)	ENGL 389	Senior Seminar (1)
		ENGL	Major Electives (12)

Students majoring in English are provided the opportunity to minor in a discipline of their interest. Minor programs consist of 18 credits and are offered starting in the Fall of the student�s second year.

Students are accepted to English major after their third semester provided that they have earned at least 41 credits and all the following conditions have been met:

First Year
FALL SEMESTER		CR	SPRING SEMESTER		CR
ENGL 120	English Language Skills I	3	ENGL 121	English Language Skills II	3
ARAB 120	Arabic Language Skills I	3	ARAB 121	Arabic Language Skills II	3
MATH 111	Fundamentals of Math	3	SCIE 111	General Science	3
HIST 120	Hist. of Modern Palestine	3	CMSR 101	Community Service	1
	Fine Arts Req.	2	PSED 101	Physical Education	1
LIBR 101	Library Skills	R		General Elective	3
Second Year
FALL SEMESTER		CR	SPRING SEMESTER		CR
ENGL 203	English Writing Skills I	3	ENGL 204	English Writing Skills	3
ENGL 205	Oral Communication	3	ENGL 206	English Grammar I	3
ENGL 210	Introduction to Literature	3	ENGL 211	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. I	3
	Minor	3	ENGL 227	Research Methods	3
	General Elective	3		Minor	3
Third Year
FALL SEMESTER		CR	SPRING SEMESTER		CR
ENGL 303	English Grammar II	3	ENGL 301	Introduction to Linguistics	3
ENGL 212	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. II	3	ENGL 320	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. III	3
ENGL	Major Elective	3	ENGL	Major Elective	3
	Minor	3		Minor	3
POLS 300	Themes in Political Science	3	PHIL 302	Philosophy and Ethics	3
	General Elective	3
Fourth Year
FALL SEMESTER		CR	SPRING SEMESTER		CR
ENGL 303	English Grammar II	3	ENGL 301	Introduction to Linguistics	3
ENGL 212	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. II	3	ENGL 320	Hist. Survey of Eng. Lit. III	3
ENGL	Major Elective	3	ENGL	Major Elective	3
	Minor	3	Minor		3
POLS 300	Themes in Political Science	3	PHIL 302	Philosophy and Ethics	3
	General Elective	3

This course is offered for students who have failed the English component of Bethlehem University Entrance Exam. It is a comprehensive course which covers the basic language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The course aims at helping students to attain the language proficiency required for ENGL 120 and for success in their university education.

This course integrates the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. It aims at improving the students� language skills in preparation for their university study. This course is designed to focus primarily on the reading strategies necessary for success in a university environment. It seeks to provide opportunities to increase students� reading speed, and to apply the following reading skills: skimming, scanning, guessing meaning from context, identifying pro-form reference, and extracting main ideas and specific details from a text. Listening, the second component is explicitly taught. The focus is on listening for main ideas and specific details. The writing component focuses on answering and formulating questions, on self-editing and revision skills, as well as on evaluating the structural integrity of paragraphs (i.e. organization, cohesion, and unity). Finally, the course seeks to provide opportunities for oral communication. The focus is on asking questions and on answering teacher and student-initiated questions. Issues pertaining to grammar will be addressed only as needed.

This course is designed to complement and expand upon the skills introduced in ENGL 120. The course seeks to provide opportunities to apply the following readings skills: previewing and predicting, inferencing, note taking, and text outlining/underlining, and highlighting. In listening, the focus is on listening and organizing notes effectively. The writing component focuses on writing paragraphs, short reports and summaries. Finally, the course seeks to provide further opportunities for oral communication. The focus is on giving brief reports and summaries. Issues pertaining to grammar will be addressed only as needed.

A content-based course designed for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy students. It aims to expand upon the skills introduced in ENGL 120 using materials related to the students� professional field. The course focuses mainly on the reading and writing subskills necessary for success in a university environment.

This course introduces prospective English majors to the processes of writing, namely pre-writing, writing and rewriting. It also approaches writing as a cyclical process that involves analysis, feedback and revision. Focus is placed on the characteristics of good paragraph writing, i.e. unity, coherence, cohesion, economy, precision and appropriateness. The course provides ample opportunities for students to learn and practice the linguistic, mechanical and rhetorical conventions of writing. It also introduces students to the process of writing an essay. Editing and revision strategies are practiced throughout the course. Readings are used as source materials that are essential for writing activities.

This course is a continuation of ENGL203. It adopts a process approach to the teaching of essay writing, where students produce multiple drafts through four recursive processes: formulation, reformulation, revision, and rewriting. In each stage students engage in revision for content and editing for grammar and mechanics. Students are introduced to the three major types of writing: expressive, persuasive and referential. More emphasis is placed on referential writing and the main strategies of development, namely cause and effect, comparison and contrast, classification, process and extended definition.

This is a skill development course. The aim of the course is to improve the oral communication skills of the student based on the latest theories of communication. Acknowledge of oral communication theory will be the foundation on which the interpersonal communication, group discussions and public speaking skills of the student will be broadened.

This course reviews the fundamental syntactic categories of English grammar that are essential for the understanding of the simple sentence. It aims to further students� knowledge of English grammar through exploration and analysis. The course covers the following areas: word classes, verbs and verb phrases (including tense and aspect), nouns and noun phrases, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, and word order.

This course aims at introducing students to the different genres and terminology of English literature, fiction, poetry and drama. It encourages appreciation of literary texts through discussion and analysis. Students are trained to respond to such texts (orally and in writing) critically and creatively.

The main objective of this and the subsequent related courses (ENGL 212 and 320) is to introduce students to the riches of English literature and to acquaint them with the development of that literature within a related historical and cultural background. This is achieved by beginning where English literature began, in the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval periods, and proceeding to the Renaissance. Representative selections of Old English (in translation), Medieval and Renaissance literature are studied in this course.

This course is a continuation of ENGL 211. It continues to chart the developments in English literature until 1800 by means of a wide selection of representative works. The course also examines the social, cultural and historical backgrounds which helped to shape the particular nature of these works.

This is a content-based course. It is designed to round out the student�s English requirements. The course seeks to provide additional opportunities to improve and apply the reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills presented in ENGL 120 and 121.

The aim of this course is to improve the student�s critical reading ability by developing the skills required for reading at university level and providing practice in a variety of reading sub-skills and strategies for dealing with more difficult texts. Although the focus will be on analytical skills that help critical thinking, the integrative skills of text attack and schema developing will form an integral part of the course.

This course acquaints students of English language and literature with the basics of research methods and offers them training in doing practical research. It focuses on the design and basic components of research, both in language and literature. These components are: formulation of a question, topic, problem or hypothesis, collection of data or evidence, as well as analysis and interpretation of data. Besides lectures, practical sessions are held to provide students with the opportunity to apply the research skills they acquire during the course.

This course is intended exclusively for the students of Business Administration and Accounting. It stresses both written and spoken communications. Business letters, resumes, memorandums, and formal reports are practiced. Interpersonal communication skills, interviews, group work and formal presentations are part of the oral component of the course.

This course introduces the students to the basic concepts of linguistics with accompanying readings on modern linguistic theories. Emphasis is given to an analysis of the English language phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.

This course is a continuation of ENGL206. It covers the following areas: tense and aspect, sentence constituents, coordination, subordination, reported speech, conditional clauses, modality, clause types and their corresponding illocutionary acts, and thematic and information structures realized by passivization, there-constructions and clefts.

This course focuses on English as the target language. It involves a contrastive study of Arabic and English phonological, morphological and syntactic structures.
Prerequisite: ENGL 301

This course deals with the main aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) and guides students into the rapidly developing area of published SLA research. The course also deals with the implications SLA research has on the teaching of foreign languages.
Prerequisite: ENGL 301

This course focuses on English as the target language. Emphasis is placed on performance errors of Arab speakers in their production of English from an error-analysis approach.

This course guides students in procedures for planning, writing, administering and analyzing classroom language tests. The testing of specific skills is addressed: reading, listening, writing, speaking, grammar and vocabulary. The emphasis of the course is not only on understanding the principles of language testing but on how these principles can be applied in practice.

The primary purpose of this course is twofold: (1) to provide students with the knowledge of the Bible as a unique literary achievement, and (2) to provide students with necessary biblical background that will enhance their appreciation of literature. The course approaches the Bible (Old and New Testaments) from two basic directions. The first is to build a substantial background of literary allusions, and the second is to study the varied literary forms. Texts will be approached from the viewpoint of "higher" criticism. or literary criticism, which brings to its consideration of the text the research findings of comparative literature, biblical history and ethnology. Literary style and form are of basic concern.

This course introduces students to the basic concepts of sociolinguistics. It aims to explore the relevance of sociolinguistics to language teaching through studying diglossia, bilingualism, multilingualism, world Englishes, language policy and planning, regional and social variation, language and gender, speech acts, and language in education.
Prerequisite: ENGL 301

The course offers a critical study of selected plays significant to the development of drama as a literary genre. Emphasis is placed on the influence of classical and European theater on dramatic works in the English language. This course focuses on dramatic types, themes, and techniques in relation to patterns of behavior and belief.

A critical reading from a selection of Shakespeare's major plays. Emphasis is placed on Shakespeare's power as poet and dramatic craftsman. Theme and character interpretation are studied against the background and conditions of the Elizabethan theater.

This course focuses on the novel as a literary genre, and incorporates reference to contemporary conventions and traditions. Emphasis is given to a range of style and content, and major novels are studied and analyzed. Some critical writers are included.

This course introduces a critical reading of poetry in English from the age of Chaucer to the present. This course is designed to foster in the student both a critical understanding and an appreciation of poetic art. Emphasis is placed on the study of content, form, and theme of poetry. Students apply analytic and critical principles to selected poems.

This course provides a study of major American writers from the 17th century to the early part of the 19th century. Selected works are read and analyzed in detail. The course includes a consideration of the important phases in American literary and cultural history, insofar as these affected the works of major writers of the period.

This course offers a detailed study of the major pre-Romantic and Romantic writers, from 1775 to 1824. The poetic works of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are considered. The focus of prose study is on the essayists period, and early criticism of the period.

A continuation of ENGL 315, this course is a survey of the most famous literary figures and works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century America. The course aims at helping students to become fully aware of the American tradition in literature, and to trace current cultural and literary developments. Students are encouraged to examine the differences and similarities among the various literary eras.

This course is designed to investigate the various elements of oral communication and to apply them through practice and experience. The student will demonstrate various techniques of interpersonal relationships: the interview, small group discussion, debating and public speaking.

The objective of this course is to develop skills for recreating an author's experience recorded in a literary piece and for communicating that experience to an audience through oral reading. Students will improve their command of oral English, augment their powers of literary interpretation and increase their skills in public performance.

This course consists of a detailed study of representative works of Victorian writers within the social and intellectual context of the age. The course focuses on the works of major writers of the period: Dickens, Ruskin and Tennyson. Students are encouraged to compare and contrast the attitudes expressed in the texts with those in the present-day society.

The main objective of this course is to study and analyze selected critical essays from classical to modern times. Emphasis is placed on the development of critical thought through the various ages of English literature. Students are encouraged to read the selected essays analytically, apply them to selected English literary texts, and cultivate an interest in critical reading in general.

The images of women depicted in literature written by men as well as women provide us with an understanding of the stereotypes and roles of women in society and how they have changed over time. The course examines literature by and about women, including poetry, essays, novellas and novels. Readings will include twentieth-century literature by celebrated Arab, European, and American women writers. Students will also be introduced to feminist literary theories, including feminist psychoanalytic theory, feminist stylistics, and minority women�s theory, as well as the analysis of women�s issues in their struggle for personal and social freedom. Students will apply these theories to a variety of literary works.

This course introduces the students to American and British literature from 1914 to 1965. Selected texts from different genres (including movies) are discussed closely. The students are also exposed to the important literary theories of this period and the historical developments occurring during this important literary period.

This course is a continuation of ENGL 332. It covers the contemporary literary period starting in 1965. Selected texts representing different literary genres (including movies) are studied and analyzed in the course. The students are introduced to the most recent literary theories to help them appreciate the literary works of this period.

The seminar is designed to provide seniors with an opportunity to review, organize and integrate material from previous major courses or to do some original research on a topic which is of interest to them.

A student may select an area of interest for deeper study. The student may work on a research topic, do original writing, or study in depth a specific period or literary genre. An outline of the proposed study project must be approved by the supervising instructor with whom the student must meet for regular conferences. The completed study must be submitted by the end of the semester.