ABSTRACT

The collection of a pool of materials has led to a student-centred approach to language awareness. The 'course' turned out to be a pool of topics together with a pool of materials which could be drawn upon by every member of staff concerned with a variety of language. The methods of presentation are mosdy inductive rather than deductive: students are able to investigate linguistic problems and discover solutions, at least discover the necessity for learning the means by which solutions may be arrived at. The majority of students enjoy the Language Awareness programme: they come out of group discussions still hotly debating issues of sexist language, or language learning methods; they even come to appreciate the ability they have acquired to use a foreign dictionary intelligently. Area studies and European studies degrees - 'those courses which have attempted to replace the study of literature in whole or in part with an interdisciplinary combination of historical, sociological, political, and cultural studies'.