Preamble
General studies in English language and linguistics leads to careers in different fields. The market for grammarians and linguists has continued to broaden to areas such as teaching, lexicography, translation, media and language and speech therapy among others. There is a shift in the job market that includes shifts within the industrial, cultural and social paradigms that encourages consumers to look for information and skills that satisfy their linguistic goals.
The Department seeks to redefine the role of linguists in academics and language-related fields. It trains professionals in linguists better suited to meet the challenges that linguistic diversity poses for the Kenyan academia and the society at large, today and in the future.
Rationale
The Department of English and Linguistics is one of the oldest and well established in the country. It believes that there is a dire need to train people who are well-grounded in English grammar and theoretical linguistics. English grammar pervades all the language skills. It is important to master English grammar now that it is the medium of instruction right from mid-primary to the tertiary level. In linguistics, the emphasis is on African languages because many of the theories in this area are designed with Western languages in mind and thus they do account for a lot of the linguistic phenomena evident in African languages. It is, therefore, imperative that we investigate our languages with a view to developing relevant theories.
There is a paucity of well-trained grammarians and linguists in the market and our graduates would be employed as consultants in language matters, curriculum developers, material developers, policy makers, teachers, tutors, lecturers, researchers, lexicographers, translators and media personnel among others.
Objectives
- To train grammarians and linguists
- To research on African languages and others
- To create a data bank of African linguistic phenomena in all components of language
Year 1
All candidates will take four (4) core units and four (4) electives as well as the Faculty/School Unit (MAA 500: General Research Methodology.)
Year 2
Candidates taking Option A will take two (2) core units and two (2) electives according to the programmes in which they are enrolled. Those taking option B will write the thesis.
