The course is aimed at cultivating the students’ awareness of British cultural diversity and historical background, while simultaneously boosting their competence and confidence at giving a short audiovisual presentation on a topic of their choice, using software such as Powerpoint, Prezi, Impres, Apple Keynote etc.). Students can choose the presentation topic via Moodle. Bulk of the classwork therefore consists of student presentation, a bias which is compensated by many interactive exercises in Moodle (Scorm), including the final quiz. The number of available topics is adjusted to the number of students who signed up for the course, so that the presentations are evenly distributed. The topics for the first 2 sessions are decidedly “low-brow” and user friendly, to make up for the short period of time for preparing the presentation.
Teaching units:
1. Introductory lecture – presentation guidelines (Moodle)
Preliminary choice of presentation topics (online)
Consulting the topics with the teacher (online) – Adobe Connect
2. British popular culture
British music – a close-up on a specific music genre or a brief cameo of a noteworthy British musician
British film – a close-up on a specific genre (comedy, thriller, cartoon, etc.)
3. British educational system
Major differences between Czech and British educational system
4. Psychohistory and multiple-perspective assessment
Thomas More vs Henry VIII
Queen Elizabeth I vs Mary Stuart
5. Historical personalities – pros and cons
James Cook
Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher
6. The benefits and limitations of scientific rationalism
Isaac Newton
Charles Darwin
Thomas Robert Malthus (utilitarianism -> social Darwinism)
7. History of human progress
Josiah Wedgewood and the birth of modern marketing
Top five British inventors
8. Complex historical events – causal interrelations
The birth of the English Parliament
English Reformation and its aftermath
English Civil War
9. History from below – part I
Industrial revolution the Luddite movement and the convict colonies
Abolition of slavery in Britain and its Caribbean holdings
10. History from below – part II
British suffragette movement
Rise and demise of British colonialism
11. Language corner
The historical genealogy of English lexis
British regional dialects and accents (presentation with embedded audio files)
12. Brexit revisited: direct and representational democracy
Brexit: pros and cons
Last update: Kadrnožková Monika, PhDr., Ph.D. (24.10.2020)
The course is aimed at cultivating the students’ awareness of British cultural diversity and historical background, while simultaneously boosting their competence and confidence at giving a short audiovisual presentation on a topic of their choice, using software such as Powerpoint, Prezi, Impres, Apple Keynote etc.). Students can choose the presentation topic via Moodle. Bulk of the classwork therefore consists of student presentation, a bias which is compensated by many interactive exercises in Moodle (Scorm), including the final quiz. The number of available topics is adjusted to the number of students who signed up for the course, so that the presentations are evenly distributed. The topics for the first 2 sessions are decidedly “low-brow” and user friendly, to make up for the short period of time for preparing the presentation.
Teaching units:
1. Introductory lecture – presentation guidelines (Moodle)
Preliminary choice of presentation topics (online)
Consulting the topics with the teacher (online) – Adobe Connect
2. British popular culture
British music – a close-up on a specific music genre or a brief cameo of a noteworthy British musician
British film – a close-up on a specific genre (comedy, thriller, cartoon, etc.)
3. British educational system
Major differences between Czech and British educational system
4. Psychohistory and multiple-perspective assessment
Thomas More vs Henry VIII
Queen Elizabeth I vs Mary Stuart
5. Historical personalities – pros and cons
James Cook
Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher
6. The benefits and limitations of scientific rationalism
Isaac Newton
Charles Darwin
Thomas Robert Malthus (utilitarianism -> social Darwinism)
7. History of human progress
Josiah Wedgewood and the birth of modern marketing
Top five British inventors
8. Complex historical events – causal interrelations
The birth of the English Parliament
English Reformation and its aftermath
English Civil War
9. History from below – part I
Industrial revolution the Luddite movement and the convict colonies
Abolition of slavery in Britain and its Caribbean holdings
10. History from below – part II
British suffragette movement
Rise and demise of British colonialism
11. Language corner
The historical genealogy of English lexis
British regional dialects and accents (presentation with embedded audio files)
12. Brexit revisited: direct and representational democracy
Brexit: pros and cons
Last update: Kadrnožková Monika, PhDr., Ph.D. (24.10.2020)
Literature -
BRYSON, B. The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way. William Morrow, 1990. ISBN-13: 978-0380715435.
BUSH, J. Women Against the Vote: Female Anti-Suffragism in Britain. Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0199248773.
DARWIN, J. Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain. Bloomsbury Press, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-1620400388.
DRIVER, S. Understanding British Party Politics. Polity, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0745640785.
Higgins, M., Smith, C. The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Culture (Cambridge Companions to Culture). Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0521683463.
HUGHES, A., Trudgill, P., Watt, D. English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles, Fifth Edition (The English Language Series). Routledge, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-1444121384.
MANCHESTER, W. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965. Bantam, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0345548634.
TURNER, G. British Cultural Studies. Routledge, 2002. ISBN-13:978-0415252287.
WRIGHT, T. British Politics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0199661107.
Last update: Kadrnožková Monika, PhDr., Ph.D. (24.10.2020)
BRYSON, B. The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way. William Morrow, 1990. ISBN-13: 978-0380715435.
BUSH, J. Women Against the Vote: Female Anti-Suffragism in Britain. Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0199248773.
DARWIN, J. Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain. Bloomsbury Press, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-1620400388.
DRIVER, S. Understanding British Party Politics. Polity, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0745640785.
Higgins, M., Smith, C. The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Culture (Cambridge Companions to Culture). Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0521683463.
HUGHES, A., Trudgill, P., Watt, D. English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles, Fifth Edition (The English Language Series). Routledge, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-1444121384.
MANCHESTER, W. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965. Bantam, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0345548634.
TURNER, G. British Cultural Studies. Routledge, 2002. ISBN-13:978-0415252287.
WRIGHT, T. British Politics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0199661107.
Last update: Kadrnožková Monika, PhDr., Ph.D. (24.10.2020)
