Teaching Philosophy
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Every type of teaching philosophy is grounded in the kind of personality,
qualification, and training the instructor has. My philosophy stems from my deep
conviction that the quality of teaching can be better sustained if it is the product of
interaction between one’s research activities and the content of one’s courses.
My research, which draws on the insights of cognitive science in general and
cognitive linguistics and the conceptual theory of metaphor in particular, has had a
great impact not only on the content of my teachings but also on the enhancement
and better understanding of how learning comes to take place in the mind of the
learner. Cognitive science typically taught me that memory is one of the most
important cognitive abilities, but not the only resourceful cognitive ability that
students should rely upon to learn; they certainly need to think, and think in such a
way that they can reflect upon various issues related to their life as human beings,
their life as a citizen within their own country, and their possible life in any other
country in the world. One of the important issues that they need to think about is
language, but with special reference to their own language or language variety. In
particular, metaphor as a cognitive tool tends to play a big role as a facilitating
device in my teaching methodology as well as a subject-matter of course material.
The interaction between research and course work cannot work efficiently without
accommodating the students’ needs, simplifying theory, and adapting it to their
needs. My courses interact with my research by being a kind of fodder for my
research, which investigates problems and difficulties arising from and through
either what I teach the students or the learning difficulties that they might
experience independently of what they are taught. In such a way, a maximal use is
made of theory to resolve learning problems and difficulties and a maximal use is
made of practical learning difficulties and problems to verify the extent to which
theory and practice are in harmony with one another.
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Course title: Introduction to Stylistics
Course code: Najd 302
Course level: Five
Academic year: 1431-1432H
Academic term: Second semester
Room: 1008
Instructor: Professor Zouheir A. Maalej
Office number: 2127
Office hours: Sunday (8-10) and Wednesday (9-12)
Office landline: 14697015
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/zmaalej
The objective of Introduction to Stylistics is:
 Sensitizing
students to the role of parts of
speech in creating and guiding meaning;
 Equipping them with theoretical toolkits to
cope with text analysis;
 Raising students’ awareness about the
relation between language as a mental and
cultural phenomenon;
 Drawing their attention to the fact that
language carries and guides knowledge of the
world;
 The
course aims to introduce students to
general issues in the stylistics of adjectives,
nouns, adverbs, modal, mood,
nominalization, passivization, and pronouns.
In particular, the course considers language
as a symbolic, and correlates syntactic
structure with socio-cultural meanings and
psychological effects.
 The
course is PowerPoint-based.
 Students are expected to have a grasp of
basic issues in language.
 The testing procedure will include analyzing
texts, reflecting upon knowledge of the
theoretical issues developed in the course.
 The evaluation system will include: (i) two
mid-term exams (40%), (ii) student portfolio
and class participation (20%), and (iii) final
exam (40%).
Late comers will not be admitted into the class.
 Absence beyond the percentage ALLOWED by
King Saud University's internal regulations will
AUTOMATICALLY be sanctioned by DEBARRING
students from exams.
 All sorts of excuses will NOT be ADMITTED except
in cases of medical treatment under
presentation of a medical certificate duly signed
by public competent authorities.
 There will be NO MAKE UP exam, unless students
showed medical evidence, and students will not
be accepted for TWO make-up exams.
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Stylistics CODOR
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Pronominalization + Practicum
Week 3: Pronominalization + Practicum
Week 4: Nominalization + Practicum
Week 5: Passivization + Practicum
Week 6: Progress test preparation
Week 7: Progress Test 1
Week 8:Progress test correction
Week 9:Evaluative modality + Practicum
Week 10: Deontic modality + Practicum
Week 11:Epistemic modality + Practicum
Week 12: Progress test preparation
Week 13: Progress Test 2
Week 14: Progress test correction
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Leech, Geoffrey & Mick Short (1981). Style in fiction:
A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose.
London/New York: Longman Group Ltd.
Semino, Elena & Jonathan Culpeper (1995). Stylistics.
In Jef Verschueren, Jan-Ola Östman & Jan Blommaert
(Eds.), Handbook of pragmatics (pp. 513-520).
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Co.
Wales, Katie (1989). A dictionary of stylistics.
London/New York: Longman.
Widdowson, H. G. (1975). Stylistics and the teaching
of literature . London: Longman.
Wilson, John (1990). Politically Speaking: The
Pragmatic Analysis of Political Language.
Oxford/Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.