59960 - English Language (Course and Laboratory) I (GR. A)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should reach a minimum level of B1 (Council of Europe framework) for listening skills and reading skills, while the ideal level is B2. In particular, students should be able to follow a lesson in English, to listen and report on specific information, to read a complex text and make a fluent oral report on it.  

Course contents

The course is composed of 30 hours lectures (taught online) and a a 40 hours laboratory. The laboratory will be held both online and in presence and is aimed at developing oral skills. The 30 hours is organized into 2 modules: one module will be devoted to enhancing students' reading skills by exposing them to a wide range of text types, in particular, reviews for the general public. Topics covered will include the analysis of the argumentative structure, references, modals, linkers and conjunctions, evaluative lexis, synonymy and polysemy, morphology. Particular attention will be also paid to the use of a monolingual dictionary. The second module will be devoted to improving listening skills, in particular, BBC World news as well as to the analysis of political speeches.

Readings/Bibliography

The texts to be analyzed during the course will be made available online at IOL.

Autonomous study:     
C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: ReViews: online Reading Skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003.

Recommended reading:

Lowe, Norman, Mastering Modern British History, Plagrave McMillan 5th edition, 2017
Moran Michael, Politics and Governance in the UK, 3rd edition,  Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015

All books are available at the Biblioteca Ruffilli

 

Dictionaries (to choose from):
The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford: OUP
The Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. London:Collins

Teaching methods

The course consists of lectures (30 hours) and a language laboratory (40 hours)

Lectures are aimed at developingskills in orderto comprehend andinterpret written and oral texts of average difficulty. The course will be held in English.The G.A. Course (Advanced Group) is aimed atB2level students.

The language laboratory is aimed at improvingfluency and accuracy in listening and speaking skills in order to allow students toreach agood command of linguistic and communicativecompetence. Itwill be conducted in relatively smallgroups.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be made through two written tests (mid-term test and  final exaam) and a final oral exam.

The mid-term test includes a reading test with multiple choice questions. Questions will include text structure, function of references, conjunctions and linkers, modality, synonyms in context and the language of evaluation. The final exam will be a listening comprehension.

Spoken English will be assessed in an oral examination on selected parts of one of the two recommended texts in bibliography.

In order to pass the exam, students  are required to achieve at least level B1 - ideal level B2

Students that do not follow lessons can take the exam as follows:

written test– reading comprehension and listening comprehension (from BBC World News)

oral test  - an interview on selected parts as follows: (ca. 100 pages):

2 Chapters  from  TEXT A (Politics and Governance in the UK) AND  3  Chapters from TEXT B (British Poltical History)

 

A) Moran, M. Politics and Governance in the UK ,3rd ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015

A) Moran, M. Politics and Governance in the UK , 3rd ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015

Selection of Chapters (choose 2 chapters)

• CH 3 The constitution and the British political culture

• CH 4 The core executive in the Westminster system

  CH 7 Parliament and the Westminster system

  CH 8 Devolved government in Northern Ireland

  CH 11 Europeanising British government

  CH 12 Parties and their organization

  CH 13 Parties and their ideologies

  CH 14 How citizens participate

  CH 15 How political communication happens

  CH 16 How elections are decided

  CH 17 How leaders are selected

B) Lowe, Norman, Mastering Modern British History, Palgrave McMillan 5th edition, 2017

3 chapters between Chapter 19 and chapter 35

 

Self-Study:

Reading comprehension:

C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: Re-views: on line reading skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003. Available on request ( Please contact the Professor directly)

Teaching tools

PC, Video projector

Office hours

See the website of Cinzia Bevitori