- Docente: Anna Marchi
- Credits: 8
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Forli
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in International relations and diplomatic affairs (cod. 8048)
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 course is organized with a part of lectures (Module 1) taught online on MS TEAMS and a second part, in which the students will be divided into two groups: one in presence, and one online on MS TEAMS. NOTE: Groups will have to be numerically balanced.
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.
On completion of these modules, students should be able to understand the key features of an oral text, such as a lecture or a news broadcast and make an oral presentation of its contents. They also should be capable to read and comprehend authentic texts of average difficulty.
Readings/Bibliography
Readings/Bibliography
The texts to be analyzed during the course will be made available on Virtuale
Autonomous study:
C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: ReViews: online Reading Skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003.
Recommended reading:
Moran Michael, Politics and Governance in the UK, 3rd edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan 2015
Lowe, Norman, Mastering Modern British History, Palgrave McMillan 5th edition, 2017
All books are available at the Biblioteca Ruffilli
A dictionary (for example):
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 developing skills in order to comprehend and interpret written and oral texts of average difficulty. The course will be held in English ans is is aimed at B1 level students.
The language laboratory is aimed at improving fluency and accuracy in listening and speaking skills in order to allow students to reach a good command of linguistic and communicative competence. It will be conducted in relatively small groups.
Assessment methods
Assessment will be made through two written tests (mid-term test and final exam ) and a final oral exam.
The mid-term test includes a cloze test and a reading test with multiple choice and open questions. Questions will include text structure, function of references, conjunctions and linkers, modality, synonyms in context and the language of evaluation. The final exam is composed of two parts and will also test 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 a B1 level - 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
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
Office hours
See the website of Anna Marchi