78667 - English for Specific Purposes 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

The global aim of this course - which includes lectures and language classes - is to improve students’ communicative skills and provide them with a sophisticated knowledge of selected aspects of the English language and culture also in order to allow them to compete for jobs in the international sector. More particularly, lectures will enable students to think critically about specific varieties of English in connection with their context of production and of reception. This aim will be achieved by providing students with theoretical knowledge taken from linguistics and sociolinguistics, as well as through close readings of authentic texts. This course focuses on the language of tourism as a specific variety of English. Language classes aim at improving students’ linguistic competence; over the two-year period students’ knowledge of English should reach level C2 according to the European framework in all four abilities. These classes will work in connection with the lectures to improve students’ writing skills in particular.

Course contents

The lectures of this course are divided in two modules. The content of the first module is closely connected to a collaboration with Bologna Welcome as part of the Ricercatore PON Project – Green strand. For this reason, particular attention during this module will be given to communication in cultural and sustainable tourism.

First Module -- Convenor: Monica Turci

This module is aimed at providing students with general knowledge on the specialised language of tourism and travel, with particular attention to the language of sustainable tourism. Aspects of the language of tourism studied include genre, textual typologies, discursive functions, techniques and divergent properties in respect to the standard variety. This module will end with a focus on the language of sustainable tourism. As there is not at the moment a handbook that provides a general overview of this, an original corpus-based, empirical approach will be adopted in order to focus on some similarities and differences between the language of tourism and the language of sustainable tourism .

Second Module -- Convenor: Anthony Dion Mitzel

This module builds on Module I by focusing on mediatic representations of tourism and travel to and in Italy. Special attention will be on how the country is framed and communicated while circulated in the global imagination through digital and analog media. Participants will study the attributes that create, propagate, and maintain tourism/travel narratives and visualizations of Italy as a desirable destination. A semiotic-memetic approach will be used to define, interpret, and assess manifestations of Italian tourism as a sign system on both a personal and commercial level, as well as how meaning is constructed multimodally. Students will develop critical skills to analyze representations, engage with contemporary and historical case studies, and understand tourism as a memetic phenomenon anchored in perception, cultural identity and digital dissemination.

 ESERCITAZIONI LINGUISTICHE

Language classes are aimed at improving students’ language skills with particular reference to oral and writing ones. They also provide tools for developing critical reading skills of specialised texts, as well their production and comprehension. Particular attention will be devoted to the production of academic essays and extended essays.

The course themes are

Week 1 – 3 The ownership of cultural heritage

Week 4 – 5 The impact of mass tourism on cultural heritage

Week 6 – 7 Tourism in developing countries

Week 8 Dark Tourism

Week 9 Tourist vs Traveller

 

Readings/Bibliography

LEZIONI FRONTALI

First Module

Compulsory readings for all students:

Graham M.S. Dann The Language of Tourism. A Sociolinguistic Perspective (CAB International 2001); Introduction; Chapter 3 only pages 62-65; Chapter 7. Available in Virtuale

Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. Second edition (Routledge 1996) Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 e 6. Available in Virtuale

O’Keeffe, Anne, and Michael McCarthy. The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. Second edition, 2022. In the library accessible at the link https://almastart.unibo.it/permalink/f/10694hg/39UBO_ALMAE_DS51107649250007041
Only the following chapters

Oakey, David, "What corpus can tell us about lexis?" Chapter 14, pp. 185-203

Chris Greaves and Martin Warren, "What can a corpus tell us about multi-word units?" Chapter 15, pp. 204-220

Gerlinde Mautner, "What can a corpus tell us about discourse?" Chapter 18, pp. 250-262

Suggested readings:

Sabrina Francesconi Reading Tourism Texts. A Multimodal Analysis (Channel View Publications, 2014); Chapter 1. In Virtuale. This chapter is useful for issues of genre.

Students must study all the PPTs uploaded in virtuale as well as the documents in the folder "Terminology"

Second Module

Compulsory readings for all students:

All texts, especially those regarding multimodality, from the first module with the addition of a specific bibliography and videography that will be provided during the course

ESERCITAZIONI LINGUISTICHE

A collection of texts and exercises (dispensa) uploaded in Virtuale as public file

Teaching methods

LEZIONI FRONTALI

First Module

The first module includes lectures, group work for text analysis, guided corpus-based investigation in groups on SketchEngine

 

Second Module

Traditional lectures, viewings, and group discussions  

Assessment methods

 

LEZIONI FRONTALI

 

First Module

Students can choose between two types of exam

1. A practical corpus assisted analysis during the course and a 10-minute oral test during one of the exam sessions or at the end of course. Details: The practical corpus assisted analysis consists of a simple corpus-based investigation aimed at providing a discussion on some central themes of the course. For the oral test students have to undertake independent research. This consists in finding a text and an image that illustrate a form of sustainable tourism. During the oral test students will be asked to discuss the text genre, text-type and techniques and provide an interpretation of the image following the model of Kress and van Leeuwen.

Evaluation criteria: capacity of use the software Sketch Engine; knowledge of the module content; capacity to use English in a fluent way without making mistakes, knowledge of specialised lexis.

2. A 20-minute oral text during one of the exam sessions or after the course. Details: The oral test consists in finding a text and an image that illustrate a form of sustainable tourism. For the oral test students have to undertake independent research. This consists in finding a text and an image that illustrate a form of sustainable tourism. During the oral test students will be asked to discuss the text genre, text-type and techniques and provide an interpretation of the image following the model of Kress and van Leeuwen. One further question focuses on aspects of theory covered during the course.

Evaluation criteria: knowledge of the module content and linguistic theories discussed during the course; capacity to use English in a fluent way without making mistakes, knowledge of specialised lexis.

Second Module

Students will select a memetic event or phenomenon related to Italy as a tourist destination and analyze it using the concepts covered in the course. Possible topics include (but not limited to):

• Films or television series that influence travel to Italy.

• ⁃Viral trends or memes on digital media that shape perceptions of Destination Italy.
• ⁃Governmental or NGO campaigns that use memetic strategies to promote Italian tourism.
• ⁃Heritage or “return” tourism as an emerging trend.

Further details about the final project will be provided at the beginning of the module.

ESERCITAZIONI

For all students, those who attend and do not attend the language classes, the written exam will consist of a 500-word essay on a theme connected to topics dealt with during the course. The written exam lasts 90 minutes and is held once per exam session. Students have to pass the exam before registering their overall final mark on almaesami.

The essay will be assessed at the C2 level of the Common European Framework for the following:

appropriateness of argumentation relating to the topic;

presentation (layout, spelling, punctuation);

structure/organization (application of academic writing criteria, cohesion/coherence); 

lexicogrammatical and discursive accuracy of the standard academic English required.

The final mark is calculated as follows: the final mark for the lezioni frontali is an average of the marks of the two modules. This is multiplied by 2, added to the esercitazioni mark and divided by 3.

 

Teaching tools

LEZIONI FRONTALI

First Module

Multimedia materials and PPTs presentations. Sofware for text analysis; this is freely accessible to all UNIBO students

Second Module

Course-specific PPT presentations, films, TV series, documentaries, and podcasts. Assignments and activities will be carried out both in class and at home.

Most – if not all – printed and audiovisual material used in class, as well as resources for the specific topics tackled in class, will be made available on the Virtuale e-learning site.

Office hours

See the website of Monica Turci

See the website of Anthony Dion Mitzel