95422 - Mediation English Exercises (Lm)

Learning outcomes

• Understand spoken and written specialist discourse in English and Italian in business, legal, health and social-service contexts.
• Produce appropriate spoken and written discourse for these professional contexts, using relevant terminology, register and discourse conventions.
• Mediate information and meaning between English and Italian, adapting specialist content appropriately to the communicative situation and interlocutors.
• Recognise and apply key linguistic, discursive and intercultural features of professional communication in the three domains.

Course contents

Mediation - English Language classes (or "Esercitazioni"; 36 hours) aim, on the one hand, at building on and expanding students' language skills and, on the other, at broadening students' knowledge of language and discursive aspects of English in the field of business (intercultural business communication), law, health and social services. Through the classes, students' practical communicative skills in all abilities, active and passive, will enable them to mediate between, produce and understand, specific and specialist languages (English and Italian).

Readings/Bibliography

Course material (dispensa) will be available on virtuale.unibo.it

Teaching methods

Mediation - English Language classes ("Esercitazioni") are held in-person and adopt a predominantly practical and interactive approach. Using the course booklet as a starting point, students will work with texts, dialogues and communicative scenarios related to the areas covered in the course, with particular attention to intercultural communication in business, legal, health and social-service settings.

Activities include the analysis and discussion of communicative situations, oral and written language practice, and mediation activities between English and Italian. Particular attention will be paid to the comprehension and production of specialised language, the appropriate use of terminology and register, and the development of mediation strategies suited to different professional contexts.

Classroom activities are also designed to prepare students for the types of tasks included in the final examination.

Assessment methods

The language class exam is based on themes strictly related those dealt with during the course. The exam consists of four open-ended questions (questions and answers in English): two on cultural incidents in business contexts, one on social/health care and one on legal English (rights of regular and irregular migrants in Italy). Students will use pen and paper in the exam and the use of a print monolingual dictionary (English) is permited. The time allowed to perform the task is 60 minutes and the exam score accounts for one third of the final mark.

Besides appropriate, in-depth content, in order to obtain maximum points in the exam lexico-grammatical accuracy is of major importance. Papers will be assessed according to language requirements at the C2 level of the Common European Framework. Academic style is required and a maximum of 15 points will be awarded for language use and 15 for content.

With regard to assessment, the use of AI is prohibited. Any use of AI constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

NB The final mark for the entire course is calculated as follows: the score obtained in the ‘Frontali’ exam (2/3 of the mark) will be added to the score obtained in the language component exam (1/3 of the mark) in order to obtain a final average mark in the course. Students cannot decline a pass (a score of at least 18/30) in either of the single (partial) exams taken. Only the final average mark itself can be declined, in which case the student will have to take both exams again in a later exam session . Marks obtained remain valid for 4 exam sessions only, including the session they were taken in.

Teaching tools

Teaching activities are supported by a course booklet containing texts, exercises and materials for language analysis and practice. Additional materials used during classes, including presentations and supplementary resources where relevant, will be made available through the University of Bologna's Virtuale platform (https://virtuale.unibo.it/).

Students with SLDs or temporary or permanent disabilities: we suggest that you contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and your teacher immediately to work together to find the most effective strategies for attending classes and/or preparing for exams.

Any requests for exam accommodations must be made at least 15 days before the date of the exam, by sending an email to the professor and copying (Cc) the email address disabilita@unibo.it (in case of disability) or dsa@unibo.it (for students with Specific Learning Difficulties).

Office hours

See the website of Mariangela Picciuolo