69275 - English Language and Culture I (First Language) (CL2)

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Forli
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Intercultural and Linguistic Mediation (cod. 8059)

Learning outcomes

Students will gain a comprehension of the fundamental elements of English language and culture and will be able to understand and produced written and oral texts fluently and spontaneously.

Course contents

The module will focus on the social, cultural and political aspects of multiethnic society in Great Britain. Students will be guided in the development and knowledge of contemporary English language and culture through an intensive and extensive reading programme on the subject, as well as through similar activities involving aural texts (videos, radio broadcasts etc.) The reading and listening activities will provide the basis for the production of written and oral texts by the students which will evaluated in the final exam.

In particular, the students will examine the following topics:

  • the history and socio-culturalbackground of multiethnic Britain;
  • racism and the discrimination of diversity;
  • policies which promote a tolerant and diverse society;
  • post-colonialism and heritage;
  • the Black Lives Matter movement.

The module will include specific language practice (lettorato) attendance of which is compulsory. The lettorato will concentrate in particular on essay writing

Readings/Bibliography

Required reading

1. Class reader.Work in class will centre on a number of brief texts (a few pages each) regarding aspects of multiethnic society in Great Britain from the 1960s until the present. The class reader will be made available to students at the start of the module.

2. Bhikhu Parekh, The Future of Multiethnic Britain (2000) (chaps. 1-4)

3. One of the following:

  • Afua Hirsch, British. On race, identity and belonging (2018) (“Introduction” and Chaps 1 and 2)
  • Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I am no longer talking to white people about race (2018) (“Preface” and Chaps 1 and 2)
  • David Olusoga, Black and British. A Forgotten History (2018) (“Preface”, “Introduction”, Chap. 14 “Swamped” and “Conclusion”)

4. One novel from the list below:

Timothy Mo, Sour Sweet (1982)

Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (1988)

Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990)

Hanif Kureish,The Black Album (1995)

Meera Syal, Anita and Me (1997)

Jackie Kay, Trumpet (1998)

Andrea Levy, Fruit of the Lemon (1999)

Andrea Levy, Small Island (2004)

Monica Ali, Brick Lane (2003)

Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2020)

 

Further reading (optional)

Bhambra, G., Gebrial, D., Nişancioǧlu, K. (eds.), Decolonizing the University, London, Pluto Press (2018)

Fryer. P., Staying power: the history of black people in Britain, London, Pluto Press (1984)

Gilroy, P., The Black Atlantic. Modernity and Double Consciousness, London, Verso (1993)

Gilroy, P, Black Britain. A Photographic History, London, Saki (2007)

Leech, P., “Contemporary black history and writing in Britain: Afua Hirsh, David Olusoga, Reni Eddo-Lodge”, Storia e Futuro, aprile 2020 (http://storiaefuturo.eu/contemporary-black-history-and-writing-in-britain-david-olusoga-afua-hirsh-and-reni-eddo-lodge/)

Osborne, D. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945-2010), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2016)

Walvin, J., Black Ivory. A history of British Slavery, London, Harper Collins (1993)

Teaching methods

Lectures, group and pair work, autonomous learning procedures, individual research and presentations to the class.

Assessment methods

The ability of the student to understand and produce written and oral texts in English will be assessed with two distinct test

  1. A written assignment (around 1000 parole) consisting of an essay on one aspect of the material covered in the course and the lettorato.
  2. An oral exam consisting of (a) a brief power-point presentation of an individual piece of research carried out on a topic to be agreed upon; (b) a discussion of the texts discussed in class and the secondary readings (see above).

Students who demonstrate an excellent comprehension of the written and oral texts proposed and produce well-researched written and oral work in a clear, correct and communicative English will obtain an ‘excellent’ mark (28-30).

Students who demonstrate a good comprehension of the written and oral texts proposed and produce correct written and oral work will obtain an ‘average’ mark (23-27).

Students who demonstrate a superficial understanding of the written and oral texts proposed with adequate but not written and oral work will be given a ‘pass’ mark (18-22)

Students who are unable to demonstrate an adequate understanding of the written and oral texts proposed and whose written and oral production is incorrect, difficult to understand or with major grammatical, lexical or phonological errors will get a ‘fail’ mark.

Teaching tools

PC, e-learning (using VIRTUALE), connection via TEAMS.

Office hours

See the website of John Patrick Leech

SDGs

Quality education Reduced inequalities Sustainable cities

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.