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97272 - English Language and Laboratory I (A-L)

Academic Year 2022/2023

                
                        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)

                            Teaching resources on Virtuale
                        
                                    Course Timetable
                                
from Feb 20, 2023 to May 17, 2023

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 40 hours lectures and a 40 hours laboratory.

The laboratory is aimed at developing oral and presentation skills.

The 40 hours Course is organized into two modules. The first 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. The second module will be devoted to listening skills (BBC World news), as well as to the analysis of strategies of persuasion in political speeches.

Readings/Bibliography

A dossier containing texts to be analyzed during the course will be made available online (Virtuale).

Teaching methods

Lectures are aimed at developing skills in order to comprehend and interpret written and oral texts of average difficulty, as well as to analyze strategies of persuasion and rhetorical features of political discourse. The course will be held in English. The G.A. Course (Advanced Group) is aimed at B2 level students.

The language laboratory is aimed at improving fluency and accuracy in 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

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Assessment will be made through written tests (mid-term test and final exam) 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 includes both a listening comprehension from BBC World News and a linguistic analysis of political speeches.

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

For the students who have attended the lab as well as the course the oral examination is vocational (3 chapters).

For the students who have attended the course but not the lab the oral examination is mandatory (3 chapters). A selection of Chapters will be published in due course.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

- Written tests: Listening and Reading Comprehension

- Oral exam

a discussion of a selection of 5 chapters from the books in bibliography.

Chapter' sselection:

3 chapters from: B. Jones, P. Norton (eds.), Politics UK , Routledge 2021

Ch.1 (Changing context of UK politics); Ch. 2 (The UK, the world and Europe); Ch. 3 (The social and economic context); Ch. 4 (Ideology and liberal tradition); Ch. 5 (Political Ideas: the major Parties; Ch. 7 (From Euroscepticism to Brexit); Ch. 9 (Elections and Voting); Ch. 10 (Mass media and political communication) ; Ch. 11 (Gender and British Politics)Ch. 12 (Pressure Groups); Ch. 13 (Political Parties); Ch. 14 (Devolution); Ch. 15 (The Changing Constitution); Ch. 17 (The House of Commons at work); Ch. 20 (The Core Executive: Prime Minister and Cabinet); Ch. 24 (The policy-making process); Ch. 25 (Social policy in the UK); Ch. 27 (Economic policy in the UK)Ch. 28 (British foreign and defence policy); Ch. 29 (Britain and the European Union).

2 chapters from: J. Atkins, A. Finlayson, J. Martin, N. Turnbull, Rhetoric in British Politics and Society, Palgrave 2014

1 (The Rhetoric of Rhetoric)

3 (Rhetoric and Parliamentary Leadership)

4 (Rhetoric and Political Intervention)

5 (Rhetoric and Party Politics)

8 (Rhetoric and Multiculturalism)

9 (Rhetoric and Race)

Office hours

See the website of Anna Marchi