- Docente: Cinzia Bevitori
- 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 ofB1 (Council of Europe framework) for listening skills and readingskills, 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 30 hours course is organized into two 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.
Readings/Bibliography
The texts to be analyzed during the course will be made available at ALMADL (campus.cib.unibo)
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
Dictionaries (to choose from):
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 developingskills in orderto comprehend andinterpret 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 improvingfluency and accuracy in listening and speaking skills in order to allow students toreach agood command of linguistic and communicativecompetence. Itwill be conducted in relatively smallgroups.
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: listening comprehension of news and listening comprehension and analysis of a political speech.
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
A) Moran, M. Politics and Governance in the
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
Self-Study:
Reading comprehension:
C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: Re-views: on line reading skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003. Available on request ( Please contact the Professor directly)Teaching tools
PC, DVD, videoprojector
Office hours
See the website of Cinzia Bevitori
SDGs
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.