59961 - English Language (Course and Laboratory) II (GA-MZ)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • 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 of B1 (Council of Europe framework) for spoken and written English, while the ideal level is B2, and a minimum level of B2 for reading comprehension – ideal level C1. In particular, students should be able to follow a lesson in English, to read a complex text and make an fluent oral report on it. Moreover, they should be capable of writing an essay in grammatically correct and well-organized English

Course contents

The whole course is composed of a series of 30 hours of lectures and a laboratory work dedicated to practising written English.

The lectures have the aim of setting out the fundamentals of essay writing and, over the 15 two-hour lectures, will deal with the following topics

1. Global structure of an essay; paragraph structure; punctuation, graphical conventions, spelling problems

2. Sentence structure; subordinators and sentence connectors

3. Problems of interference (English/Italian) – structural errors; lexical errors.

4. Description; definite and indefinite articles, concordance.

5. Comparatives; determiners.

6. Substitutive and pronominal forms; genitives; relative clauses

7. Anaphoric ‘it'; structure of the verbal group; expressing cause and effect.

8. Tense and aspect.

9. Passive voice; the description of processes.

10. Direct and in direct reports; attribution and citation.

11. Narrative structures; organizing data

12. Generalization, approximation; expressing certainty, probability and possibility

13. Argumentative structures; concession and contrast; argument and counter-argument.

14. Planning an argumentative text; planning a conclusion

15. Expressing one's own opinion and the opinion of others.

Readings/Bibliography

A dossier for attending students will be available  online.

Reference works

A bilingual dictionary (for example Il Ragazzini. Dizionario inglese-italiano, italiano-inglese . Bologna . Zanichelli)

A monolingual dictionary( for example, The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary . Oxford: Oxford University Press, The Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. London: Collins)

General reading

Webber, D. European Disintegration? The politics of crisis in European Union, Palgrave MacMillan, 2018  

Heffernan, R., P. Cowley and C. Hay (eds), 2011, Developments in British Politics 9, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan

Heffernan, R., P. Cowley, Russel M. and C. Hay (eds), 2016,Developments in British Politics 10, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan

Teaching methods

The aim of the course, taught in English, is to enable students to learn to write clear and precise English. It will commence with an analysis of the structure of an essay and will in particular focus on the analysis of errors caused by interference. During the course, certain grammatical structures deemed to be fundamental in written English, and textual features characteristic of certain genres, such as descriptive, comparative, argumentative and narrative texts, will be analyzed. From the third week on, time will be dedicated to an analysis of the work produced by students.

Assessment methods

There will be a mid-term written test during which students will be expected to write a comparison between two countries using as raw material maps and statistical data concerning demography, culture, and economics. During the final written test, students will have to write an essay, choosing between a range of text types (argumentative text, a summary of an article, report, short biography etc.)

Oral skills will be tested by means of a discussion of one of the books in the ‘general reading section of the bibliography.

Minimum requisite to pass the exam: B1 in spoken English and B2 in witing and reading.

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE COURSE CAN SIT THE EXAM WITH THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMME.

1. A written cloze test whose aim is to verify knowledge of lexis and grammar as well as the ability to understand complex texts. The cloze tests will be drawn from A. H. Birch, The British System of Government, X ed. London: Routledge, 1998 and S. J. Lee, Aspects of British Political History 1914-1995. London: Routledge 1996

2. An oral exam consisting of a discussion of one of the following books (minimum 90 pages):

- 3 chapters from

Webber, D. European Disintegration? The politics of crisis in European Union, Palgrave MacMillan, 2018

OR

- 5 Chapters from ONE of the following books:

Heffernan, R, Cowley P., and C. Hay (eds), Developments in British Politics 9, Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan, 2011.

Heffernan, R., P. Cowley, Russel M. and C. Hay (eds), 2016, Developments in British Politics 10, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan

All books are available at the Biblioteca Ruffilli

Teaching tools

PC, video-projector

Office hours

See the website of Cinzia Bevitori

SDGs

Quality education

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