00644 - English Language (A-L)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will possess a good active and passive knowledge of English sufficient to read, take notes, and interact in a discussion in English, also in an academic setting where communication regards specialist language in the field of politics and media studies in English language cultures.

Course contents

The first part of the course (40 hours) consists of intensive language lessons held by a language tutor. At the end of this cycle (lasting one semester), the student must pass a written test before attending the content course.
This course (30 hours) has a twofold objective: on the one hand, that of consolidating the student's linguistic competence with special attention to oral skills; on the other, that of developing the student's critical competence with respect to language in general and political discourse in particular. To this end, written and oral political texts will be presented and analyzed (e.g., the American Declaration of Independence, official speeches such as Inaugural or State of the Union Addresses, electoral speeches and debates from the recent American presidential election campaign, the British Prime Minister's question time before Parliament, televised press conferences and interviews with British and American politicians. The data will be approached comparatively, both in a diachronic perspective (contrasting linguistic, pragmatic/contextual differences in speeches of Lincoln, King, Mandela, Kennedy, Bush and Obama), and in order to highlight the salient characteristics of the various typologies of political discourse.

Readings/Bibliography

For attending students, the materials will be distributed by the professor.

For non-attending students:
Partington, Alan. Persuasion in Politics. Torino: LED editori.

Teaching methods

The method is interactive. In the first part of the lesson the topics and analytical instruments are introduced. In the second part, the students analyse materials presented in small groups and present their findings to the class.

Assessment methods

For the attending student: The final assessment consists in an oral discussion during which the student analyses a political text using the instruments and methodologies presented during the course. The final mark will reflect the student's active participation in the lessons and presentations made to the class, a cloze test and the final oral discussion. The oral discussion will take place in the week following the last lesson.

Non-attending student must pass a language test before taking the examination for the course. The latter consists in a written test on the book:
Partington, A. Persuasion in politics. Torino: LED.

Teaching tools

Language and IT lab, DVD/video recordings, software for the analysis of linguistic data, Powerpoint presentations.

Office hours

See the website of Louann Haarman