00644 - English Language (N-Z)

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, polysemy and 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. Attention will be focussed on stress, intonation and phonetics, especially weak vowels.

On completion of these modules, students should be able to understand the key features of an oral text, such as a lecture or a news broadcast and make an oral presentation of its contents. They also should be capable of reading and comprehending authentic texts of average difficulty

Readings/Bibliography

The texts to be analyzed during the course will be made available at the Segreteria Studenti.

Autonomous study:  
C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: ReViews: online Reading Skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003. Also available online at:
http://alfacert.cliro.unibo.it/moodle/course/view.php?id=14

Recommended reading:
Black Jeremy, Modern British History since 1900, III ed. Basigstoke: Macmillan, 2000
Dearlow, John, Saunders, Peter, R. Introduction to British Politics, 3rd ed., Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000

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 language laboratory (40 hours)

Lectures are aimed at developing skills in order to comprehend and interpret written and oral texts of average difficulty. The course will be held in English. B2 level students will take the Advanced (A) course. All the other students (from A2 to B1 included) will be divided into three group as follows: A-D; E-M; N-Z. Beginners will have to take an extra language laboratory (A1).

The language laboratory is aimed at improving fluency and accuracy in listening and speaking skills in order to allow students to achieve a good command of linguistic and communicative competence. Laboratories will be made up of relatively small numbers of students.

Assessment methods

Overall assessmnent will be based on 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 and reading comprehension.

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 level A2 in spoken English and B1 in written English

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 from one of the texts (100 pages):

 

1. Dearlove, John, Saunders, Peter R, Introduction to British politics , 3rd ed., Cambridge:Polity Press, 2000.

100 pages (circa) to choose from:
Chapters 1 (pp. 1-16), 2 and 3 pp (27-112)

or

Chapters 10 (pp. 391-434)  and 13, (pp.550-601)

or
Chapter 1 (1-16), 15 and 16 (pp. 667-749)

 

2. Black, Jeremy, Modern British history since 1900, III ed. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000

100 pages (circa) top choose from:
Chapters 2  (pp. 16-43), 10 (201-232) and 13 (pp. 284-315)

or

Chapters 6 to 9 (pp. 104-202)

 

Self-Study:

Reading comprehension:

C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: Re-views: on line reading skills for students of Political Science. CLUEB: Bologna: 2003. Also available online:

http://alfacert.cliro.unibo.it/moodle/course/view.php?id=14

Listening comprehension

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/index.shtml

Teaching tools

pc, DVD or Video Recorder Player, Video Projector

Office hours

See the website of Desiderio Derick Capaldi