00648 - English Language II (GA)

Course contents

The whole course is composed of a series of 30 hours of lectures, and 40 hours of laboratory work dedicated to practising spoken English; labs are streamed according to the level of knowledge ascertained in the entry test.

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. Expessing one's own opinion and the opinion of others.

Readings/Bibliography

A dossier for attending students will be available at the students' registry office.

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

Dumbrell, J, A special relationship: Anglo-American relations in the Cold War and after . , Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2001

Ikenberry, J. J. (ed.) America Unrivaled , Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002

Paul, T.V., Ikenberry J. G., and Hall, J. A. (eds). , The nation-state in question, Princetown (NJ): Princetown University Press, 2003.

Webb, P. , The modern British party system . London: Sage, 2000

Young, J. W., Britain and European Unity 1945-1999 . London : Macmillan. 2000.

Teaching methods

The aim of the course is to teach students how to write in English and will be taught in English. It will commence with an analysis of a model 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.

There will be a tutoring service of 2 hours a week for the correction of student essays.

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 an argumentative text (based on a list of arguments for and against a given thesis) and a biography, drawing on a list of events related to the  life and work of a personality famous for social or political achievements.

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 Emnglish and B2 in witing and reading.

 

STUDENTS WHO ATTEND NEITHER THE COURSE NOR THE LABORATORY 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.

Copies of old exams can be found on the personal page of Prof. Bayley on the Faculty website.

 

2. An oral exam consisting of a discussion of one of the following books (90 pp, circa)

Dumbrell, J, A special relationship: Anglo-American relations in the Cold War and after, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2001

Ikenberry, J. J. (ed.) America Unrivaled , Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002

Paul, T.V., Ikenberry J. G., and Hall, J. A. (eds), The nation-state in question, Princetown (NJ): Princetown University Press, 2003.

Webb, P. , The modern British party system . London: Sage, 2000

Young, J. W., Britain and European Unity 1945-1999. London: Macmillan. 2000

All books are available at the Biblioteca Ruffilli

Teaching tools

PC, projector

Office hours

See the website of Desiderio Derick Capaldi