ANGLO-AMERICAN LANGUAGE 2

General description

Anglo-American Language 2 is part of the core courses of the undergraduate degree in Languages, Civilizations and Language Sciences at Ca’ Foscari University and aims at developing our students’ capacity to reflect on language. Anglo-American Lanuguage 2, following up from the entry level, Anglo-American Language 1, continues furthers the knowledge of linguistic structures and of US English, implementing communicative skills and developing competences at the C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The course has a two-part structure, consisting in a module, taught by the Professor for a semester, and sessions of language practice taught by Language Teaching Assistants (CEL), and offers students the necessary metalinguistic competence and language proficiency to understand and use English in a variety of contexts, such as daily life, academic and specialist contexts (including complex literary texts and critical and theoretical essays). The module emphasizes competences that are part of the proficient language user profile at level C1, encouraging the use of English not only for social-communicative purposes but also for academic and professional purposes. Students work on reading, understanding, discussing, and thinking about meaningful and complex texts, finding their implicit meaning. They learn to produce well-structured, argumentative, and coherent essays that display the proper features of an academic paper. Learning outcomes are evaluated on the basis of the following:
• Written production of a critical essay (paper)
• Final oral exam

Learning outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, students should :

1) Master theoretical and applied knowledge and comprehension of the English language as it is produced and used in Anglophone countries, whether as first or second language (L1, L2) or as a global means of communication or lingua franca (LS), in a variety of situations such as daily life and academic and specialist contexts with particular attention to morphology, syntax and the structure of discourse both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective (knowledge and understanding);
2) Master comprehension, analysis and production of multimodal texts in English, within the appropriate context(s) and in the appropriate linguistic register (applying knowledge and understanding);
3) Know how to interpret and analyze complex texts in English (applying knowledge and understanding);
3) Give reasons and explanations for opinions and judgments (making judgments);
5) Develop communicative skills, especially with regard to appropriate interaction in English when discussing those extra-linguistic historical-political, social and cultural factors that might be responsible for linguistic variation in texts, and demonstrate the ability to use communicative strategies equivalent to Level C1 of the CEFR (communication skills);
6) Acquire the learning ability necessary to identify critical sources and digital resources to help expand on the ideas presented by the instructor’s module, as well as improve their language competence (learning skills);
7) Build on the knowledge acquired in Anglo-American Language 2 to access profitably the next level course (Anglo-American Language 3), capitalizing on increased learner awareness and independent monitoring of learning success, with regard to both metalinguistic content mastery and individual language competence (learning skills).

Students must have passed Anglo-American Language 1. Level B2+ of the CEFR is required.

Contents


Module title: Anglo-American Language 2: Ways of Reading
Subtitle: Speech, Silence, Persons, and Community

The module is designed to familiarize students with the discipline of Composition in English. Students will read, discuss, analyze, and interpret texts by twentieth- and twenty-first century North American writers, critics, and thinkers. Students will learn to produce brief well-structured and focused essays using an appropriate lexicon. They will learn to respond a variety of readings, formulate a position and pursue their point of view in an informed and coherent manner in a brief critical paper. They will learn to debate their point of view with other readers, and to draw on academic sources to pursue a thesis and give voice to informed judgments in a prose that is as error-free as possible. Students will learn to detect and appreciate a variety of linguistic registers and sharpen their sensibility for the nuances of literary and critical language.
The main aim is to enable students to articulate and share their ideas. To this end, the module avails itself of selected readings that assume an active learner ready for an exciting intellectual experience. Students are encouraged to become active participants in the academic debate and are invited to write about ideas and issues that cannot be ignored in our time.

Language practices:
Further development of comprehension skills for oral and written texts
Development of speaking skills
- exercises leading to C1 level on CEFR

Required texts:
(for attending and non-attending students):

REQUIRED TEXTS (READINGS):
Gloria Anzaldúa, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” In David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, Stacey
Waite, Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Bedford/St Martins, 2019. 22-30.

Ann Anlin Cheng. “Ornamentalism.” Critical Inquiry 44.3 (Spring 2018): 415-446.

Roberto Esposito, “Nothing in Common.” In Communitas: The Origin and Destiny of Community.
Trans. Timothy Campell. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. 1-8.

Barbara Johnson, “Muteness Envy.” In The Feminist Difference: Literature, Psychoanalysis, Race, and
Gender. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1998. 129-153.

Adrienne Rich, “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying.” In On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. New
York: W.W. Norton, 1979. 185-194.

Edward Said, “States.” In David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, Stacey Waite, Ways of Reading: An
Anthology for Writers. Bedford/St Martins, 2019. 523-557.

Susan Sontag, “Melancholy Objects.” In On Photography. London: Penguin, 1977. 49-68.


REQUIRED TEXTS (HANDBOOKS):
Gerald Graff and Kathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing.
New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Paperback June 2018. Fourth edition.

Mena Mitrano. Words and Ideas (Writing the Academic Essay). ©2020 M. Mitrano

Required readings and handbooks can be found on the course Moodle page.


Language practice with Language Teaching Assistants (CEL):
• Day, Skerritt. O Language Hub Advanced COURSEBOOK C1, MacMillan Education, 2020.
• Vince, Michael. LANGUAGE PRACTICE FOR ADVANCED. STUDENTS' BOOK. 4th edition. Macmillan.

Suggested dictionaries:
MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY. Springfield: Merriam-Webster.

Picchi, Fernando. GRANDE DIZIONARIO INGLESE-ITALIANO E ITALIANO-INGLESE.
Oxford: OUP.

OXFORD ADVANCED LEARNER'S DICTIONARY. Oxford: OUP, with iWriter CD Rom

MACMILLAN ENGLISH DICTIONARY FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS WITH
CD-ROM: Oxford: Macmillan Education.

Structure of the final exam:
The final exam of Anglo-American Language 2 is articulated in two stages:
1. Thematic module;
2. Language exercises (“esercitazioni linguistiche”)


1.Module
Requirements for the module are: a final paper due on the last day of class and a final oral exam at the end of the module.

2.Esercitazioni”
In order to accede to the final exam of the module, and so to gain a final mark, the student must achieve a sufficient level in the language skills preparatory to the contents of the module, skills taught by our Language Collaborators, Dott.ssa Cawthra and Dott.ssa Santini. Dott.ssa Cawthra and Santini will decide either on a cumulative assessment at the end of the exercises, or on a gradual portfolio-based assessment.


Evaluation
The evaluation of your final exam in Lingua Anglo-Americana 2 will be a final grade. The final grade will take into account your level in “esercitazioni linguistiche.” You can earn three (3) levels in “esercitazioni linguistiche”: A level, or excellent; B level, or average; C level, sufficient. Only students with a sufficient level (Level C) in “esercitazioni lingusitiche” can take the final exam in Lingua Anglo-Americana 2 and get a final grade. Moreover, students who earn a B Level in “esercitazioni linguistiche” will be entitled to up to 2 additional grades, while students who earn an A Level in “esercitazioni linguistiche” will be entitled to up to 4 additional grades.

Teaching methods
Teaching methodology:

Lecture
Interactive sessions
Peer-to-peer evaluation and editing

Italian

The course materials and debates will help students gain greater awareness of social inequality.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development