GERMAN LANGUAGE

The course contributes to the objective of a "solid linguistic preparation" of the students who attend the master's course "Comparative International Relations” (curricula "Eastern Europe" and "Global studies"). It consists of a teaching module (30 hours, II semester) and linguistic exercises (60 hours, II semester) closely integrated with each other. General objective is a communicative competence, applied to possible professional contexts and to topics pertaining the students’ curricula, at level B2 of the Common European framework of reference for languages) in reading and at level B1+ in oral production and interaction.

1. Knowledge and understanding of the textual, morphosyntactic and lexical elements necessary for communication at level B1+/ B2, including specialized items in the field of international relations.
2. Ability to apply knowledge in reading and translating texts on topics related to one's curriculum (short essays, newspaper articles, interviews, etc.), in oral production and interaction (and, limitedly, in written interaction).
3. Making judgments: Knowing how to search for and choose texts corresponding to the topic of one's interest based on the content, relevance and reliability of the source.
4. Communication skills: Ability to read and understand journalistic and informative texts of good quality, relevant to one's discipline and on a topic already addressed. Knowing how to expose orally (short presentation) themes and issues of international politics, be able to answer questions from listeners. Know how to ask questions (from the public or as a journalist at a press conference). Knowing how to write short written messages (e.g. e-mails to arrange an appointment). Knowing how to interact in informal conversations (greeting, presentation, conversation about educational and professional experiences, etc.).
5. Learning skills: knowing how to independently use reference works such as dictionaries, grammars and online tools.

Level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference.

The teaching module is focused on reading, understanding and translating journalistic and informative texts (publications and websites of the German government, informational essays aimed at the German public, articles taken from newspapers and magazines, Wikipedia articles, etc.) on German political reality and on international relations, with particular regard to Eastern Europe, economic globalization and climate change. The grammatical structures necessary for reading will also be analyzed (verbal valency, subordinate sentences, indirect speech, support verb constructions, epistemic use of modal verbs, pronominal adverbs, connectors, etc.). Each student will deepen one of the proposed themes, or another topic agreed with the teacher, by reading texts retrieved independently (approx. 15-20 pages). Reading texts on the same subject has the function of progressively increasing thematic and lexical knowledge and, therefore, facilitating reading itself (narrow reading).
The exercises are mainly dedicated to productive skills: oral production and interaction and, to a limited extent, written expression. Starting from informal exchanges (greeting, presentation, conversation on educational and professional experiences, etc.) and from short written messages (e.g. e-mails to arrange an appointment), we will arrive at presentations (exposition of facts and opinions, also with the support of multimedia tools) on a topic of German politics and/or international relations, normally the one chosen by the student for in-depth reading.

The reading passages treated in the teaching module will be made available through the moodle platform.

In preparation for reading texts on German political topics we recommend the following publication (edited in collaboration with the German foreign ministry) on German foreign policy, economy, science and culture: TATSACHEN ÜBER DEUTSCHLAND: Außenpolitik, Gesellschaft, Wissenschaft , Wirtschaft, Kultur. Frankfurt / M .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Buch 2018. https://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/de/pdf-downloads-e-paper

We also recommend the website of the "BUNDESZENTRALE FÜR POLITISCHE BILDUNG" (Federal Center for Political Education, German Public Entity) with a wide range of popular articles on politics, economics, history and society in Germany: http: //www.bpb. de/

As a bilingual paper dictionary we recommend:
IL NUOVO DIZIONARIO DI TEDESCO. DIZIONARIO TEDESCO-ITALIANO, ITALIANO-TEDESCO, by L. Giacoma and S. Kolb, Bologna: Zanichelli 2009, 2672 pp., (ISBN 978-8808177681) or other edition (also available with CD-ROM).

Written and oral exam. The assessment of learning outcomes is structured as follows::
1. Written exam: a) Italian translation of ca. 20 lines of text on a topic of German politics / international relations already addressed in the teacher module, duration 90 min. ; b) short written production (e-mail), duration 45 min. The use of the German-Italian / Italian-German dictionary on is permitted.
2. Oral examination: c) the candidate presents the topic addressed in the in-depth reading in the form of a short oral presentation (5-10 minutes) and answers "questions from the public"; d) s/he also presents their portfolio of readings, from which s/he will translate an extract chosen by the examiner. (10 minutes).
All parts must be sufficient. For the final grade the individual parts are weighted as follows: a) 35%, b) 15%, c) 25%, d) 25%.

CHANGES TO THE EXAM WHEN IT IS CARRIED OUT ONLINE DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCY
1. Written exam: a) Italian (or English) translation of a text on a topic of German politics / international relations already addressed in the teacher module: REDUCED to 2/3 of the normal length (12-13 lines instead of 20), time available 60 minutes (instead of 90); b) short written production (e-mail): REGULAR (as in the face-to-face exam), duration 45 min. The use of bilingual dictionaries is allowed on both parts.
2. Oral exam: c) oral presentation of the topic chosen for the portfolio of readings: REGULAR (as in the face-to-face exam). The candidate exposes the topic addressed in the in-depth reading in the form of a short oral presentation (5-10 minutes) and answers "questions from the public"; d) (oral) translation of a short excerpt from the portfolio of readings: REGULAR (as in the face-to-face exam). Duration approx. 10 minutes.
The weight of the single parts in the calculation of the overall mark remains unchanged.

Teaching module: reading, analysis, translation of passages in collaboration with the students; frontal exposition of grammatical topics.
Exercises: with active student participation.

written and oral

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