ANGLO-AMERICAN LANGUAGE 2

General description

Anglo-American Language 2 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). The course offers 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 contributes to the wider curriculum in which it is included (the Political international curriculum) by promoting language proficiency and offering new skills through a key figure in US cultural history, Susan Sontag: international public intellectual, bridge figure between Europe and the US, and pioneering theorist of visual culture.

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;
2) Master comprehension, analysis and production of multimodal texts in English, within the appropriate context(s) and in the appropriate linguistic register;
3) Give reasons and explanations for opinions and judgments;
4) Know how to interpret and analyze complex texts in English;
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.
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;
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.

Requirements

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

Detailed course description

Anglo-American Language 2 is structured as follows:
1. Theoretical module (Prof Mena Mitrano)
2. Language practice with Language Teaching Assistants (CEL) aimed at enabling students to master a level of written and oral production equivalent to Level C1 of the CEFR.


Module title: Anglo-American Language 2 ("On Photography")

The module is designed to familiarize our second year students students with English Composition. This semester students will read, discuss, analyze, and interpret texts by a key twentieth-century US thinker: Susan Sontag. We will concentrate on the essays collected in her groundbreaking book, On Photography (first ed. 1977), which went on to become a classic in literary studies and visual culture studies. Encountering Sontag and debating her ideas will provide the opportunity to produce brief well-structured and focused essays using an appropriate lexicon. Student will learn to respond to the readings, formulate a position and an informed judgment, pursue a point in a coherent fashion 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 in a prose that should be as error-free as possible. Students will also 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 an intellectually stimulating text. Students will be encouraged to become active participants in the academic debate and will be 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 towards C1 level on CEFR

Required texts:

(for attending and non-attending students)
• Susan Sontag, On Photography (Picador 2001)
• Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Fourth Edition (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Paperback June 2018)


Language Teaching Assistants ( CEL):
• Bartram, Mark; Pickering, Kate. NAVIGATE COURSEBOOK C1, OUP, 2017.
• Vince, Michael. LANGUAGE PRACTICE FOR ADVANCED. STUDENTS' BOOK. 4th edition. Macmillan.


Suggested dictionaries:

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.

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

The final exam of Anglo-American Language 2 is a two-part exam: a written exam at the end of the theoretical module and a language exam.

The final exam for the module will consist in the production of a short critical essay.

As for the language exam, students will have to demonstrate the ability to apply the theoretical knowledge acquired in the module and practiced during the sessions with the Language Teaching Assistants (CEL).

Lecture
Interactive sessions
Peer-to-peer evaluation and editing

Students will be encouraged to produce drafts of critical responses to selected readings. The Professor will respond to the drafts, but the grades for the drafts will not count toward the final grade.

There will be a final written exam.

The course materials help students promote gender equality.

written

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