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 and specifically, the Anglo-American Language, according to a sociolinguistic perspective and through the analysis of a selection of literary and cultural texts which define the cultural/social complexity and linguistic variety of the American experience.
Following up from the entry level, Anglo-American Language 1, continues furthers the knowledge of linguistic structures of American 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 in the second 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 are a year-long course delivered by our language teachers (Lettrici), and in order to take the final exam of Lingua Anglo-American you must have the level of your language skills assessed by our Lettrici. There are three levels: C(sufficient); B (average); A (good). Esercitazioni Linguistiche are meant to support you in the acquisition of the required levels of language competences through a range of activities devoted to grammar, vocabulary, listening, oral production, and so on. Their aim is therefore to assist you in building the necessary confidence to work through our Module’s materials.

Learning outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

(knowledge and understanding)
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); read, understand, and interpret American cultural tradition; comment on arguments from a variety of texts, while attempting to formulate their own arguments in response to them; understand and be aware of the main features of the social and regional variations in American English, as explored in a selection of literary texts.


(knowledge application and comprehension )
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).

(ability to gather and interpret relevant data and ability of judgment)
Know how to interpret and analyze complex texts in English (applying knowledge and understanding); identify key ideas and controversial issues; draw connections between different ideas and/or authors.

(communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions)
Give reasons and explanations for opinions and judgments (making judgments); participate in a debate, take turn with peers, collaborate with peers in exploring an idea or solving a problem in response to a text or a question generated by the assigned readings.

(learning skills)
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); 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); learning skills) 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.

Module title: Anglo-American Language 2
Subtitle: Readings

“Lingua Anglo-Americana 2” introduces students to the reading, comprehension, analysis and interpretation of a set of American authors whose works play a pivotal role in the definition of the - extremely varied, and at times contradictory- American experience and identity.
The course in the second semester will touch upon three different thematic 'clusters':
- Language as ‘space’ in Emily Dickinson, Sandra Cisneros and Alice Walker
- Jim’s voice: Markn Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s latest novel James
- Appalachian voices: a selection

Esercitazioni Linguisticeh (language practice):
Further development of comprehension skills for oral and written texts
Development of speaking skills
- exercises leading to C1 level on CEFR

Course Reader:
A selection of texts/extracts by the following writers: Rick Bragg, Sandra Cisneros, Emily Dickinson, Percival Everett, Alice Walker, Virginia Woolf*, Mark Twain.
Additional texts to be defined
All texts (primary and secondary sources) and materials used during classes (texts, audios, videos, websites) will be available on Moodle

Esercitazioni Linguistiche/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.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION
The course requirements are the elements of evaluation.

Please note that Lingua Anglo-Americana 2 is linked to Esercitazioni Linguistiche or Lettorato. Esercitazioni Linguistiche consist in a year-long course delivered by our Lettrici or language teachers. They are mandatory. Only students who earn an assessment of their language skills can take the final exam of Lingua Anglo-Americana 2.
The aim is to offer support to students in the acquisition of linguistic competence; to assist you in building confidence as you work with the Module materials; and to do all this through a range of activities devoted to grammar, lexis, listening, oral production, and so on.

Module in the second semesters (30hours): written exam
The written exam will consist of a series of multiple choice questions on the socio-linguistic elements of American English and two tasks of close reading focusing on the literary texts discussed during classes.

Lecture
Discussion
Peer-to-peer learning sessions

English

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

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