500216 - ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1 (M-Z)

courses

ID:

500216

Duration (hours):

36

CFU:

SSD:

LINGUA E TRADUZIONE - LINGUA INGLESE

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (22/09/2025 - 19/12/2025)

Course Objectives

The course aims at developing lexico-grammatical competence at B2+ CEFR level. The course aims at developing a wide variety of linguistic and metalinguistic skills related to the analysis of the different levels of the English language system (with a focus on phonology, phonetics, morphology, morpho-syntax, lexical morphology, lexicon, lexicology) and of geographical, social and situational variation, registers and text types of contemporary English. At the end of the three-year course, students will have developed a solid competence in the use of spoken and written language.

Course Prerequisites

Conoscenze pregresse: agli studenti che non raggiungono il livello B2 come risultato del Placement Test è richiesta la frequenza di ore aggiuntive di attività di didattica integrativa.

Teaching Methods

Lectures, classwork with guided tasks, tutorials. The teaching programme also includes year long classes taught by Collaboratori ed Esperti Linguistici (CEL) in the first and second semesters. Throughout the course students will do listening, speaking, reading and writing activities aimed at developing language proficiency and language awareness (at B2+ proficiency level). At the beginning of the academic year, students will have to take a placement test designed both to assess their level of knowledge of the English language and to assign them to the suitable type of language lessons to be attended. Such test is compulsory.

Assessment Methods

Oral examination and preliminary tests In the final oral examination students will be assessed on the knowledge of the course contents as well as on the linguistic competences attained with reference to the course objectives. The final oral exam will be preceded by a preliminary test – prova olistica docente - aimed at assessing the student’s global language competences. The docente is in charge of such preliminary test, which includes the docente’s prova olistica and the CEL’s tests (assessments). Students who regularly attend CEL’s classes (reaching at least 70% attendance) will be able to choose the in itinere evaluation (assessments) during the academic year. Non-attending students (those who don’t reach at least 70% attendance of CEL’s classes) will have to sit all the CEL’s tests (three possible sessions in Summer, Fall and Winter) together with the docente’s prova olistica (global test) in the sessions of June, September, January. Students are not allowed to sit the final oral exam unless they have previously passed the preliminary tests. Note well: Dictionaries are not allowed during tests. The preliminary tests will be valid for 13 months. Students have to pass all parts of the preliminary test; students who fail one part of the CEL preliminary test will be allowed to re-sit that part during the global preliminary test within the subsequent 13 months. Students who fail two or more CEL parts will have to retake the whole global test. All components of the preliminary tests, if passed, are valid for 13 months.

Texts

Bibliography for modulo docente Gramley S., Pätzold K. (2020) A Survey of Modern English (3rd Edition), Abingdon, Oxon-New York: Routledge (Chap. 1 The English language: standards and variation; Chap. 2 Vocabulary; Chap. 5.1 The register approach; Chap.6 Dialectal and sociolinguistic variation: users; Chap. 7 English in the British Isles; Chap.8 English in America; Chap.9 Standard English and American English in comparison; Chap.10 English in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; Chap.11 Pidgin and creole English). Culpeper J., Kerswill P., Wodak R., McEnery T., Katamba F. (eds.) (2018) English Language. Description, Variation and Context (2nd Edition), London: Palgrave (Chap. 2 Phonetics; Chap. 3 Phonology; Chap. 4 Morphology; Chap. 5 Grammar: Words and phrases; Chap. 6 Grammar: Phrases (and Clauses)). Additional material will be indicated in class. Reference grammars: (compulsory) Biber D., Conrad S., Leech G. (2002) Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Harlow: Pearson Education (in particular Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5). Biber D., Conrad S., Leech G. (2002) Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English Workbook, Harlow: Pearson Education. A monolingual dictionary among the following onesi: Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary (con CD-ROM) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (con CD-ROM) Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (con CD-ROM) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (con CD-ROM) Cambridge International Dictionary of English (con CD-ROM) Online resources: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/ Collins Cobuild Learners Dictionary of English: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-cobuild-learners Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: http://www.ldoceonline.com Macmillan English Dictionary: http://www.macmillandictionary.com Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

Moving from the notions of register and text genre the main course (first term) will examine some structural aspects related to the English language system, with a special focus on phonetics, phonology, morphology, morpho-syntax, lexical morphology, lexis, lexicology. The attention will be devoted to such aspects as: linguistic parsing and word class identification; word-formation rules and processes; phrase analysis; language variation in English. The different phenomena will be illustrated through audio and video files as well as through texts belonging to different genres.