BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
1) Course Objectives (official course taught by the instructor) To develop a critical use of the English language through the study of the most widespread geographical varieties and their phonetic, grammatical, and lexical features.
2) Instrumental Objectives (language labs/AAL) By the end of the course, students will also have acquired, deepened, and improved their practical competence in the four communicative skills at B2 level of the CEFR for the English language. To this end, attendance in the dedicated Language Learning Activities (AAL), while not formally mandatory, is essential.
Course Prerequisites
B1 level of English (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - CEFR).
Preliminary Requirements: For students enrolled in the Degree Program in LLSM passing the exam English language I is mandatory before taking this exam.
Teaching Methods
1) Official course taught by the instructor: Teaching will be delivered through face-to-face lectures in English. Sessions may include empirical work and group discussions. All links and materials used during the course will be gradually made available on the Moodle e-learning platform.
2) Regarding instrumental skills (language labs/AAL): Please refer to the section of the university website dedicated to the Language Center by selecting English – LLCS: https://www.unibg.it/studiare/frequentare/apprendimento-linguistico/inglese/inglese-llcs
Students will also have access to tutoring services: https://cla.unibg.it/it/apprendimento-lingue/servizi-studenti/servizio-tutoring
Assessment Methods
The exam is divided into 2 separate tests: 1) PC exam on General English, B2 ; 2) Oral exam (accessible only after having passed the PC test): phonemic transcription of 2 or 3 words, translation of a brief text (2/3 lines) from Italian into English (mock test available on moodle) and discussion of the contents of the course.
The PC test counts one third of the final grade (33.3%). The oral exam counts two thirds of the final grade (66.6%).
Thus, the exam will be conducted orally in English, provided that students pass a computerized B2 level test with at least 60% correct answers. Students who already possess language certifications recognized by the Student Secretariat are exempt from the computerized test (see https://dllcs.unibg.it/it/studiare/corsi-studio/certificazioni-linguistiche).
The oral exam will consist of questions covering the entire program, in order to verify the students' acquisition of the course content.
The assessment will take into account expressive abilities, lexical, morphosyntactic, pragmatic, and phonological correctness, and disciplinary competence. Specifically, the evaluations will be divided into 5 bands:
A: Excellent (30 cum laude): excellent knowledge of all course content. Precision, correctness, and effectiveness of the exposition.
B: Very good (30-27): very good knowledge of all course content. Presentation without errors.
C: Good (26-24): good knowledge of the course content. Language is almost always correct.
D: Sufficient (23-18): acceptable knowledge of the course content. There are some errors in the presentation. E: Insufficient (less than 18): partial and superficial knowledge of the course content; the exposition is difficult to understand due to numerous errors.
Contents
1) Course Content (official course taught by the instructor) World Englishes. The course aims to strengthen students’ proficiency by exploring the distinctive features of the main geographical varieties of contemporary English. Alongside sociolinguistic aspects, phonetic, grammatical, and lexical variations will be presented. Topics will be examined from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, using linguistic data drawn from a range of written and spoken English corpora. Some of this data will also be analyzed from a comparative and translational viewpoint.
2) Instrumental Content (language labs/AAL) The content of the B2-level CEFR language labs (AAL) is available on the university’s Language Center webpage by selecting English – LLCS: https://www.unibg.it/studiare/frequentare/apprendimento-linguistico/inglese/inglese-llcs
Online Resources
More information
The computer-based test remains valid for 18 months. It must be passed before students can be admitted to the oral exam. Students who hold an external certification at B2 level or higher, officially recognized by the Student Office, are exempt from taking the computer-based test.
Programs and materials for the AAL activities are available here: https://www.unibg.it/studiare/ti-aiutiamo/apprendimento-linguistico/inglese/inglese-llcs Please also consult the course’s Moodle page.
The official list of exam books (the same for both attending and non-attending students) is available in this program under the section "Online Resources – Leganto – Exam Texts."
The materials to be prepared for the exam include:
- English: One Tongue, Many Voices by Jan Svartvik, Geoffrey Leech, and David Crystal. Second Edition. London: Palgrave, 2016 (entire book)
- Lexical Innovation in World Englishes by Patrizia Anesa, Routledge, 2019 (only Chapter 3 and one case study of your choice from Chapter 6)
- Additional materials uploaded on Moodle.
The course is delivered in English. To complete the short translation component, a B2 level knowledge of Italian is also required. Erasmus students are exempt from the translation component.