Unit ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
- Course
- Political sciences and international relations
- Study-unit Code
- 10998909
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Diana Bianchi
- Teachers
-
- Diana Bianchi
- Hours
- 63 ore - Diana Bianchi
- CFU
- 9
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2020
- Offered
- 2021/22
- Learning activities
- Base
- Area
- Discipline linguistiche
- Academic discipline
- L-LIN/12
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- ENGLISH
- Contents
- The course focuses on the language of news and political communication in English.
Texts of various genres, functions and topics from written and audiovisual sources are analysed and used in activities specifically devised to develop comprehension and production skills. - Reference texts
- ATTENDING STUDENTS - A reader with texts and materials to be used during the lessons will be made available on the Unistudium platform of the university during the course.
NON ATTENDING STUDENTS - One of the following texts:
Federico Zanettin (2013) Communication Skills for International Studies. Perugia, Morlacchi (and DVD)
A. Partington and C. Taylor (2018) The Language of Persuasion in Politics. An Introduction. London and New York, Routledge. - Educational objectives
- The course aims at consolidating intermediate level language competence and skills, as well as fostering abilities and knowledge regarding text-typological and lexicogrammatical features of the English used in political and media communication.
The main acquired knowledge will be:
- Knowledge of the main genres of political and media communication
- Knowledge of the basic terms and idioms of English political and media language
- Knowledge of the main syntactical structures, especially as relevant to news and media discourse
- Knowledge of the main rhetorical structures and figures
- Knowledge of historical and cultural elements regarding the United Kingdom and the United States.
The main acquired skills will be:
- Reading comprehension skills, particularly as regards news language and political texts.
- Listening comprehension skills, particularly as regards current topics in the news and political speeches
- Metalinguistic awareness
- Autonomous learning and self study skills - Prerequisites
- In order to attend the course of English for International Studies students must first obtain a B1 certificate from the University Language Center (CLA – Centro Linguistico di Ateneo). The following International certificates are also accepted: TOEFL iBT score 57 or higher, IELTS 4 or higher, Cambridge PET or higher, Trinity ISE 1 or higher. The CLA certificate expires after 24 months, while international certificates expire after 36 months from the date the test was taken. Students who have an international certificate must show it to the teacher during the first year of their degree course or within the first month from the beginning of the course of English for International Studies.
- Teaching methods
- The course comprises lectures with audiovisual material (slides and videos), and classroom activities carried out individually, in pairs and in groups.
N.B.Please note that should the health emergency continue, teaching may be switched from in-person to online. - Other information
- Attendance to the course of English for International Studies is not compulsory. Students who attend are, however, required to have a valid B1 certificate before attending the course. Attendance status will be conferred only to students with a valid B1 certificate who attend 75% of the course. All students must enrol using the SOL platform, available at: https://unipg.esse3.cineca.it/Home.do
- Learning verification modality
- Assessment criteria differ for attending and non-attending students.
ATTENDING STUDENTS: Students who regularly attend the course take one written test at mid-term and an oral exam during one of the set exam dates, starting from January 2022. On the whole, the exams are aimed at testing reading comprehension skills, the ability to apply the acquired knowledge for the critical analysis of written documents in the news media and political discourse, and the capacity to communicate appropriately and express a personal point of view in the foreign language. The 90-minute written exam includes a reading comprehension activity based on one of the textual typologies examined during the course (for example a news story), a few open questions (based on the program covered) and a short translation from English into Italian.
The oral exam consists of an interview of about 10-15 minutes about the topics covered in the second part of the course. The overall evaluation takes into account the score of the CLA B1 certificate, the score of the written exam, and the oral assessment. Students who take the exam after November 2022 will be considered as non-attending students and tested accordingly (see section below).
NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:
The exam consists of a 20-25 minute interview during which students have to show their ability to read and report orally in English the content of the material in the given textbook. They also have to show they have developed the appropriate linguistic competence by doing the activities in the chosen textbook. The overall evaluation of non-attending students is based on the oral exam, and also takes into account the score obtained in the CLA B1 certificate.
Non-attending students are required to contact the teacher to obtain detailed information on how to prepare the material from the textbook.
Information for students with disabilities and/or DSA is available at: http://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa
N.B.Please note that should the health emergency continue, exams may take place online and the mid-course test for attending students may be subject to variations. - Extended program
- The course of English for International Studies focuses on the language of news and political communication. The activities are based on the analysis of authentic written and audiovisual texts of various type and function (e.g. news items, editorials, presidential speeches). The topics dealt with during the course will especially focus on political and cultural events related to the United Kingdom and the United States. The documents are used as input for metalinguistic analysis, development of reading and listening comprehension skills, development of oral and written production skills.