Teaching code

4S02217

Credits

12

Coordinator

Paola Maria Caleffi

Language

Italian

Moodle Seminars 0

The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning outcomes

The two-module course is aimed at increasing students’ metalinguistic awareness, which will allow them not only to analyse some of the distinctive features of the English language through the study of its origin and evolution, but also and foremost to acquire knowledge of, recognise and exploit the potential of language as a major means of communication. By the end of the course, students will have improved their ability to analyse language and the way in which it is and can be used in specific communicative contexts. I MODULE The module is aimed at providing an introduction to English linguistics, both in diachronic and in synchronic terms, in order to consolidate the students’ linguistic skills that are mostly relevant to the professional prospects related to a degree in Communication Studies. Diachronically, the module will outline the key stages of the history of the English language, with a focus on the evolution of the role of English as the language of global communication. From a synchronic perspective, the module will focus on aspects of the language at the phonological/phonetic and morphological levels. The peculiarities of the phonological/phonetic and morphological features related to the use of English as a lingua franca will be highlighted through a comparative analysis with major native varieties of English. II MODULE The aim of the module is to develop students’ ability to critically observe the use of language in specific communicative settings through an introduction to the discipline of discourse analysis. Adopting a critical discourse analysis approach, the main features and communication strategies of argumentative/persuasive texts will be investigated, with a special focus on linguistic choices. Specifically, the main rhetorical-discursive features of the language of politics, advertising, and journalism will be analysed. At the end of the module, students will be able to apply methods and contents typical of critical discourse analysis to examine and interpret with a higher degree of critical awareness linguistic and communication strategies adopted in the production of different texts belonging to different genres.

Program

The first Module will deal with the following topics:
1. History of the English language
- Origins
- Old English
- Middle English
- Modern English
- Present-Day English: English as the language of global communication (ENL, ESL, EFL, ELF).
2. Phonetics/Phonology
- The relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English
- The International Phonetic Alphabet and phonological transcription
- The phonological system of General British: vowel sounds; consonant sounds; the notion of “minimal pair”
- Main differences between General british and General American
- The pronunciation of the morphemes –s e –ed;
- Syllables and word accent
3. Morphology
- The morpheme: bound and free morphemes
- Monomorphemic words and complex words
- Function and content words
- Word classes
- Inflectional morphology and word formation processes:
- derivation with affixation
- conversion
- compounding
- blending
- truncation
- abbreviation (acronyms and initialisms)

Texts:
Facchinetti, Roberta (2016). English Phonetics and Morphology. A reader for first year university students. 3rd edition. Verona: Quiedit.
Svartvik, Jan and Leech, Geoffrey (2006). English. One tongue, many voices. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapters: 1-5, 7 (pp.124-132), 8, 10-12.
Galloway, Nicola and Heath Rose (2015). Introducing Global Englishes. New York: Routledge. Chapters: 1, 3, 7, 10.

The second Module will deal with the following topics:
1. The notion of “discourse”:
- formalist approach
- functionalist approach
2. The notion of “genre”
3. Multimodal discourse
4. Peruasive discourse
5. Critical discourse analysis as a methodological approach to analyse communication strategies in persuasive discourse
6. The use of rhetoric and representational strategies in persuasive discourse
7. Distinctive features of political discourse, with a focus on political speeches
8. Distinctive features of advertising discourse, with a focus on advertisements
9. Distinctive features of journalistic discourse, with a focus on news reports and editorials

Texts:
Machin, David and Mayr, Andrea (2012). How to do critical discourse analysis. LA/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC: SAGE. Introduction and Chapters 2, 4, 6, 7, 8.
Goddard, Angela (2002). The Language of Advertising. London: Routledge. Units 1, 2, 3, 5, 7.
Charteris-Black, Jonathan (2014). Analysing Political Speeches. Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapters: 1 (pp. 3-15), 2 (pp. 39-53), 4, 5.
Richardson, John E. (2007). Analysing Newspapers. An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapters: 1 (pp. 1-2 e pp. 6-14), 2 (pp. 21-27 e pp. 37-39), 3, 6 (pp. 149-165).

Further bibliographical references for both modules will be provided during the course. Students must also use the teacher’s slides as learning material. The slides will be uploaded on Moodle at the end of every week.

For both Modules, the programmes are the same for attendees and non-attendees.

Bibliography

Examination Methods

PREREQUISITE: Students must have obtained a B2-level certificate of proficiency in English to be allowed to sit the exam.

The exam will be in English, it will be written, and will refer to BOTH modules. The exam paper will include open-ended and multiple choice questions, as well as practical exercises. It will be divided into two parts, one for the first module, and the other for the second. Before the end of the course, a mock exam will be uploaded on Moodle. The mock exam will also be carried out and corrected during the last class. The exam is designed to assess both the knowledge and understanding of the theoretical contents of both modules, and the ability to apply the theoretical knowledge acquired to concrete situations of language in use.

The final exam is the same for both attendees and non-attendees.