English language

Course objectives

The hours making up the course are based on practical exercises carried out by an English mother-tongue ‘lettore’. The main course objective is to consolidate and extend students’ abilities in all four language skills in English (Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing), to enable them to cope more effectively with, not only specialized genres pertinent to the three year degree course - journalism, social and communication sciences, business and economics -, but also those texts and contexts students are likely to meet in their future professions. 1. Knowledge and Learning: Presuming students will start at a general English B1 level (according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or CEFR), the primary objective of the course is to bring students up to a B2 level (according to CEFR) in some of the skills and in specialized areas relevant to the degree course and beyond by adopting an applied linguist approach to learning, that is, meaning is activated by context, with linguistic elements being presented in a variety of texts and contexts. 2. Ability to apply knowledge acquired: the second objective is of the course is to provide students with adequate theoretical principles of English, accompanied with ample opportunity to apply theory to practice through a variety of means. 3. Student autonomy: another objective is to foster student autonomy in their learning, where students are encouraged, not only to develop specific study skills, but also to assess their own performance through comparison of their own work and model answers. 4. Communicative ability: to foster students’ communicative ability in English, student participation during the course is actively encouraged, through discussion and assessment of genres, and debates, as is a sense of critical analysis of their own performance and output, and those of their peers. 2. Ability to apply knowledge acquired: the second objective is of the course is to provide students with adequate theoretical principles of English, accompanied with ample opportunity to apply theory to practice through a variety of means. 3. Student autonomy: another objective is to foster student autonomy in their learning, where students are encouraged, not only to develop specific study skills, but also to assess their own performance through comparison of their own work and model answers. 4. Communicative ability: to foster students’ communicative ability in English, student participation during the course is actively encouraged, through discussion and assessment of genres, and debates, as is a sense of critical analysis of their own performance and output, and those of their peers. 5. Learning strategies: overall, the lessons and practical exercises aim to provide the students with both the means to continue to independently progress in their knowledge and application of English, and a flexibility of approach to adapt their language knowledge and learning to the different contexts they will meet in their future professions. Expected results: at the end of the course, students are expected to have extended their knowledge and application of specialized genres in English, more fully understanding intended messages, and also being able to use appropriate forms to communicate in a clear and more efficient manner.

Channel 1
LAURA FERRAROTTI Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
The hours making up English language are based on practical exercises carried out by an English mother-tongue ‘lettore’. The first part of the practical exercises aims at preparing the students for the written exam, while another part is dedicated to exercises dealing with speaking skills. The specific linguistic items covered in the exercises are: 1) The English phonemic alphabet; 2) The grammatical structures: a) Present Simple (active/passive), Present Continuous (active/passive), Simple Past (active/passive), Present Perfect Simple (active/passive), Present Perfect Continuous; Past Perfect, Past Continuous; b) The conditional (first, second and mixed); c) question forms; d) adverbs of frequency; e) likely + infinitive; f) comparative and superlative forms. 3) Reading skills which include: a) the use of linkers (additional, consequence, adversative, temporal); b) pronouns, substitutions; c) definite/indefinite articles; d) nouns/compound nouns; e) countable/uncountable nouns. 4) Reading skills to access different genres of texts: a) authentic documents; b) press releases; c) academic/scientific specialized texts pertinent to the degree course. 5)Writing generalizations, reformulations, and summaries, expressing tendencies. 6) Basic specialized terminology related to communication sciences, publishing, and business.
Prerequisites
Students are expected to have a B1 level knowledge of the English language (B1 is the 'Threshold' level according to CERF - The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). Students who do not have a B1 knowledge of the English language can still attend the course, but should integrate it with a personalised study program planned with the teacher at the beginning of the course o even at an earlier time.
Books
1. C.M de B. Clark, Views in the News. A Textbook, Milano, LED, 2006; 2. Course handouts; 3. An intermediate level grammar book; 4. Further material and articles will be suggested during the course.
Frequency
Attendance, or online attendance, is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended.
Exam mode
For attending students (70% attendance of lessons is expected), the exemption test at the end of the course will include a dictation, exercises on English phonetics, translations, reading of a specialized text, the writing of a basic academic text, and questions on the specialized book – Views in the News. For the non-attending students, there will be both a written exam consisting of the reading comprehension of a specilized text, and a summary of the same text, and an oral exam, where students prepare a presentation based on principles covered in the specialized text Views in the News. Il corso è rivolto agli studenti iscritti ai Corsi di Laurea Triennale in Comunicazione.
Lesson mode
Written and oral exercises in class. To facilitate learning, student autonomy, and the communicative abilities of students in specific areas related to their degree course, the lessons and exercises are varied and well-paced, combing lectures with dictations, listening, individual work, pair and group work; group discussions.
  • Lesson codeAAF1103
  • Academic year2024/2025
  • CourseCorporate and Public Administration Communication
  • CurriculumSingle curriculum
  • Year2nd year
  • Semester1st semester
  • CFU5
  • Subject areaPer la conoscenza di almeno una lingua straniera